The pitch at Guildford was still hard in places after the overnight frost and caused some variation in playing conditions. These apart Southampton Firsts set about getting points in the bag as they enter the second half of the South's league season. Guildford looking to get some points worked hard, if uncompromisingly at times, to thwart the Southampton attack. Midway through the first half Ally Omell cut across the top of the D and unleashed a shot before the Guildford keeper was ready and opened the scoring in the Southampton favour. Ten minutes later Sue Crowley intercepted the ball on the halfway and was about to shoot, after beating the GK, when she was unceremoniously bowled over. Crowley, beating Julia Fabrizi to the ball, converted the resulting penalty stroke to give Southampton a 2 - 0 half time lead. The second half saw Southampton continue to chase the game but could not break through the final defence of the GK. Guildford struck back to score when their rising short corner (talk about it in the bar) was deflected downwards from chest height to beat the Southampton defence. Final score 2 - 1, which moves Southampton into fourth place.
The seconds played City of Portsmouth in a friendly and saw Anna Skelton have a field day as she grabbed four of Southampton's five goals. Beth Davies getting the fifth for a final scoreline of 5 - 1.
Thirds No game.
The Ladies fours played their last league match before the Christmas break
hoping for an early Christmas present courtesy of Southampton Uni 2nd Xl
captained by none other than Charlotte Morris, late of Southampton 2's. The
fours started a little shaky but soon settled into the game pressing the Uni
defence through out the first half but it was soon obvious that goals were
going to be hard to come by. At the back the defence in the form of the 4 K's
(KJ, Karen, Katherine and Katie) repelled the few attacks that the Uni were
able to put together. Half time and the game was 0-0 but favouring the 4's.
The second half saw much of the same with Southampton pressing the attack.
The Uni denying them a goal until well into the half, when Mighty Mouse and
Super Rodent went down the left and gnawed their way through the defence,
resulting in a well deserved goal from Mighty Mouse (alias Mary Anne
Mulligan). Not to be outdone the Uni came back from the whistle and for once
in the game the 4K's were unable to prevent the equaliser. Not to be outdone,
MM and SR (alias Sarah Russell) again went on the forage this time SR taking
Southampton into the lead. Unfortunately, the 4K's were unable to prevent the
Uni from equalising again with 2 minutes to spare. Final result 2-2. It would
have been a great start to the Christmas festivities if we had won, but what
the heck 1 point is better than none and there is always the return fixture
in the New Year.
Merry Christmas to all and everyone from the Ladies Fours. See you at the
next social on January 12th (hopefully a disco!).
The Fifths took a little while to settle down against United Services but opened the scoring through Karina Christiensen from short range. The second came when Mary Aiken was on hand to pop the ball home at the far post from a Jenny Lomas-Clarke cross. US drew one back when their dangerous number 7 broke away. Emma Cooke restored the 2-goal advantage when she rocketed a shot home from the edge of the D. US again drew one back through the ever dangerous number 7. Laura Please made it 4 - 2 when she drifted into the D. and shot. Sandy Lewis finished the scoring minutes from time. Final score 5 - 2
The First team got back into a winning stride when they demolished Blandford
5 - 0.
Chris Ellis opened the scoring before Kelvin Wyatt made it 2 from a SC.
Defender Ed Danby, pushing forward, made it 3 and Ellis popped up again to
make it 4 before Chris Stokes made it 5 - 0 at the close.
In their Hampshire cup game with US Portsmouth on Sunday things were a little tighter. Kelvin Wyatt scoring for Southampton and US scoring from the penalty spot, the game went into a penalty stroke competition. Both teams scored their first five before sudden death took over. US went and missed before Ed Danby took the pressure stroke and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his effort hit the back net for Southampton to move into the next round.
The seconds lost 3 - 2 in the last dying minutes of the game.
See here for the report of the 3rds match.
Southampton travelled to Portsmouth for a friendly match due to the cup
weekend. It was a mix and match team put together to face a young Portsmouth
side.
Things didn't start to well for Southampton, and Portsmouth soon earned
themselves their first goal. Southampton quickly found their feet and through
a good cross in to the 'D' from Mark Cozens, Rich Harren scored with a great
finish.
Southampton should have gone a head three times but were denied by Portsmouth
keeper. Portsmouth eventually went ahead and Southampton dropped out of the
game for a period but after some good play from the midfield, Rich Harren
added his second of the match.
Portsmouth yet again went ahead and it started to look very bad for
Southampton. Southampton battled on and Hat Trick Hero Rich Harren found the
net in style and earned Southampton a 3-3 draw.
The Vets started their match with Andover in terrific style when Pete Terry scored within seconds of the start, robbing the Andover defender before slotting the ball home. Chris Jones added one before half time only to see Andover get one back for a 2 - 1 HT score line. Bill Stokes made it 3 - 1 before Terry and Jones got their seconds and Bill Stokes made it s 6 -1 at the final whistle.
The Otters saw themselves slip out of the open league cup as they went down on penalty flicks to Portsmouth and Southsea. Having twice taken the lead during the game the youngsters saw their advantage twice lost despite playing attractive team hockey.
On Sunday the under 19 first girls first team met with a Salisbury side weakened by player shortages. Southampton provided Ben Williamson in goal and Amy Sheehan and Stephanie Adams to help out. Despite making several good saves Ben could not stop the steam rolling, Hollie Nutt who ran in 4 goals and was supported by Beth Davies, Sophie Mitchell, Anna Skelton and Amy Sheehan, who switch sides when a Salisbury player came late into the game.
The second played Havant on the waterbased pitch under floodlights but did
not let these new phenomena phase them at all. Havant scored three first
half goals before half time against the run of play thanks mainly to their
first and second eleven senior players. Southampton made up of under 16s,
apart from Brenda Kimber and Danielle Stanton played some attractive hockey
and competed on even terms. They appeared to have grabbed one back just
before half time through Hannah Pearce but the ball was adjudged to have hit
a Southampton foot, which in fact turned out to belong to a Havant player.
This did not deter the Southampton side as they grabbed one, then two back
through Flick Robinson. Havant separating these goals with one of their own.
Some excellent goal keeping from 13 year old Louise Jeffcoate saw off
several Havant attacks and one saw Louise block a one on one with the South
league player.
Final score 2 - 4 but a good and promising team performance enjoyed by the
crowd and players.
The thirds unfortunately went down 5 - 1 to Gregarians. With a shortage of GKs owing to injuries Charlotte Page heroically kept the score down in the first half to 2 - 0 but work called and she had to leave. Gregarians rattled in three second half efforts and Southampton got one back through.
David Stokes and William Thomson followed their fathers' footsteps of many years ago when they both represented Hampshire at schoolboy level. David hit a stormer against Sussex and Will played well in midfield and defence.
Roger Merry