New Revolution stretch lead in indoor hockey league

New Revolution maintained their 100 per cent record with a narrow win over second placed Frankies in the indoor hockey league.

Reckless 1, Frankies 7

It would be fair to say that Frankies were sizzling hot against a Reckless team which never seemed to get going. Frankies started fast and Ben Fulton had brought his shooting stick with him as he opened the scoring.

Georgia Laurenson and John Magnus Scollay had their work cut out in defence dealing with Ben as he ended up on a hat trick for the match. Shaun Manson and Craig Sneddon were to link well all through the half with Maggie Kay using her experience to try and halt the runs. Shaun grabbed a fourth for Frankies on one of his forward runs. Bethany Laurenson was playing well for Reckless and managed to snatch one back to give her side a mini-boost. The score was 1-4 to Frankies at half-time.

Unfortunately Reckless troubled Megan Nicholson, in the Frankies goal, far too infrequently in the second half. Debbie Sneddon was instrumental in many of the Frankies moves and played an excellent holding role along with Gail Johnson.

Through a short corner Gail managed to slot another home for Frankies. Josie Jamieson caused problems for Reckless with skilled passes through midfield. Linking up well for Frankies was Craig who was to go on and fire in another two goals. Jessica Bradley had a very busy match with lots of short corner stops to make.

Calum Williamson, in only his second match, showed some brilliant runs and lots of skill for Reckless. It will be a shame for them when he heads back to university. Overall the match was enjoyable, if a bit one sided.

Player of the match for Reckless had to be Calum Williamson for his pacey running and dribbling skills. Ben Fulton was the stand out for Frankies with his deserved hat trick.
 
Hurricanes 0, LBC New Revolution 6

The game started with plenty of gusto as both teams wanted to take first blood. Neil Pearson in the Hurricanes goal was playing a stormer saving shots with all available parts of his anatomy.

But Hurricanes could only hold out for so long as Bryan Irvine found an opening and slotted home for New Revolution. Hurricanes tried to battle their way back into it. New Rev won a free hit that was taken illegally straight into the box. Irvine again latched onto it and scored. Somehow the goal stood with even the New Rev captain querying the decision.

Half-time came with New Rev two goals to the good. The second half started at the same breakneck pace. New Rev started to let their superior numbers show as they rang the changes to good effect and Irvine completed his hat trick. Further goals came from Stacey Laurenson with two and one from Emma Gray.

Neil Pearson picked up MVP for Hurricanes after a performance that wasn’t reflected by the score and Ava Sim for New Rev.
 
Hurricanes 2, Reckless 4

In the Hurricanes’ second successive game of the night it was clear that there were some tired legs in their ranks. Reckless took advantage of some early posession and Callum Williamson narrowly missed scoring what would have been an impressive opener had Neil pearson not been ready to parry the shot away.

Williamson did not however have to wait long before a minor Hurricanes defensive error allowed him to strike from distance past a helpless Pearson to open the scoring. Reckless continued to pressure the Hurricanes, working both of their wings well through Jessica Bradley and Bethany Laurenson. But some good defending from Emma Inkster prevented another early goal. Reckless’ second goal came in the form of a short corner which an in-form Georgia Laurenson was able to convert just before the end of the half.

A fire was now lit under the Hurricanes who were determined not to lose two games in a row and early posession from Jillian Copland and Robert Turnbull earned them their first real opportunity to challenge the Reckless defence of Jessica Bradley and Maggie Kay Irvine. The resulting play earned Hurricanes a short corner which was converted by Turnbull.

They did not have long to celebrate however when Bethany Laurenson was fed a superb pass from Georgia Laurenson in defence which she was able to convert to finally earn herself a well-deserved goal.

Some tactical substitutions from Hurricanes saw Kerri Redfern and Neil Preston take to the field for the and the pair instantly made an impact. Preston was denied his first ever hockey goal due to his enthusiastic but illegal swing for the ball. However, the Hurricanes once again linked up well and Jillian Copland, who was solid in midfield, set up Turnbull to put a second goal past John Magnus Scollay to bring the score to 3-2 with only minutes left in the game. But it was to be Reckless’ day. Wome good goalkeeping from Pearson earned the recking crew another short corner and Georgia Laurenson converted to finish the scoring 4-2 to Reckless.

Neil Pearson put in a stand out performance for Hurricanes despite conceding four goals and Georgia Laurenson was on spectacular from to earn herself a player of the match for Reckless.

LBC New Rev 2, Frankies 1

The crunch game of the night saw first play second in the league, and it was not to let the indoor hockey league fans down! The game started with New Rev winning pass back, with Frankies quick to try and close the New Rev players down and stop their passing game.

New Rev won the first chance with a quick switch from right to left between Ava Sim and Bryan Irvine who then played in David Nicol, making his debut for the Rev. His snapshot was well saved by Megan Nicholson in the Frankies goal.

Both teams were working well to keep the other at bay. This was highlighted by the work of New Rev’s Ava Sim and Peter Sharp marshalling their defence well. Debbie Sneddon and Josie Jamieson for Frankies kept tight tabs on Stacey Laurenson and David Nicol.

Frankies were next to go close when the fast pace of Shaun Manson allowed him to break free. He found Craig Sneddon who just managed to pull the ball back to Ben Fulton who could not find the target and pulled his shot wide.

New Rev were next to break from a trademark Peter Sharp run, ghosting past the Sneddon sibblings into the D. He cut back to David Nicol, but again Megan Nicholson was quickly out at the feet of the player to block the shot.

Shortly afterwards, New Rev found the back of the goal. A Bryan Irvine shot was blocked by the goalie and it looked like Nicol was going to get a debut goal when he rounded the goalie and hit it towards the empty net, but Irvine wanted to make sure and just nipped in to touch it over the line.

There was a few strong but fair challenges going in, and umpire Skinner did well to keep it all controlled up to the second half.

It began with New Rev pushing to find a second goal to get some breathing room. Both teams had made changes, with Frankies going more attackng and bringing the skilful Gayle Johnson on to terrorise the New Rev defence with her breaking runs forward. And Emma Gray was in to try and get that important second for the Rev.

The first chance came to Frankies from good work on the left by Connel Richardson, who found Craig Sneddon, but his shot was met by a great save from New Rev goalie Sarah Couper. New Rev were quick to break from this and Irvine was getting away down the right, until he was met with a heavy challange from Connel Richardson which lead to Skinner showing the Frankies player a green card and a minute off the park.

With New Rev now a player up it was time for Frankies to defend and they dug deep to keep New Rev at bay. New Rev did get the ball in the net with a strike from Stacey Laurenson, but this was disallowed by the umpires.

But soon after that Emma Gray was found by a neat ball from Laurenson, and she found the bottom left corner past the on-form goalie Nicholson.

Frankies really needed to get back in the game and Josie Jamieson was starting to travel further up the pitch. It was from a great pass from her on the right that Craig Sneddon got behind the New Rev defence to finish stylishly.

The last two minutes were called by the umpire and both teams were not holding anything back with attack after attack. Frankies managed to win a short corner in the last minute from good work by Gayle Johnson, this was taken quickly and played across to the centre where a shot found the back of the net, but as Frankies celebrated thinking they had snatched a point the umpires informed them the short corner was called to be taken again with it never leaving the circle and the defence wasn’t behind the back line. The second short corner was taken but this time cleared by the New Rev defence.

Players of the match were Ava Sim for her rock steady display at the back and Ben Fulton for his energetic movement upfront causing problems all game.