Gave Moss park a good run for their money

Stockport 4ths travelled to Trinity School in Manchester for their Divisional Cup game against 2nd Division Moss Park. As this was a cup game Stockport had a 2 goal advantage at the start of the match so Moss Park were determined to cancel that out as soon as possible.  The pace of the game and pressure from Moss Park throughout the game reflected their determination but Stockport 4ths rose to the challenge and gave Moss park a good run for their money.

A short corner practice before the start of the game resulted in a black eye for Christina Bates (ouch!) so Stockport started without their usual centre forward but Bernadette Pheiffer stepped up and was on the pitch a little earlier than planned and not in her planned position!  But the well thought out (in the pub with chip butties!) team structure seemed to work well with a 3-4-3 format strengthening our defence which was needed against this strong opposition.  The midfield had to work really hard and they did, Chloe Withers, Helen Taylor, Emma Higgs and Hannah Meadwell intercepted the attacking play and where possible fed the ball up to Lisa Malpass, Fiona Holland and Christina Brave Bates forcing one or two saves from the keeper and gaining a couple of short corners.

Helen Higgs, Tash Getcheffsky (JP) and Bernadette Pheiffer supported Andrea Boulton in goal and the defence held off constant attack from Moss Park.  Helen McConliffe flitted between the back, midfield and made the occasion run up the right wing finishing with a hard cross in to the forward line and she says she isn't fit!  Moss Park scored an early 2 goals cancelling out Stockport's 2 goal advantage and scored another 2 before half time, making the mid point score 4-2.  The half time team talk acknowledged the 100% effort everyone was putting in but identified we just needed to communicate a bit more, be more confident going for the ball and release the ball that little bit earlier.  Stockport improved in the 2nd half keeping Moss Park at bay for a good 20 minutes before a goal keeping error (OK I should have used my feet not stick!) deflected an easy goal in for Moss Park.  Earlier tackling was made by the younger players Chloe Withers, Hannah Meadwell, Emma Higgs and Christina Bates who became more confident as the game progressed and the three Helen's (Taylor, Higgs, McConliffe) began running out of steam after constant pressure in midfield.

But it happened - our well deserved goal!!!!  A well taken penalty corner found Tash Getcheffsky (JP) who smacked the ball into goal and the celebration commenced!!  Final score 6-3 but a great effort all round.  Thanks to Christina who played on with a corker of a black eye and to Hannah who despite being ill turned up knowing we only had a skeleton team.  Good luck to Hannah in her performance of Jesus Christ at Romiley Forum this week - break a leg!!

Stockport Hockey Club are still looking for a new goalkeeper, if you are interested please contact Andrea on 0161 217 2037 or log onto www.stockporthockey.co.uk