Ipswich III 6 Hadleigh 2

NE14Hockey East League

Division 2C

Ipswich III 6 Hadleigh 2

Ipswich put in a great performance to run out 6-2 winners over Hadleigh.

Looking strong from the start there was plenty of opportunity to take an early lead with numerous short corners, but it took a few practice runs before Ro Anderson Hurst picked up the rebound from a saved Vickey Dixon shot and fired it into the back of the net.

Keeping the pressure on from midfield with Annabelle Driver, Connie Bedingfield and Jenny Ellis pushing forward, it wasn't long before goal number two came from another short corner, this time Dixon's strike being deflected high into the net by Fiona Lane.

Dixon soon got herself on the score sheet, from yet another corner, with a perfectly placed strike that slipped past a defender's left foot and snuck into goal just millimetres from the post.

The home team then had a wobbly ten minutes, letting Hadleigh get back in to the game. The visitors were no pushover and punished the Ipswich lack of focus by stealing a goal back before half time.

More of the same followed in the second half. Connie Bedingfield snatched the first goal from open play, pouncing on a rebound and smacking the ball into goal off the right post.

Ro Anderson Hurst grabbed her second goal with a beautiful strike from the top of the D, but Hadleigh picked themselves up and started to string together some neat passes through gaps left by some slack Ipswich marking.

A short period of sustained pressure on the Ipswich goal paid off when a goalmouth scramble resulted in the ball spinning off the keeper's pads and into goal to give Hadleigh their second.

This kicked Ipswich back into action for the final ten minutes and another penalty corner resulted in Dixon picking her way through the Hadleigh defence until the shot was on, then making no mistake to make the final scoreline 6 - 2 to Ipswich.