Womens 3 Vs Haverhill 1

A well fought 2-0 away win for St Neots Ladies 3s against Haverhill 1sts, with the Saints U15s taking the plaudits for their work in midfield.

Haverhill began strongly and had a few shots on goal before the Saints got into their stride. The midfielders were key to the St Neots attack, with centre Amber Dickinson distributing the ball out wide right to Beth Jenkins and Claire Piper to keep the pressure on Haverhill. St Neots had one goal disallowed at an attacking short corner with Amber’s shot deemed too high for a first strike. But Saints did not stop, with forwards Julie Lewis and Eleanor Masters causing problems for the Haverhill defence with their pressure on goal and several near misses on the back post from strikes across the D by Amber and Georgina Bettsworth. Haverhill forwards took the few opportunities they could find to make a run at goal. They were fast and made the St Neots defence of Karen Sutton, Claire and Ros Lloyd thank keeper Tara Bell’s superb reactions and kicking ability.

The second half started 0-0 but the St Neots central core of U15s with Katy Lloyd in centre defence, Georgina in midfield and Aoife Stokes as centre forward, came into their own and ran rings around the Haverhill ladies, chasing down any home attack and bringing the ball back up into the Haverhill defensive half. The home goalie had her work cut out as Julie, Eleanor and Erin Hurst kept hassling the keeper, with several near misses that drew applause from the watching crowd, both for the attack and Haverhill’s hard work in defence. A lovely piece of team hockey to build the attack from Katy, Georgina and Amber, allowed Julie to finally find a chink in the Haverhill armour, scoring after a scrappy fight with the goalie.

POM Georgina thought she had made it 2-0 with a lovely strike on goal from a short corner that rattled the backboards, but again St Neots were denied as it was deemed too high. But Julie again proved the value of age and experience, and slotted home St Neots’ second winning goal 15 minutes from the final whistle after another tussle with the Haverhill goalie. The Saints kept up the pressure and came away with a well deserved, if not slightly unexpected win.