Whitby Hockey Club Ladies lose 4-0 to strong Durham University side
The Whitby Women’s hockey team saw a hard 4-0 loss on Sunday against one of Durham University’s hockey teams: their 6th, who are now just placed above Whitby on the league table.
To start the match, Whitby fought very hard and held their own against the young legs from the Uni team, the team gelled well but unfortunately conceded a great Tomahawk goal that went straight in the top corner of the net.
This then led to some fiery long balls down the pitch by Natasha Kent and Dani Russell in search for a touch onto goal.
Neve Eddon and Abbie Dixon were posted high and ready, waiting for these balls. They found some opportunities but couldn’t find the back of the net.
The pressure grew onto the team, so did the effort as Zara Noble cleared and put tonnes of work into clearing the oppositions balls as well as Michelle Paling and Natasha Hill who really shadowed the players out of the D.
Eventually another goal was scored to make it 2-0 to Uni at the break.
After a debrief and oranges, the players from the Uni team upped their game.
Anya and Ava (the two youngest players on the team) showed great resilience and determination really pushing against their opponents, tackling, making runs and helping their team-mates in the short passes.
This is when Whitby found their feet in doing the simple but effective passes between each other, and working their way up the pitch, each player played their part in this.
The team had a good chance as Eddon stormed up the pitch, the whole team following behind to backup towards the goal, when the goalkeeper put her hand over the ball to stop her!
A penalty corner was awarded but missed - the team kept their heads up and pushed on through.
Georgie Stevenson marked great space in the middle making it harder for the Durham players to make their ‘cross pitch passes’.
Unfortunately, towards the second half of the half Durham saw 3 back to back penalty corners lead by feet in the D, Kirsty really had some great saves during this but unluckily one resulted in a goal and another outfield one not long after.
By the end of the game, the players were defeated 4-0 but still kept their heads high in preparation for another away game next weekend.
Player of the match awarded to Michelle Paling for constant efforts and top notch defensive performances.