Lancaster Hockey Club match reports

Here are the latest match reports for Lancaster Hockey Club.

Lancaster Hockey Club

25th February 2023

Lancaster 1s 2-1 University of Liverpool 1s

Lancaster played University of Liverpool on Saturday in sunny but cold conditions.

Both teams started the match at full tempo transferring the ball around the pitch and attacking down the sidelines.

In the 15th minute Lancaster found themselves down to 10, despite the commotion Lancaster continued to pressure the away side and earned a flurry of penalty corners. Nicola Conway was first to break the deadlock from a well worked penalty corner routine. Ali Standeven-Johns fired the ball in from the left hand side of the D for Conway to deflect over the goalkeeper.

University of Liverpool tested the Lancaster defence but Jayde Christeansen remained resolute blocking their path to goal and clearing wide. The away side earned themselves a number of penalty corners. They equalised just before half-time as a straight strike agonisingly took a deflection off Standeven-Johns stick taking the ball away from goalkeeper Leighan Bleasdale.

Into the second half it was University of Liverpool that brought the game to Lancaster earning more penalty corners. Bleasdale was alert to all danger, save clearing into the space for Lancaster to regain possession.

Lancaster were patient and continued to mount the pressure earning another penalty corner. This time it was Conway to straight strike and Standeven-Johns to take the ball around the goalkeeper giving Lancaster the lead.

In the final minutes University of Liverpool threw everything at Lancaster. Bleasdale made a few point-blank saves to keep the lead. In the final seconds the ball was fired to the top of the D; as the University of Liverpool forward was about to strike at goal, Holly Hunter sprinted into action jabbing the ball out of the way, taking the full impact of the shot on her stick. A fantastic team effort to take the three points.

Team: Leighan Bleasdale (GK) (C), Nina Helme, Nicola Conway, Jayde Christeansen, Julie Walker, Holly Hunter, Heather Shackleton, Ella Bookless, Sarah Kettlewell, Ali Standeven-Johns, Hayley Standeven-Johns, Katie Oliver and Caitlin Ball

Goal Scorers: Nicola Conway and Ali Standeven-Johns

Players of the Match: Leighan Bleasdale and Holly Hunter

Team Sponsor: Sue Bridges Estate and Letting Agents

Match Sponsor: Royal Nails by Jayde

Preston 2s 2-1 Lancaster 2s

This weekend Lancaster 2s travelled to Preston, in what turned out to be more physical than a local derby! Preston started the better of the two teams and were quick to press Lancaster. Lancaster absorbed the pressure however and found themselves counter attacking on a number of occasions with Jess Dawson and Emily Verden finding themselves in space with the ball free to run at the Preston goal.

Despite Lancaster’s perseverance Preston earned a flurry of short corners and a well worked routine flew in over the outstretched Lancaster goalkeeper, giving Preston the lead. Lancaster were not deterred by this, Libby Thwaites and Lauren Allwood drove Lancaster down the right hand side with some great one two passing around the Preston players. The pressure from Lancaster paid off as the initial Lancaster shot was saved, however, the ball fell kindly to Susie Crayton who smashed it towards the goal only for a defender to stick their stick out and deflect the ball the opposite way to the diving goalkeeper, only to hear the ball hit the back board confirming a Lancaster equaliser.

Preston pushed again for the lead, they tried to go down Lancaster’s right, however, Libby Thwaites and Molly Chapman were equal to their attempts and kept them at bay. With their attempts not working, Preston sought to go down the Lancaster left side. Amelia Welch, Abi Watson and Kiera Langley were determined to not let them past. In the last seconds of the second half, Preston were quick to set up catching Lancaster sleeping, they took a quick free hit before crossing the ball into the D and firing the ball past the Lancaster goalkeeper who dived but was unable to reach the perfectly placed shot.

The half time team talk seemed to spur Lancaster on and they earned a number of short corners which they saw saved by the goalkeeper. Preston were quick to counter attack Lancaster and the defence of Frances Archer, Zoe Oswald and Emma Wood found themselves on a number of occasions making tackles to stop them getting through. The game became stretched with both teams pushing for a goal, resulting in a number of counter attacks taking place for both teams. When Preston did somehow get through the Lancaster defence goalkeeper Rebecca Halliwell was equal to everything Preston threw at her, saving shot after shot and even coming out victorious on a one-on-one situation where she forced the Preston player to shoot wide.

The game ended Preston 2 v 1 Lancaster, the result was not a true representation of the game as Lancaster felt they deserved at least a draw given the team performance.

Team: Rebecca Halliwell (GK) (C), Frances Archer, Zoe Oswald, Molly Chapman, Kiera Langley, Amelia Welch, Emma Wood, Libby Thwaites, Lauren Allwood, Jess Dawson, Susie Crayton, Emily Verden and Abi Watson.

Goal Scorer: Susie Crayton

Player of the Match: Rebecca Halliwell

Match Sponsor: Royal Nails by Jayde