England U18 Girls battle back to beat Spain 3-2
19th July 2014|
Spain U18 Girls |
2 |
3 |
England U18 Girls |
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- 2 (FG) |
(Half-time 2-2) |
Erica Sanders 13 (FG) |
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- 5 (PC) |
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Alicia Caillard 31 (FG) |
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Ellie Rayer 52 (FG) |
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Trailing two-nil with just five minutes gone, England Under-18 Girls recovered from a slow start to clinch a 3-2 win over Spain in their final match at the Five Nations Tournament at Beeston on Saturday.
Played in heavy rain and occasional rumbles of thunder, the match burst into life early on with the scores tied at 2-2 at half time. Spain had attacked down the right hand side and scored after just two minutes, and sloppy defending let them add a second goal after five minutes.
But England got into their stride and, after a great turnover on 13 minutes, Beeston’s Erica Sanders broke away from the England 25 down the right, cutting into the circle and lobbing the advancing goalkeeper.
Four minutes behind the break England were back level at 2-2 with East Grinstead’s Alicia Caillard scoring after a good ball from the left by Sanders.
And on 52 minutes England finally took the lead, Maidenhead’s Ellie Rayer deflecting home after a break down the left and cross from Stourport’s Georgina Bathurst.
“I’m very pleased with the result,” said Head Coach Andy Bradshaw. “The girls showed great character to come through a difficult start and pull off a final win. They have grown as a team; we started slowly but we have shown we can come back and play some great hockey.”
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Spain U16 Girls |
2 |
0 |
England U16 Girls |
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Patricia Alvarez 26 (FG) |
(Half-time 1-0) |
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Anna Barker 64 (PS) |
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DESPITE dominating for large parts of the match, England Under-16 Girls struggled to find the goal and went down 2-0 to Spain in their final match of the Five Nations Tournament at Beeston Hockey Club on Saturday.
Some strong defending helped keep England in the match, and although they created several chances they couldn’t put the ball in the goal when it mattered.
“Spain created two or three chances early on that were dealt with well by goalkeeper Alana Mercer and we were very much still in it,” said Head Coach Marc Bourhill. “Butthe quick Spanish forward capitalised on a misplaced pass just before half time to give them the lead.
“We dominated parts of the second half and created a number of circle entries and had three or four good chances on goal, but just didn’t quite connect.”
Patricia Alvarez broke the deadlock from open play on 26 minutes, but that proved to be the only goal until six minutes from the end when Anna Barker doubled their advantage from the penalty spot after a goalmouth melee.