Disappointment reigned as the East London Women’s Hockey 1st team were defeated by Queen Mary’s 3rd team 13-0 at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre on Wednesday.
As the winter months are coming to a close it seemed that the winter blues were still lingering around and continuing to be apparent for the women of East London Hockey.
Strong Start
As the game kicked off there was a lot of defensive play about as the team from East London were playing very much in their own half of the pitch.
The opposing Queen Mary’s team were very determined in their plays and made several strong challenges that were blocked by the women’s keeper Abbey Conroy.
Fifteen minutes into the first half Queen Mary claimed their first goal, and continued to press, seeing another three goals home before the end of the first half.
Both of Queen Mary’s centre forwards made numerous aggressive advances into and within East London’s D, giving UEL’s defence a tough time having to continuously find ways to block these shots.
No Comeback For East London
Starting off the second half with a 4-0 deficit the women from East London had it all to play for.
Unfortunately, Queen Mary had other ideas as they didn’t waste any time closing the door on East London, in very quick succession easily getting four more goals, making it 8-0 within a mere 15 minutes after returning from the break.
Once again the oppositions two centre forwards created a challenging half for East London’s defence with a range of varying shots for them to contend with.
A few breakaway runs from East London saw the ball occasionally get into the D of Queen Mary, but with no one able to convert their shots and get past the opposing goalkeeper.
East London fought valiantly in the face of Queen Mary but they continued to concede, seeing five more goals into the net before the whistle. The last goal of the match came in the last seconds to make the fixture finish 13-0 to Queen Mary despite East London’s best attempts to stop them.
Changes To The Team
East London found themselves on the back foot with their first choice keeper Rhiannon Murphy being unavailable for the game meaning the team were on their backup choice of keeper with vice-captain Conroy being put in goal.
This choice was redeemed after she made many excellent saves and stopped some high balls to be awarded woman of the match.
Speaking to Conroy after the game she said “I haven’t played in goal for the team since the second match of the season so it was fun to play a match in a difference position for a change. We had a full team plus one substitute which really helped as we have been struggling to field a full team this season.”
Conroy continued to talk about how the team will now prepare to face Queen Mary again in two weeks time.
“Despite loosing 13-0, everyone worked so hard and put their all into the game. Queen Mary are second in the league so we knew it was going to be a tough game. We were a lot stronger in the first half of the match so hopefully we can learn from this game and work on these things in training for when we face them again in a few weeks time.” she said.
League Standings
East London continue to sit on the bottom of the table and have a small chance of moving up to fifth position if they are able to win both of their next games, while relying on Imperial Women’s 6th to lose both of their remaining matches.
Meanwhile at the other end of the table Queen Mary are sat in second and are unable to catch the league winners London School of Economics 2nd’s team although their place in second is confirmed.
East London gear up to get themselves ready for their next game against Imperial Women’s 6th team on the 18th March.
There is no rest for the East London Women, as they will need to be ready for their last match of the season the following week, on 25th March where they will be facing off against Queen Mary’s 3rd team once again.
