Slow startproves to be costly

Cambridge City 4ths 2

Horncastle Ladies 1sts 0

Horncastle Hockey Club’s Ladies took a long trip down to Cambridge this weekend, where they were beaten 2-0.

The 10.30am start certainly played into the hands of Cambridge City Fourths while snow fell as the match began.

The hosts caused early problems and a Cambridge attacker managed to manoeuvre their way past their defence before unleashing an excellently-placed wide shot which caught the inside of the far post to open the scoring.

City used the goal as momentum and, after pushback, they again intercepted the ball from Horncastle and ran the down the wing at speed, driving the baseline, forcing Horncastle’s keeper to come out to the player.

The winger sent the ball to the penalty spot, where it was pushed into the goal by an awaiting teammate to make it 2-0 after just 15 minutes.

Horncastle, however, then settled into the game, with teamwork resulting in some advances up the pitch, but goals were denied by the hosts.

An incident in the Horncastle D resulted in injury for defender Tamsin Roark, which meant Horncastle had to switch positions.

After the interval Horncastle dominated patterns of play but Alex and Emily Tokelove were both called upon to make goalline blocks, the latter also going closest to a Horncastle goal with a strike which flew just off target.