Harlequins Ladies Hockey Match Report

Belvedere(2) 1 - Harlequins(3) 0

Munster Division 3

Sunday 6th February 2005

by David Egner

Quins attacked from the whistle but couldn't get any decent chances from the first five minutes of pressure due to some resulute defending from Belvedere. The rest of the frist half was fairly even posession wise, but Belvedere always looked the more threatening, especially on the break. The first corner of the match went to the home team and was easily dealt with by the Quins corner defense, but some poor defending allowed Belvedere three more corners in the first half, the last one of which they capitalised on, with a ball played back to the pusher out. This seemed to spur Quins into life and straight away they attacked with more urgency and were rewarded with their firtst short corner. However, no goal was to come and this signalled the end of the first half.

In the second half the tides turned so to speak and the Quins girls upped the tempo with wave after wave of attack. Four short corners were awarded in their favour but poor communication and finishing left them down. As Quins attaked, the game opened up and this left loads of space Belvederes nippy forwards to exploit however the Quins rear-guard remained strong. The best chances of an equiliser fell to Eleanor Flood who, after a neat interchange of passes with Eileen Collins, squirmed her way into the circle only to shoot wide. Also after another mazy dribble into the Belvedere circle Pamela Deacon just failed to connect with a great pass / shot across goal by Eleanor.

Overall this way a disappointing performance by the Quins team, which have now suffered three straight defeats in a row, and with a top of the table clash with Mallow midweek, the effort will need to improve significantly if they are to take anything from the game against the free scoring Mallow side.