Ladies 2nds Vs Reepham

Saturday 5th December 2020

Norfolk Women’s Hockey League Premier Division

Broadland II   6     Reepham   5

Eleven goal thriller

After a month break with no playing time this fixture was supposed to ease both teams into playing again. No one read this memo and a fast paced, end-to-end game ensued.

Within 5 minutes of the whistle, Broadland opened the scoring through a finely taken rebound ball at a penalty corner. Kelly Holman being in the right place to sweep home the opener. Just a few minutes later Nikki Baker slotted in another to give the away side a 2-0 advantage. Reepham stirred into action and pulled one back through a well worked penalty corner routine and within a few minutes found the back of the Broadland net again, when a dangerous cross found the end of a Reepham stick and was slotted home. With the scores level at 2-2 both teams pressed hard to find another goal. Both sets of midfielders worked tirelessly trying to find ways to work the ball into the opposition’s circle but found their way blocked by some vigorous defending.  Broadland broke the deadlock however with 10 minutes to go in the first half when Verity Becker fired in a powerful strike from the top of the circle. Undeterred, Reepham increased the pressure on the Broadland goal and with only seconds remaining on the clock, a well worked team goal saw them find an equaliser.

After a rousing half time talk by experienced Nikki Baker, Broadland kept calm and began to regain control of the game. A flowing move which started with a series of smart exchanges in their midfield, saw Baker glide in with a smart finish to put the visitors back into the lead.  The game ebbed and flowed, but with their advantage still in tacked Broadland pressed for another goal and were rewarded with a string of penalty corners. A powerful strike by Wendy Anema struck a defender’s stick, but despite the Reepham goalkeeper getting a hand to the ball it flew into the roof of the net. Once again Broadland found themselves with a two-goal advantage.

Reepham however, had other ideas and fought back to grab two goals in quick succession to pull the scores level again  A  5-5 draw might seem to be a fitting end to this well fought and evenly contested match.  Broadland not content with a draw and with less than a minute to go, Becker burst through the Reepham rear-guard and volleyed the ball past the Reepham keeper.to restore Broadland’s lead.  Reepham fought hard to the bitter end to find a third equaliser, however as the final whistle blew it was Broadland who found themselves on the attack with an  unconverted penalty corner. Great advert for local hockey. Well done all who took part.

Match report Izzie London and Georgia Glenn