Strong Ipswich too good

NE14HOCKEY East League (Division 6NE)

Ipswich 5's 9 Felixstowe 3's 2

A strong Ipswich 5's side came in to this game looking for another victory to put pressure on their joint-top rivals Lowestoft Railway.

Some good hockey from Felixstowe early on put Ipswich on the back foot. This pressure led to a quick counter-attack and Felixstowe found themselves clean through on the Ipswich keeper, making it 1-0 to the visitors.

Felixstowe were playing some good hockey, but crucially left far too much space in midfield, which the Ipswich diamond was able to exploit, allowing the home side to dominate possession. Some incisive play down the wings led to Ipswich getting a string of short corners. Ipswich used these well, with Godbold on fine shooting form, scoring three first-half short corners and another from open play, making the score 4-1 at half time.

Sadly, the first 20 minutes of the second half saw some sloppy hockey and it took another Felixstowe goal to rouse Ipswich. They tore through the Felixstowe defence in the last few minutes to aid the goal difference, with Godbold slotting in three more, which was followed by some smart Barker finishing to put the game beyond doubt.

David Youngman made a cool and collected debut at the back, and the returning youngster Ben Askins was excellent.