East Women’s Hockey League

Premier Division

COLCHESTER took the confidence from last week’s emphatic win against Lowestoft to Sevenoaks on Saturday, where they fought hard to earn another valuable three points away from home.

Sevenoaks started the game at full pace and had Colchester camped out in their own half, finding it difficult to string passes together. It took a good 10 minutes for the visitors to settle, but when they did they looked dangerous in attack. Colchester started creating chances and it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before the deadlock was broken.

The crucial chance finally came when a clearance down the right wing by Sarah Rose found Jo Hill, who drove into the ‘D’, turned strongly and powered a great shot past the Sevenoaks keeper. Sevenoaks fought back and a lapse in concentration at the back gifted the home side their equaliser minutes later.

Just before half time Sevenoaks were awarded a penalty corner which was struck powerfully towards goal only for Colchester keeper, Jacqui Crombie, to make a fine save to make up for her earlier error and take the sides into half time with the scores level.

The second half saw the game open up with both teams creating half chances. A long through ball into the Colchester ‘D’ was well met by keeper Crombie, and cleared onto a Sevenoaks’ foot, which the umpire failed to see and resulted in the award of a penalty flick.

After consultation with the other umpire the flick decision was changed to a Colchester hit out, which proved to be the turning point in the game. Colchester pushed on and attacked with confidence and it was captain Helen Scott who gave the visitor’s the lead after the Sevenoaks keeper only managed to clear the ball straight to her.

Minutes later a penalty corner was slipped left where Angela Roberts was on hand to sweep the ball into the goal and give Colchester an unassailable 3-1 lead. The visitors saw out the rest of the game with relative ease and earned themselves a valuable victory to keep them in the hunt for a top half finish.