Ladies seconds impress against Harlequins thirds

On Saturday the ladies 2nds made the short trip to Deramore Park to face Belfast Harlequins in a top of the table clash. With a very different team taking to the pitch the Comber girls knew it would be a tough encounter.

The first half was dominated by quins using their speedy forwards, luckily player of the match Alex Boyd had a fantastic game in at sweeper and kept any attacks into the away sides circle at bay. Against the run of play the ball found itself to Jenna Hoey, who was able to beat her defender to feed the ball right to the penalty spot where Anna Smith was in waiting to break dead-lock. This took the girls into half time with a slim 1-0 advantage knowing that quins would come back seeking revenge in the 2nd half.

As expected quins came back in using their speed and physical strength to keep the Comber girls off the ball. This paid off quickly as the center mid came up through the pitch from a quickly taken free to feed the ball in for quins to take the game to a draw. North Down didn’t let the heads dropped and started to play some of their best passing hockey all season. Great switches of play and movement up the pitch began to pressure the home side to panick on the ball, forcing the ball to go out the sideline. Laura Campbell with a hit up the line found Sophie Clements who used her speed and skills to skip round her defender and calmly slotted the ball past the keeper. North Down worked hard for the last 5 minutes to run the time down and welcomed the final whistle with a sigh of relief. This result now means that the ladies 2nds have a 4 point lead at the top of the table.

Big Thanks to Judith Orr for umpiring.

Report by Laura Campbell.