East Women’s League

Premier Division

AN excellent away performance by Colchester saw them beat one of the strongest teams in theEast Premier and give them a massive lift for the season ahead.

There was no doubt Colchester knew how difficult the game against Holcombe would be on Saturday and the opening 10 minutes reinforced this, with the visitors very much on the back foot.

Holcombe are a strong and skilful side and were unlucky not to take the lead after a powerful shot hit the post. However, Colchester managed to weather the storm and started to work themselves back into the game. After some good pressure by the forwards, Colchester were awarded a penalty corner, which was slipped back to Angela Roberts on the post, with her resulting shot stopped on the line by a Holcombe foot.

After some deliberation the umpires awarded a penalty flick, which man of the match, Anna Foley, confidently put away, beating the keeper with ease. Colchester continued to press with a new found confidence and doubled their lead after Lorraine Arthur crossed the ball in for Helen Scott to get a deflection which wrong footed the keeper. Half time came with the visitors still not quite able to believe they were winning, but the team focussed and were determined to play the second half in the same vein.

Far from merely holding onto the lead, Colchester continued to take the game to Holcombe and defend strongly when necessary. The whole team worked hard and were rewarded when Lorraine Arthur once again set up Helen Scott, whose powerful strike comfortably beat the keeper.

The icing on the cake came a few minutes later when Lucy Struth struck from another penalty corner. At 4-0 up Colchester saw out the rest of the game defending several penalty corners to keep a clean sheet.