Raphoe Hockey Ladies earned another hard-fought win on the road as Lisa Patterson’s second-half goal was enough to keep the Donegal sides impressive form intact.
Coleraine 0 Raphoe 1
The Coleraine side started very strong and had the upper hand for the first 20 minutes of the match. Raphoe were reacting to the Coleraine play rather than controlling the game but managed to maintain an even scoreline.
Coleraine had many well-worked sets of play down the right-hand side of the pitch with crosses across the goal, which they were unlucky not to get a touch on.
Coleraine fired many balls through the Raphoe press picking out gaps. It was a bitty start with lots of stick tackles from both teams.
Raphoe played their way into the first half and adapted the press to eliminate holes and could more easily anticipate what the Coleraine defence were likely to do. Arlyne Kilpatrick playing centre back started picking out wide passes to work the ball forward.
Leanne Patterson had some excellent runs in midfield and managed to bring the ball into the circle a number of times. Katy Love, an experienced forward, had 1 superb chance on goal, which was saved by the Coleraine keeper.
As the passing started to come together Rebecca Wauchope and Lisa Smyth were sprinting and moving up front to receive passes from midfield. Wendy Patterson was rock solid in the centre – available for passes and defending every time the play turned around. Raphoe had a handful of short corners that they couldn’t convert in the first half.
The second half started well with captain Sabrina Barnett encouraging every player and keeping up the talk and chat on the pitch. Coleraine did have a few chances on goal, which called Heather Humphrey into action. Heather dove to protect the goal when one on one with a Coleraine player keeping Raphoe in the game.
Soon after Coleraine had another break; Victoria Wray sprinted after the player to put pressure on her and again Heather made a successful dive to protect the goal, keeping the scoreline at nil all.
Alison Stewart made some excellent attacking sprints from right midfield supported by Zara Tinney and Sabrina Barnett.
Having read the Coleraine game and preferred routes of passing; Janice Nelson and Lisa Patterson were able to work together and block play with some well executed flat stick tackles.
With Coleraine down to 10 players for a two minute period – Raphoe took more control and won 2 short corners in a row but unfortunately could not convert these to goals; even when Coleraine lost a defender to the halfway line in the second corner.
However, Raphoe’s goal came shortly after this with Wendy Patterson in the centre passing outright to Sarah McErlean who moved the ball quickly to Zara Tinney up front at right wing.
With Coleraine defence in front of her Zara switched the ball back out to Arlyne Kilpatrick playing right back who passed an accurate flat ball into the top of the circle where Lisa Patterson connected and deflected the ball into the goal – her first for the club.
Raphoe hung on tight as Coleraine won two short corners as the final whistle blew.
Team: Heather Humphrey, Arlyne Kilpatrick, Sabrina Barnett (Captain), Victoria Wray, Janice Nelson, Zara Tinney, Wendy Patterson, Leanne Patterson, Lisa Patterson, Lisa Smyth, Katy Love, Jasmine Tinney, Sarah McErlean, Rebecca Wauchope, Amy Wauchope and Alison Stewart
Tags: