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New Year cheer for Carrick ladies

Thursday, 12 January 2012

A Carrick effort on goal saved by Grosvners keeper. GR0211

Carrick Ladies 1st XI 3, Grosvenor 0: CARRICK Ladies Hockey Club 1st XI, sponsored by Holmes Builders, got their 2012 league programme off to a dream start on Saturday with a competent 3-0 home win over Grosvenor.
A goal in the first few minutes from Melissa Taylor settled any early nerves for the home side and right wing Caris Greenwood doubled Carrick's lead just before half time. Grosvenor's efforts to get themselves back into the match in the second half came to nothing against a solid defensive line and when Carrick player of the match Lois Passmore netted a third from a penalty corner play, the game was effectively over as a contest.
This win has leapfrogged Carrick into fifth place in Senior Two, level on points with fourth placed Dromore and only two points outside the top three. Team captain Trish Neill, was clearly delighted with her team's showing. "I really couldn't have asked for more from the players today," said a smiling Neill immediately after the match. "This result fully achieved the three objectives we'd set ourselves before the match. We'd resolved to win the game well with a sound team performance, to do so without conceding a goal, and to force ourselves into the top half of Senior Two.
“Everyone was particularly pleased not to concede a goal today as believe it or not it's taken us thirteen league and cup matches this season to achieve a total shut-out! We've won six and drawn three of those thirteen games but on every occasion we conceded at least one goal. Before today the closest we came to a shut-out was our 4-1 McConnell Shield win at Knock when we were leading 4-0 until the very last second of the match. The umpire didn't even have sufficient time on the watch to re-start the game after they scored! As happened against Knock, quite often we'd been conceding late in the game when we were looking to further increase our lead. That was probably down to a mixture of over exuberance and inexperience. Today we got it entirely right by keeping things tight at the back for the entire seventy minutes while at the same time taking our chances up front as and when they arose. It was basically an excellent team effort especially coming off the back of a three week lay-off" concluded Trish. Team coach Neill McConnell was also clearly delighted with the Carrick performance and their continuing rise in Senior Two. "We've been consistently scoring league points right from the start of the season," said Neil. "but we've most definitely been improving our ratio over recent matches. From our first six league matches we picked up five points, but our last five games have delivered ten more points. It's turning out to be a highly competitive league and with only a seven-point spread separating the third and seventh placed teams, its hard work to pick up places and hang unto them. Realistically, as we continue to re-build the squad, we're not yet title contenders. Larne, Ballyclare, and Kilkeel currently look likely to be fighting it out for the top two places come the end of the season. But just behind them it could be any one of Dromore, Carrick, Dungannon, or Derg Valley. We came into the season with the objective of finishing in the top-half of the table but, given the way the girls have been playing recently, I firmly believe there's every reason to now upgrade that target. I definitely think fourth place is attainable. And perhaps even third if we can maintain our current form and one of the top three hits a bad patch. It would be doing the girls a dis-service to aim lower than our optimum capabilities and right now, I think we're well capable of mixing it with anybody in Senior Two. It's really all down to teamwork and commitment and at this moment we have an abundance of both. This weekend's trip to Derg Valley will be a big test of our expectations and if we can field our first choice squad, I'm confident the girls will rise to the occasion just as they did today," concluded Neill.

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