Ladies’ 1s Brief Update

After consecutive postponements due to the weather Fareham completed the first half of the league season on 9th December with a narrow 2-1 defeat against Witney in a rearranged ‘home’ match played at Wellington Sports Ground in Eastleigh. The match marked another step forward for Fareham who started very positively and dominated the opening twenty five minutes of the game.

Fareham took the lead in the 12th minute when SARAH ATKINSON converted a penalty stroke following a foul on Gracie Coleman. Other scoring chances followed and ten minutes later Katie Paxman created an opportunity for Gracie Coleman who could have added a second when her angled shot across the keeper hit the far post.

A 2-0 lead at this stage could have been crucial. Up to this point Witney had barely had a chance but they improved towards the end of the first half. Despite this Fareham maintained the clean sheet at half time and went on to hold the lead until the 47th minute. The awarding of the penalty corner that led to the equalizer was controversial but the goal itself was a good one as TACITA HAINES levelled the scores.

The away side took the lead in the 58th minute when ELIZABETH HEMPSTEAD scored from close range after another well worked penalty corner. Having taken the lead, the Oxfordshire side failed to capitalize and in the closing minutes they found themselves under pressure as Fareham had two penalty corner opportunities which disappointingly led to nothing.

Witney took over the top spot in the table with the win but it was a game in which they had been second best for long spells. The main difference between the sides was their contrasting success rates from penalty corners.

January began with the first of a series of friendlies leading up to the first league game at the end of the month. Performances in these matches have been good with some very good hockey. We began with the confidence boost of a 4-1 home win over Southampton. SARAH BRIMYARD opened her account for the season and SARAH ATKINSON scored a hat-trick, including a particularly venomous strike into the roof of the net. The game was also notable for a brilliant penalty save by Sophia Barclay.

The two remaining friendlies were both against national league opposition and although both ended in narrow defeats there was much to enjoy about the number of scoring opportunities we created against strong opposition. In the first of these matches Trojans came away from Henry Cort with a 1-0 win from a penalty corner goal. However, there were only really two short spells during the match when Trojans were briefly on top and the majority of chances fell to the home side but they just missed the crucial final decisive touch needed to score.

Our final mid season friendly was at Teddington last Saturday. The home club scored what turned out to be the only goal after 55 seconds but there could have been many more goals as both sides had opportunities in an entertaining match. Fareham arguably had the better chances and it was just a combination of nervous finishing and good goalkeeping that denied them what would have been a deserved win against a good side.

With Leah Payne and Georgia Collins making their seasonal debuts in the Witney match and Lydia Jackson returning to action in January after her shoulder injury, there is more depth to the squad and although the task facing us in the league is a difficult one we can look forward to the second half of the season with greater optimism.

We resume our league campaign this Saturday (27th January) with a home game against Exeter. This is our first match against the Devon side following the late postponement of the original fixture in November.