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Mixed fortunes for Carrick Ladies

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

CARRICK Ladies Hockey Club 1st XI, sponsored by Holmes Builders and in a match sponsored by Sandra Pyper Property Management, were hoping to enter the second half of their league season with a result against PSNI against whom they had narrowly lost 2-1 in their previous meeting in late September.
Their opponents however, looking for a win to move to the top of Senior Two, were clearly in no mood to accommodate Carrick's hopes as they opened the scoring with two beautifully taken first half goals both involving their excellent centre forward.
Things got even worse in the second half when PSNI added three more goals, all from penalty corners. A late goal for Carrick, scored by first team debutant Jennifer Rodgers, proved to be of little consolation with the 5-1 scoreline representing Carrick's heaviest league defeat since January 2005 when they conceded six goals against Raphoe.
Club spokesperson Peter Stevenson was quick to refute any suggestion that the team would find it difficult to recover from this latest setback in their league programme. "A 5-1 defeat is certainly hard to swallow," said Peter, "but there's no way anyone can write us off with eleven games still to play. That would be ridiculous. Most of the players in this current squad were instrumental in securing two consecutive league promotions for the first team as recently as 2007 and 2008. Good players don't suddenly become bad players overnight. OK so we didn't play at all well today, and there's no hiding from that. And I'd have to concede we're currently lacking in confidence at the moment which is inhibiting our play. But one or two good results will quickly turn things around and then we'll be more than happy to show everyone what we're really capable off," added Peter.
Elsewhere within Carrick Ladies, both their 2nd and 3rd XI squads have been enjoying a much more productive season with both teams winning again on Saturday afternoon.
Carrick Ladies 2nd XI, sponsored by Penrose Roofing, defeated Ballyclare 2-0 in a home match sponsored by W Cross and Sons. The team's leading goalscorer, Amy Cross, was once again on target for her team with the second goal coming from Melissa Taylor. This result, against fifth placed Ballyclare, maintained Carrick's second place position in Junior Five with the scene well and truly set for a highly competitive run in between the league's three front runners, Lisnagarvey, Carrick, and Dromore.
Performance of the day for Carrick Ladies undoubtedly fell to their 3rd XI, sponsored by James Bowman Hair and Beauty with a thrilling 3-2 win away to Dromore. Laura Evans, only just returned from a prolonged layoff, produced a superb performance for Carrick with an excellent brace of goals while Vicky Cleland added the all important third to secure maximum points for her team. No team ever travels to Dromore with any great expectation of a win and this result, against the league's second placed team, represents a tremendous performance by Carrick's third string squad.
This coming weekend's fixtures for Carrick Ladies Hockey Club are:
1st XI home to Parkview (Senior League fixture sponsored by Meadow Cars). 2nd XI away to Cookstown (Junior League fixture)3rd XI to be announced.

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