England Hockey League

Women’s East Conference

CHELMSFORD’S impressive improvement in recent weeks continued in this challenging away match where although they came away without the points, the Essex side showed class and composure.

For the first 10 minutes, St Albans took the initiative, in keeping with their top of the table status and familiarity with the characteristics of a slow, sand-based pitch. During this time, St Alban’s broke forward and a speculative long-range strike into the D was diverted into the net to give the home team the opening goal.

Chelmsford recovered confidently from this setback and applied themselves to building their own attacking play. With 15 minutes gone, Hayley Heggie took possession of the ball midfield and pushed the ball forward to Julia Butterworth who advanced to the top of the D and considered her options. Butterworth span to her right and cracked a reverse stick strike into goal for Chelmsford’s equaliser.

Chelmsford then worked hard to take the upper hand and through excellent play from Collette Ager, Liz Holmes and Elsa Genovese Chelmsford forced through many forays into their opponent’s D. Front runners Loren Sherer and Georgia Herron always looked dangerous but the half-time break saw the teams level at 1-1.

St Albans started the second period at a high pace and within the first minute won a short corner. They converted this and then enjoyed a short period of domination until Chelmsford’s organisation and focus brought them back into the game. Several attacks on goal were scrambled away by St Albans but Chelmsford continued to pressurise the defence. As the time ran down, St Albans hung on to their 2-1 lead but Chelmsford’s disappointment was consoled by the quality of their performance.