Zetland take advantage of weakened Scalloway in hockey league

The latest matches in hockey’s Association Rosebowl league resulted in wins for Zetland, Spurs, Delting and Burra, with Whalsay now the only undefeated side in the competition.

Association Rosebowl

Scalloway 0, Zetland 3

Scalloway were missing quite a number of their key players and only managed to field nine but were determined to play with everything they had.

Zetland won the first pass back of the match and both teams were quick to settle. Scalloway were soon putting pressure on the Zetland defence but they were holding strong and making sure nothing was getting through.

Zetland were linking up well with strong, accurate passing from their midfield through to their forwards but Scalloway’s defence of Lara Kay, Julie Brown and Anne-Marie Robinson were working well together to keep them at bay. Scalloway had a number of shots on goal, only to see them going wide or being cleared by the Zetland defence.

As the second half got under way, it was not long until Zetland opened the scoring with a goal from Erica Mikolajczak and a second from Maisie Unsworth soon followed.

Scalloway were now showing signs of tiredness but were determined not to give up and a penalty corner was soon awarded but Zetland held fast and managed to clear the ball away from their goal.

Zetland were soon applying pressure back on Scalloway’s defence and a rebound shot off Laurenson’s pads saw Zetland’s Eildh Coull slot the ball into Scalloway’s goal.

Although Scalloway were 3-0 down they never gave up and fought back until the final whistle signalled the end of the game.

Players of the match were Scalloway’s Kerri Redfern and Zetland’s Hannah Irvine.

Spurs 3, Delting 0

Spurs won the toss and elected to have the first pass. They started strongly and quickly settled into their “pass and move” game. They looked more confident and relaxed than in their encounter with Whalsay on Monday night.

The Spurs midfield were spreading balls through Emma Inkster, Gayle Johnson, Fiona Shearer and Rona Simpson. Morag Fox and Sarah Grogan were also connecting well with striker Karen MacKay. Initially, their runs were being halted by Jillian Copland and Nicola Blance in the Delting defence. However, their counter-attacks through to Brenda Leask, Donna Murray and Lorraine Duncan were equally well dealt with by Inkster, Andrea Tait and Kara Thomson in the Spurs circle.

A clearance from Inkster in the Spurs midfield found Shearer, who drove up the left to find Grogan. She slipped the ball back to Shearer, to again find Grogan, by this time in the shooting circle. Grogan calmly kept her nerve to find the back of the net after Toni Sidgwick made a couple of initial saves.

This appeared to give Spurs a boost. Emma Gray replaced MacKay and Louise Moar came on for Thomson in defence. Both made their presence known, and they ably supported their team mates.

It wasn’t long before the deadlock was broken again. Again, from open play, a deep and wide move from Simpson and Inkster found Shearer in space. She placed the ball up the left wing for Gray to drive on to. Gray selflessly crossed in to Grogan in the Delting 25, who went one on one with Sidgwick. Again Grogan rounded the keeper to make the score 2-0 at half time.

Delting came out in the second half keen to reduce the score and juniors Megan Hibbert and Rowen Nicolson were introduced to the side. With support from the experience of Blance, Leask and Copland, they held their own against Spurs.

Delting began to take the game to Spurs and created some panic situations in the Spurs defence, but great timing from Inkster, Tait and Moar saw some well-placed tackles.

As they regrouped, Delting found themselves attacking the Spurs midfield and defence from all angles. Spurs conceded their only penalty corner of the game, when Duncan went one on one with Elaine Smith in the Spurs goal and was brought down. However, on this occasion, they were unable to convert and Moar and Shearer cleared the ball.

Spurs at this stage began to settle into their game, but found difficulty in getting the ball spread through to the left, due to Delting predominantly executing through their left wing.

Eventually, Grogan found herself on the ball, and was supported well through Lara Thomason and Fox. A free ball saw Delting counter attack, but Spurs were marking tightly by now, and a tussle between Shearer and Leask saw Spurs finally win the ball.

Shearer went off and was replaced by MacKay. This gave Spurs more striking opportunities and it soon paid off. Good connecting play between MacKay, Gray, Grogan and Johnson saw

Spurs awarded a series of penalty corners. The initial strike by Fox was saved, but Emma Gray picked up the rebound outside the circle. She hammered the ball onto the penalty spot where MacKay tapped in from close range.

Best for Delting was Nicola Blance in defence who was strong and steady throughout the game. For the home team it was a good all-round performance, but their defence were continually kept busy. Andrea Tait stood out.

Zetland 0, Delting 1

No report was received from this game.

Burra 4, Scalloway 1

Burra started strongly with Marie Duncan and Sarah Young controlling the centre of the pitch, feeding good balls to the forwards. However, Julie Brown and Lara Kay in the Scalloway defence were quick on their toes to clear the ball from danger.

Nice work from Karen MacKelvie on the right wing fed the ball through to Stacey Laurenson who made no mistake, her powerful strike putting Burra one up.

Scalloway started to find their feet with good linking play from Naomi Johnson, Kate Moncrieff and Karis Irvine, playing accurate through balls to their forwards. But Sarah Couper in the Burra goal was quick off her mark, kicking the ball clear.

Burra put more pressure on the Scalloway defence which resulted in a few short corners. Again Laurenson was there with a powerful strike, leaving the keeper no chance. Kristan Robertson also scored from a short corner to put Burra three up.

The second half started with Scalloway applying pressure on the Burra defence with Mel Inkster always a threat. Julia Halcrow kept cool and calm though, hindering the Scalloway forwards from scoring.

Scalloway picked up the pace and a nice move through the centre of the pitch saw Kate Moncrieff score to make it 3-1.

Karrie Fraser came on for Burra and worked well on the right wing, linking well with Kristan Robertson who played a dangerous ball across the goal mouth. Bethany Laurenson was waiting and smashed the ball into the goal to make the full time score 4-1.