England Hockey Girls U18Cup Round ThreeNorwich City 0 Chelmsford 8CHELMSFORD achieved another very solid 8-0 win in the Third Round Cup last weekend, but this time against Norwich City.

England Hockey Girls U18

Cup Round Three

Norwich City 0 Chelmsford 8

CHELMSFORD achieved another very solid 8-0 win in the Third Round Cup last weekend, but this time against Norwich City. This was more remarkable as the team was much depleted due to illness, including our goalie, Kathryn Ecott. Sarah Williams did a fantastic job standing in for Kathryn (as can seen by the clean sheet!) and we are very grateful to Sarah for volunteering at very late stage.

The match was played in light drizzle under leaden sky with the floodlights on for most of the match. It was like a scene from Hogwarts! (Well, there were a few witches on the pitch!)

The first half generally belonged to Chelmsford with a shot in the opening minute, strong forward pressure throughout with our mid-field pressed tight against the Norwich players, leaving Norwich with nowhere to play. Chelmsford had six short corners with two converted by shots from Kate Maxey. A third goal from open play was knocked in from a deflection on the left post by Georgia Herron. Norwich had one or two short periods of pressure with an early breakaway and one short corner.

The second half opened with Norwich pressing forward until Poppy Church scored a goal from open play at 41 minutes. Chelmsford and Norwich battled hard for the next seven or eight minutes until Kate Maxey scored another goal assisted by excellent play from Sophie Stock. Following this Chelmsford continued to press hard in Norwich's 'D' with two rapid shots saved well by the goalie and defence. Kate Maxey received a gentle crack on the head (just to keep her focused) from one of the Norwich players' sticks but extracted her revenge scoring twice more from three short corners. Helena Roberts weaved her magic through the Norwich field in order to provide the final goal, again from Kate Maxey. Norwich did manage to get one short corner in this half but this was blocked solidly by Abi Krone.

Although the score-line ended up strongly in Chelmsford's favour, Norwich fought hard from start to finish and made Chelmsford work very hard throughout.

All of our team played well and were worthy of note. Abi, Sophie and Sarah shut out the Norwich attack completely, Izzy, Claudia, and Kate dominated the mid-field throughout. Angharad and Helena caused the Norwich mid- field and defence constant problems with great running into the 'D' and the forwards, Harriet, Georgia, Poppy and Jenny kept the defence constantly on the back foot. Congratulations to the team for a great team result. The next round is due to be played on February 8 with Chelmsford being drawn at home against rivals Canterbury.