HOCKEY: Horncastle men defeat second in the league

Ely 2

Horncastle Hockey Club men’s first team faced a tough fixture against second in the league Ely who had already beaten them earlier in the season.

Horncastle stated brightly and were camped in Ely’s 23 for the first five minutes but the common theme of pressure not being converted into goals continued. Ely then began to grow into the game and started to win a few penalty corners; however, the defence of Cartwright, Cartwright, Seymour and Fixter with Ant Atkin in goal managed to hold firm.

It wasn’t long before Ely, even with some players missing , showed why they are second in the league, scoring two well taken goals to enable them to go into half time with a useful cushion.

Following a good team talk at half time, aided by Ben Read influencing team tactics, Horncastle changed to playing with three forwards which gave Ely some new problems to ponder.

The midfield of Seymour and Scott were allowed to get a bit more time on the ball, enabling them to find the forward line of Briggs, Foster, O’Reilly and Yeldin, who caused the Ely defence problems.

And when Foster managed to beat his man and slipped the ball to Rob Scott who rolled the keeper and slotted the ball home, Horncastle were firmly back in the game.

Playing with renewed confidence, Horncastle continued to press forward and once again Scott was the beneficiary of a clever deflected pass from Foster, from a crash ball from Seymour, to score his second goal.

Scott rounded off his hat-trick when the ball fell to him in the D and with his usual composure, put the ball beyond the keeper.

Now holding the lead and with Ely a man down due to a nasty head injury, Horncastle played some good possession hockey with Cartwright and Fixter dictating play. The fourth goal came as a result of this hockey with O’Reilly turning his marker and placing the ball into the far corner of the goal on his reverse stick side.

Overall, a pleasing performance that saw Horncastle cementing their place in the top half of the table.

Man of the match for his clinical hat-trick went to Rob Scott.

Horncastle: Atkin, Cartwright, S. Seymour, Cartwright, Castleden, Fixter, D. Seymour (c), Scott, Yeldham, Gray, Foster.

Horncastle Ladies 0

Bourne Deeping Ladies 2nd 0

Horncastle Ladies’ latest game saw them facing Bourne-Deeping’s second string, a team they had previously lost 3-2 to on a very wet day.

Horncastle were hoping to come back hard at them but unfortunately this was not the case.

The game was intense, with Horncastle having at least 10 short corners but failing to score from any. They had far more goal scoring opportunities than Bourne-Deeping, but the opposition’s amazing keeper was not letting anything in.

Katy Wood received a well deserved man of the match for all of her great runs and set-ups down the right side of the pitch.

The final result of a goalless draw was better than losing but still disappointing given all Horncastle’s chances, a strong defence and good overall team play.