Ladies hit 10 as success looms in Belper Indoor League

Ladies still on course for Indoor League Success

Last night (Tuesday 5th) saw Derby face the 2 teams pushing them for the Belper Indoor League title.

The 1st match saw Derby up against hometown team Belper and for the 1st time we were able to select from a full strength squad.

The match started at a frantic pace with the ball pace very high, but unfortunatly the 1st touch control from Derby in the early exchanges saw them continually turn over possession. On 6 mins Derby were awarded a penalty corner and up stepped Captain Amanda Petrie to drag flick an unstoppable shot just inside the right hand post for a 1-0 lead.

The game then turned into the Anna Neilson show with all other players playing supporting roles for her goal scoring talents. In a 10 minute spell she scored no fewer than 4 goals to totally put Belper out of the fixture and with the returning Marie Dymond scoring late on the match finished at 6-0.

The 2nd game saw a re-match of an abandoned fixture early on in the programme against Ripley, after time ran out in the 1st game in October with Derby being well beaten at the time, but what a difference a few months can make.

Ripley started incredibly strongly and with a squad strengthened from other clubs within the region they came at Derby from the off. But resilient defending initially from Kath Lee saw out the early threats along with excellent goalkeeping from Lisa.

A breakaway by Derby saw Anna clear on the right and slipped a ball to the left of the ‘D’ finding Sue Anne closely marked but somehow she managed to slip her marker and drilled in a low shot to open the scoring at 1-0.

A tremendous slice of luck saw Ripley get back into the matc. From a Penalty corner the ball was slipped back to the injector who after trying to slip the ball back to the Penalty spot at pace, found the stick of Kath who could not help but deflect the ball into her own goal. 1-1

After ½ time Derby stepped up their game and Captain Amanda scored her 2nd of the night to give Derby a 2-1 lead which was quickly followed by a spectacular solo goal from Kath Lee to give Derby a 3-1 lead.

Ripley however would not lay down and continuous pressure also led to 2 quick goals to again level the scores at 3-3.

The drama of the night was far from over though, as with only 20 seconds left on the clock, player of the night Kath Lee, found space inside the Ripley area to bury a quite brilliant shot into the far right of the goal leaving the keeper no chance. Everyone thought this was the winning goal from Derby at 4-3 but an equally slick move with the last hit of the game found the Ripley Forward unmarked at the far post to slip past a helpless Lisa to end the nights scoring at 4-4.

Coach Taylor Commented.

Tonight was about a much higher quality of opposition facing Derby but they more than held their own against both teams.

The Ripley side was made up from several guests from other teams, many of whom play in much higher leagues than our own players, but we more than held our own.

Anna’s finishing was superb again but it was the all-round performance that was pleasing for me with all squad members contributing enormously. The quality of some of the goals tonight would have been worthy of a standard much higher than we are currently playing at.

A very pleasing night.

Andy Taylor
Ladies 1st XI Coach
Derby Asterdale Hockey Club