Ladies 1st XI Vs Newmarket 1

Pelicans Ladies 1’s v Newmarket Ladies 1’s Saturday 3rd November 2018 at Newmarket

Team – Atlanta Stevenson (GK), Laura Tea (C), Tracy Bower, Ellie Burt, Mia Moore, Amber Scott, Nic Lankfer, Holly Nash, Grace Carrier, Annabelle Brown, Ellie Bower and Emily Pluck.

After 3 successive home games, Pelicans Ladies 1sts travelled to Newmarket on cool and breezy, but occasionally sunny autumn day. Pelicans adopted their normal diamond formation with Stevenson in goal, back three of Pluck at left back, Tracy Bower centre back and Lankfer right back, Nash left midfield, Burt at the base of the diamond, Brown right midfield, Tea at the top of the diamond. Three player forward line up of Carrier left wing, Moore centre forward and Scott right wing. Ellie Bower starting on the bench.

Pelicans started brightly keeping Newmarket penned in their own half, but Newmarket are dangerous on the break and with 7 minutes gone they charge into Peli’s D and win a short corner. Peli’s defence holds firm and on 11 minutes, Mia Moore picks the ball up in her own half and surges forward into the Newmarket D only to be denied by the keeper who sends Moore sprawling in the process. Amber Scott fires the rebounding ball back at goal, but the keeper is back on her feet and saves again. With the momentum all with Pelicans, Scott makes another blistering run down the right touchline and her strong shot from a narrow angle is saved, her follow up shot from the rebound finding the side netting.

Pelicans passing hockey is now in full flow and Brown, Carrier and Moore combine to move the ball rapidly upfield for the advancing Scott to slot home. 1-0 to Pelicans.

With 30 minutes gone, sustained Pelicans pressure sees them win a short corner which is passed neatly around the D until Laura Tea has clear sight of goal and fires home to double the lead. Not content with that, a further short corner just before half time sees Mia Moore place her drag flick into the right hand corner at a very awkward height, deceiving the keeper. 3-0 to Pelicans.

The second half sees Pelicans continuing to dominate although it’s a much scrappier affair with less of the fluid, passing hockey of the first half. Nevertheless, Annabelle Brown who has had an outstanding game, uses all her tricky stick skills to beat four Newmarket players and find Scott, now on left wing with a lovely through ball. Scott makes further ground and squares to Holly Nash who coolly nutmegs the keeper on the reverse stick. Final score 4-0 to Pelicans.

Another good win for Pelicans and again the impact of Sam Tea’s coaching is clear with fluid, passing hockey, clearly defined roles for each player and great bench management. Importantly, her presence appears to have freed captain Laura Tea and other senior players to focus on their own game and game management to the benefit of teamwork and morale. A testament to this is changing personnel from week to week with no performance drop off and again Ellie Bower came off the bench to make a big contribution to the team.

Well played ladies.

Player of the Match – Nic Lankfer

Alistair Beales 03/11/18