Harlequins Ladies Hockey Match Report

Moyne/Thurlus 3 - Harlequins(3) 0

Munster Division 3

Sunday 23th January 2005

by David Egner

Quins started this game cautiously as they were without a number of key players due to injury and Munster commitments [Suzanne Black, Jan O'Driscoll, Claire Burgan and Karen {GK}]. From the whistle M/T attacked and some poor defending and atrocious umpiring decisions [short corners awarded for perfect flat stick tackles!!] rewarded M/T with around 12 short corners in the first half. Despite this they only scored one goal from these set plays due to some fine defending from Mary Jermyn and Yvonne Slyne and quick reactions from the GK, Kara Madden. However as Quins pushed forward they were caught on the break twice and punished by some excellent finishing by the M/T fast, physical attackers.

After this Quins changed from a typical 4-3-3 formation to a more defensive minded 4-4-2, and straight away the rewards were clear. With Pam helping Orla out in the centre of the pitch, and the addition of Christine Turner on the left, the Quins defence and midfield units looked more solid and as half time whistle came Quins had begun to fight back. At half time a few stout words and extra positional changes were added and straight away Quins began to take control of the game. Wave after wave of attack followed and M/T were finding it terribly hard to release the ball from the back as the Quins front six worked very hard, with excellent effort displayed by Orla Higgans, Pamela Deacon and Eleanor Flood [to name a few]. Also Christine [left mid] and Anna-Maria [left back] had impressive debuts for the team.

Quins were rewarded for their efforts with a number of short corners, one of which Eileen Collins scored directly from the top, after a slip pass from Pam, but the goal was disallowed as it was deemed to have not travelled outside the circle initially. Also Eileen had a penalty corner awarded for a foot even though the umpire played advantage which resulted in a clear stroke as her shot was stopped by a defenders foot on the line.

In the end this way, excuse the pun, a game of two halves! M/T clearly dominated and took control with three good goals in the first half, but the second half performance given by the Quins girls was admirable and they were by far the better team during this last period.

Kara Madden, Mary Jeryme, Yvonne Slyne, Nicki Jackson, Nicola Buckley, Orla Higgans, Gillian Ambrose, Eleanor Flood, Pamela Deacon, Eileen Collins, Christine Turner, Anna-Maria O'Brian, Claire, Dave Egner (Team Guru)