Super Hockey Makes Southend Suffer

Bromley and Beckenham Ladies 1s vs Southend, league, away, Saturday 11th February
Won: 5-1
Scorers: Lisa Powell x3, Lucy Shepherd, Lynsey Askew

An 8.30am meet saw a somewhat bleary-eyed BromBeck side travel to Southend for their re-arranged league fixture against them. Once we arrived there was no danger of anyone sneaking a quick forty winks as the fresh sea air quickly woke us up. After a good warm up and rousing team talk, BromBeck were ready to go.

As soon as the whistle blew it was obvious that BromBeck were in a positive frame of mind and began to play some of the best hockey they’ve played all season. Southend’s defence were put under immediate pressure as BromBeck dominated and it wasn’t long before their resistance was broken. Following a good build up with some slick passes, Lucy Shepherd kept her cool to slot the ball into the back of the net from a tight angle. As has sometimes happened in the past, BromBeck didn’t get complacent after taking the lead and it was not long before their goal tally was doubled. This time Sophie Davies got herself on the score sheet with a powerful short corner strike from the top of the D. Again and again we continued to batter the Southend defence and it wasn’t surprising when we scored another 2 goals in quick succession. Both of these were courtesy of leading goal scorer, Lisa Powell. The first goal was a classic Powell strike from the top of the D. The second was the result of another silky move by the midfield with Lucy Shepherd threading a perfect ball through which left Powell 1-on-1 with the keeper. Powell used her experience to drag the ball across the keeper who was left stranded, and hit the ball into the back of an empty net. This completed the scoring rout for the first half, leaving the score at 4-0.

Our half time talk was extremely positive as we’d been playing some fantastic hockey and fully deserved our lead. However, we knew that to rest on our laurels would be dangerous and that we’d have to try and maintain this level of play for the final 35 minutes.

Although BromBeck continued to play the better hockey in the second half, Southend found their fighting spirit and pulled a goal back early on. This was unlucky for Alison Fox in goal as prior to this she made 3 amazing consecutive saves within the space of 30 seconds. However, almost straight from the re-start, BromBeck re-established their 4 goal advantage. Lynsey Askew made a driving run from the right of midfield before drawing the keeper out and slipping to Lisa Powell to put the ball into the back of another empty net to complete her hat-trick. The rest of the game was end-to-end stuff with Southend throwing everything at BromBeck’s defence and BromBeck in turn breaking quickly and having several half chances at the other end. For the final few minutes, BromBeck’s tiredness from only having a flat 11 began to set in and we were happy when the final whistle blew with the score at 5-1.

A wonderful performance by BromBeck and a result which means we are now 7 points clear at the top of East Division 1 South. Southend did well to fight back in the second half but in the end we were just too strong.
Man of the match: This was very close this week with more or less all the team getting a vote each! Sarah Bentley was the eventual winner as she controlled the game from the centre of midfield with several good runs and passes.

Squad: Alison Fox (GK, Capt), Chris McNeill, Hannah Westcar, Sarah Phelps, Lucy Shepherd, Sarah Bentley, Sophie Davies, Lynsey Askew, Emma Shepherd, Lisa Powell, Emma Greenway.

Battling Performance Earns Points

Bromley and Beckenham Ladies 1s vs Upminster, home, league, Saturday 4th February
Won: 1-0
Scorer: Lynsey Askew

After a week’s break from the league, BromBeck ladies 1s were keen to get back to winning ways by taking 3 points from Upminster and that is exactly what we did.

BromBeck started the game strongly and were dominant for the first 20 minutes or so. The pressure we were putting on the Upminster defence was rewarded when Lynsey Askew kept her cool to lift the ball over the keeper from close range to give us the lead. We continued to push forward looking for a second but Upminster defended well to keep the score at 1-0 going into half time.

We all agreed that a 1-goal lead wasn’t really enough as when Upminster did break, they were doing so very quickly and our defensive 3 had to be on full alert to clear the dangers.

As expected, Upminster came at us hard right from the re-start and we had to defend in numbers to prevent them from scoring. We had several chances ourselves but it was Upminster who looked more eager to score. Alison Fox in goal was outstanding as usual and made several brilliant saves. As the pressure began to show, tempers began to fray and with 15 minutes remaining, 2 of the Upminster players saw yellow and were left to play with 9. Rather than ceasing the advantage of this, we started to flap for some reason and Ali again had to be on her toes. For the final few minutes, BromBeck were well and truly under the cosh, relying on quick breaks to try and increase our advantage and were unlucky not to do so on several occasions. However, it was Upminster who had the best of the chances but a super-human stop from Ali (I don’t know how she stopped it as the ball was flying but she somehow managed to get her neck/chest in the way!) in the dying minutes, ensured that BromBeck finished victorious. Final score 1-0.

A battling performance by BromBeck to give us a deserved victory.

Man of the Match: Alison Fox – once again set a captain’s example with some absolutely amazing saves to retain our lead.

Squad: Alison Fox (capt), Sarah Phelps, Hannah Westcar, Chris McNeill, Vicky Ives, Lucy Shepherd, Sarah Bentley, Jess Riley, Sophie Davies, Lynsey Askew, Lydia Greenway, Emma Greenway