Hockey: another tough win for Marlborough ladies keeps them at third place in the league

Wimborne Wayfairers      1       Marlborough     2

After last week’s win which propelled Marlborough to third place in the league, the team arrived at Wimborne with a squad of just eleven players.

With some tough pre-game talking Marlborough were determined to beat Wimborne who were below them in the league.

Marlborough applied pressure from the start sweeping into the Wimborne D and showed the opposition that although they had only brought eleven, players they meant business.
Wimborne worked hard to stop Marlborough getting an early goal and made some quick breaks themselves streaming up the pitch in numbers. Unfortunately Wimborne capitalised on one of these breaks and scored a goal.

Despite this Marlborough continued to stay strong – giving it their all. Katie King and Beth Palfrey – playing right and left back – successfully tackled their forwards preventing further shots at goal.

With the whole team keeping the intensity high, Marlborough began to gain more and more possession. Eventually after endless tackles, Penny Bowen battled hard in front of goal and slotted the ball over the line – evening the score. 

Finally after a gruelling 35 minutes the whistle was blown for half time.

After a quick and inspirational team talk from the joint Marlborough captains, the team started the second half off on a high. With Rachel Cox spinning around their defence and distributing the ball to perfection, Marlborough found ourselves with more and more goal opportunities.

Wimborne were very quick on the break which Marlborough had to be careful of especially towards the end of the game with legs getting tired.

The winning goal came from a well worked long corner. Ness Pickford-Smith posted up and battled through the Wimborne defence to enter the D and blast the ball into the back of the net.

After this Wimborne fought back hard, and Vicky Moxham took one for the team – a strike to the shoulder whilst diving down to save a goal. Her amazing saves allowed Marlborough to stay in the game.  

Annabel Ashley and Catherine Manley both worked hard to get the ball up and out of the danger zone passing it to one of the forwards. Milly Dawson kept working hard throughout the game.  Despite Amy Davidson hurting her knee, her determination and perseverance kept her on the pitch, sending perfect balls up the line and eliminating players on the left side of the pitch.

Anna Strover was all over the pitch, making some amazing tackles and providing some great supporting play and was unlucky not to score. Marlborough kept up the pressure to the end and were unlucky not to make it three with some near misses.

Three points keeps the team in third place on goal difference – sharing the same number of points as both second and fourth placed teams.

Next week the side travel to Bath to play mid-table Bath Buccaneers.

The Marlborough News Online player of the match was shared by Anna Strover and Amy Davidson.