Ipswich III 5 Cambridge 1

NE14 Hockey East League

Division 2C

Ipswich III 5 Cambridge 1

Ipswich took on Cambridge at Tuddenham Road on Saturday looking for a win to close the gap on the league leaders.

The home team made a great start, pinning the visitors in their own half for much of the first 20 minutes.

Kat Higgins worked well with Charlotte Christie and Vickey Dixon, building up some superb attacks down the right and connecting well with Ro Anderson Hurst and Fiona Lane up front.

Meanwhile, Jenny Ellis and Sarah Logan had control of the left half of the pitch, preventing Cambridge from attacking on their strong side.

Five minutes in, and the pressure paid off. Lane secured a penalty corner, Dixon's first strike was saved by the keeper but Kat Higgins made no mistake with the rebound to put Ipswich ahead.

Ipswich kept up the pressure and went 2-0 up from another penalty corner when Lane deflected Vicky Dixon's strike into the right hand corner.

Shortly afterwards, Dixon got her name on the score sheet with another corner strike.

Cambridge tried to fight back but Logan, Ellis and Hannah Brooks made sure little got through to threaten Ginny Myres in goal.

The 'coolest goal of the game award' goes to Connie Bedingfield who, collecting the ball on the edge of the D, realised that nobody was coming to tackle her, and calmly placed a precision flick into the top left corner.

But at 4-0 up Ipswich started to slack off a bit and allow Cambridge to get into the game.

Hannah Brooks and Lorna Hassell were called upon to soak up a lot of pressure into the half time break.

Cambridge must have been given a stern talking to at half time because they came out much stronger and had moments of dominating play in the second half.

Their efforts were eventually rewarded when they pulled a goal back from a short corner, but otherwise Myres dealt well with any balls that came her way.

Ipswich eventually regrouped and held the middle of the pitch well with Mitch Chidgey putting in a great performance at left midfield, linking nicely with Sarah Logan, and Sarah Brown working well with Higgins on the right.

Just a few minutes from time, Vickey Dixon sealed the game with a perfectly executed short corner strike.