Senior match reports – 04-03-23

Whitchurch ladies 1s 5 Triton ladies 1s 2

Whitchurch Ladies 1s entertained Triton 1s at home this week, after their last meet, they know it was going to be a tough game.

Whitchurch played strongly, using all their players to move the ball forward with many attempts in the first 10 minutes but Triton had a strong defence.

Lisa Sullivan and Molly Fry worked the ball up to Valerie Fabery who started the scoring off with a beautiful reverse shot into left corner.

Now they had that goal Whitchurch settled in and it wasn’t long before Georgia Munro took on the keeper to slip in the second.

Triton fought back and used their fast forwards to keep taking Whitchurch by surprise, but the defence Catherine Reece-Gresty and Hayleigh Busby worked tirelessly to keep Triton out and Whitchurch keeper Holly Edwards made some great saves from Tritons penalty corners.

Mollie Bell made a run into the top of the dee and slapped home Whitchurch’s third goal. Lots of opportunities from Captain Cath Gresty and Lisa Sullivan, but Triton held tight in their dee. Comfortably in the lead unfortunately Triton didn’t give up and had a lucky break to score.

Half time 3 -1 up for Whitchurch, after a quick break Whitchurch set up like the start, but obviously Triton had picked out a weak spot in Whitchurch and managed to score another.

3-2, a little close for Whitchurch.

Valerie Fabery picked up the ball from pushback and drove her way through all of Triton players and scored her second. Sarah Kay and Poppy Huxley held their half positions keeping Triton from reaching the dee.

Play became a lot faster and Whitchurch picked up their game, triangular passes up the right from Jasmin Williams, Cath Gresty and Molly Fry, gave Fabery another opportunity to score her hattrick and make the final score 5-2.

Fantastic position for Whitchurch ladies 1s with promotion looking definite. They play away to Lymm ladies next week.

Lymm ladies 4s 2 Whitchurch ladies 2s 6

Whitchurch won the toss and had pushback, they started confidenty and with some strong passes from Bella Morris the wing to Poppy Gilbert, Sophie Jones and Hayley Kellet gave Whitchurch’s  Heidi Groom an opportunity to score the first goal using great dribbling skills around the Lymm defence.

Bella Morris kept the ball up Whitchurch’s’ attacking end giving Whitchurch lots of shots on goal, but they couldn’t convert due to Lymm’s strong defence. Lucy Hearn, Lydia Jones and Lucy Chadwick worked hard on the left switching the ball to the right and moving it forward to create many chances for Whitchurch to score.

The second goal was scored by Sophie Jones from a short corner. Jones injecting the ball out to Kellet who passed  it back to Jones who neatly slipped it past Lymm’s keeper. There was continuous subbing throughout the match with Eleanor Beecher and Maisie Bennett which helped keep the pressure on Lymm defence.

At the beginning of the second half Lymm started to gain more possession but with strong defence by Emma Stubbs and Hermione Ball Lymm struggled to get many shots on goal and any that did get through were saved by Whitchurch goalie Megan Nicholson. Lymm were awarded a number of short corners and finally managed to score their first goal.

Whitchurch more determined and very quickly moved the ball up the field to Heidi Groom who out skilled all the Lymm’s defence and scored another goal for Whitchurch. Lucy Chadwick then scored by running the ball down the left wing before cutting towards centre of the dee and hitting it into the goal.

Half way through the second half Lymm got another goal meaning the  score was now 4-2. Whitchurch started with the ball which quickly got to the dee and with a shot taken by Poppy Gilbert was deflected by Lymm’s goal keeper to Eleanor Beecher who was waiting to pop it into the goal .

Towards the end of the match and Lymm started to tire and Hayley Kellett went in for a strong tackle winning the ball and finding Bella Morris who passed to Maisie Bennett who found Sophie Jones on the post for another goal.

Whitchurch’s’ player of the match was Heidi Groom due to her movement with the ball and being able to create chances for Whitchurch throughout the game. Lymm also commented on Megan Nicholson goal keeping skills.

Crewe ladies 4s 2 Whitchurch ladies 3s 3

Whitchurch travelled away this weekend to Crewe vagrants.
Whitchurch knew that this was going to be tough game as the home fixture was extremely close with Whitchurch snatching a 1-0 victory.

Whitchurch went out the strongest of the two teams applying pressure via Sue Read and Freya Gresty up front, with Abi Ashely and Bella Clarke supporting from the midfield.

It wasn’t long before Gresty scored past the Crewe keeper to bring the score line to 1-0. This gave Whitchurch the boost that they needed.
Crewe pushed forward and brought a string of saves and tackles from keeper Phoebe Gregory and Ursula Stoddart. Whitchurch kept possession of the ball and a string of passes between Rachel Chester’s, Elsie Cottrell, Erin Harden and Olivia Higazi ended picking out Sue Read in the dee to slot the ball past the keeper.

Crewe were then awarded a penalty corner and managed to pick out the bottom corner of the Whitchurch goal giving Whitchurch the lead at the break.

Whitchurch had a positive half time talk and went back out fighting with Mel Reid and Jan Teggin working together to hold the middle of the pitch, again Gresty picked up the ball and drove all the way to the Crewe dee to picking out Read who fired home her second and Whitchurch some comfort

Within the last few minutes of the game Crewe converted a penalty corner but Whitchurch still won a well-deserved 3 points.

Whitchurch ladies 3s travel away to Macclesfield next week.

Winnington Park Men’s 3s 0 Whitchurch Men’s 2s 2

Whitchurch travelled with a young and inexperienced team and it was the work rate and efforts of these players that ultimately led to the win.

From the start Whitchurch pressured the Winnington Park defence causing them to make to make many last gasp tackles as the speed of Joe Chester’s and the experience of Paul ‘Sturge’ Leigh up front caused the Winnington defensive problems.

Whitchurch won two early short corners and scored two quick goals, the first came as Danny Foulkes shot rebounded from the keepers pads and Craig Hockenhull fired past the keeper. The second came from a shot and a diving Will Edwards deflected home on the back post.

Whitchurch didn’t have it all their own way as Winnington launched their own attacks but Charlie Edwards, Lucas Hill and Thomas Wyndham-Lewis were again excellent in defence taking ball after ball from the Winnington attackers and minimising the work of keeper Neil Jones in goal.

The second half continued in much the same effort with Oliver Hayward and Nikodem Moga driving down the right wings and causing the Winnington defence numerous issues and at the other end Richard Leigh marshalled the Whitchurch defence to frustrate Winnington Park.

As Whitchurch started to tire Airan Jones held strong in the midfield, running non-stop from the start to the end and making countless tackles and supporting the team in both attack and defence.

Winnington had a run of penalty corners towards the end of the game but were frustrated as the routines didn’t work as planned and Whitchurch defended well.

Another three points for the Men’s 2s has lifted them further up the league with a well-deserved victory.