3 wins, 3 draws and just 1 loss this week
Fylde 1 0-0 Bowdon 2
Fylde Ladies 1s hosted Bowdon 2s at Mill Farm, determined to bounce back after last weekend’s defeat at Alderley Edge.
Despite dominating possession and applying significant pressure in the first half, the breakthrough proved elusive. Jess Wharton and Grace McGarvey both came close to scoring, but the Bowdon defence held firm, keeping the game goalless at halftime.
The second half saw more strong defensive play from Fylde, combined with solid link-up play through the midfield. They continued to create chances, but the finishing touch was just out of reach. Despite their attacking intent, Fylde couldn’t find a way through, and the match ended in a frustrating 0-0 draw.
While disappointed not to take all three points, Fylde will look to sharpen their attacking edge as they turn their focus to an away fixture against Harrogate next Saturday at 5pm.
Lancaster University 1 1-2 Fylde 2
Fylde 2's secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory against Lancaster in today’s thrilling match.
The game began with an energetic tempo as both teams pressed hard for an early advantage. Fylde’s breakthrough came from a brilliant individual run by Izzy Mahon, who surged forward with pace and determination. She found Dawn Child in the perfect position, and the latter coolly finished to put Fylde 1-0 up.
Fylde continued to dominate possession but couldn’t find another opening before the break. Lancaster, though dangerous on the counter, struggled to break down Fylde's defence, led by solid work from the backline.
The second half saw Fylde 2's midfield working hard to link passes from the defence to the forwards. They managed to double their lead following a well-executed short corner. Keira Tomes won the set piece, and Grace Tomlinson delivered a precise ball into the D which Chelsea Atkinson deflected the ball past the Lancaster keeper to give Fylde a 2-0 lead.
Lancaster responded with renewed energy and found a goal back late in the match to reduce the deficit to 2-1. However, Fylde held firm, weathering the late pressure with some great saves by Michelle Longton and ensuring the three points.
Fylde 3 1-1 Garstang 2
This week was another week of good availability meaning that the 3s could put out a strong team to face Garstang.
The girls started the match confident and wanting to seek an early advantage. This was enabled by Natalie Smith tackling one of the Garstang defenders, meaning she than passed into Sophia Melling who made a great run who tapped it into the goal, this early goal within the first 9 minutes meant that Fylde gained confidence to press high for the rest of the match.
Fylde went into half time with the 1-0 lead. It was at this point where the umpires brought over the captains to talk about danger from both sides with high balls. However this meant that Fylde had two moments in the match with 10 players. The 3s dealt with this overload really well. Garstang managed to slot an unlucky goal half way through the second half. But Fylde continued to use attacking advantages and short corners to try and gain another goal but this didn’t come off this week.
This was a really good result for the 3s as we are showing massive improvements every week. We look forward to playing Lancaster and Morecambe next week.
Fylde 4 1-4 Brookfield 1
Fylde faced a tough challenge on the pitch as they suffered a 4-1 defeat to Brookfield.
The match started with Brookfield showing dominance, controlling possession and creating several early chances. Fylde struggled to get a foothold in the game, with Brookfield’s pressure eventually paying off when they scored in the first half. Despite some solid defending from Fylde, the away side took a 1-0 lead into the break.
After halftime, Fylde came out with renewed energy and soon found an equaliser. Megan Hartley-Smith managed to win a short corner. Isla Carter injected the ball to Megan Hartley-Smith to the left and she slapped it into the bottom corner, bring the game level at 1-1. It looked like Fylde might build on this momentum and take control of the game.
However, Brookfield quickly regained their advantage. The away team was awarded three more short corners in quick succession, and each one resulted in a goal. Fylde’s defence struggled to cope with the set-piece threat, and Brookfield’s clinical finishing proved to be the difference.
Despite a spirited effort from Fylde, including several counter-attacks, they were unable to get back into the match, and the final whistle blew with Brookfield securing a 4-1 victory.
Fylde will look to regroup and improve on their defensive structure ahead of their next match, as they seek to bounce back from this disappointing result. Player of the match was awarded to Emily Byers, for some excellent saves which kept Fylde in the game, especially for the first half.
Fylde 5 2-1 Lytham St Annes 2
A late afternoon home game for the ladies 5's against local club Lytham St Annes. Fylde put plenty of effort into their warm up this week to avoid the 10 minute slow start we had been displaying.
Lytham started with first push back and Fylde got to work trying to intercept play and find options. Lytham didn’t make it easy and chose to double mark some Fylde players which made it very hard work!
Debbie McClelland and Heather Appleyard held the defensive circle using halves Leah Richmond and Evie Dunne to play the ball wide to avoid Lytham’s press. Both halves attacked well up the lines and chased back to defend when the attack broke through.
Lytham played a couple of players high so those breaks were testing for Fylde and meant it was all hands on deck to get back and mark up. With Lytham’s strong hitter taking the free hits, Hattie Tollerson set up camp in front to block the line to goal so the rest of the team could set up the press behind which Lytham found hard to break through.
A couple of defensive short corners were well defended with Evie Dunne running first and getting in the way of the strike. After clearing the circle, the ball was sent down the left side to Jess Grice who was fouled at half way. The free hit was taken quickly, glancing Hattie Tollerson’s stick to deflect to waiting Sophia Taylor, who off balanced the keeper before slotting away a goal. This spurred Lytham on more and the attacks kept coming down the middle and left side. Goalkeeper Alice Bishop made good saves and kept a clean sheet for the first half.
Second half started well, Fylde trying to slow down the play as it was feeling very rushed. Aimee Jennings made her characteristic impact, beating several players with change of pace and good ball skills and had good attempts on goal which were thwarted by Lytham’s experienced defenders. Fylde were awarded a number of short corners which weren’t quite connecting until Aimee received the slip and slapped the ball home for a solid second goal.
Fylde may have had some breathing room on the score but Lytham were determined. With excellent communication from Debbie and Alice, Fylde marked more effectively in the second half to see off Lytham’s attempts which were getting closer each time eventually landing Lytham a goal after a lot of back and forth in the 23.
The restart saw a great run from Gabi Hopley-Sherratt down the right wing receiving the ball on the run, hitting the baseline and looking for the cross which Fylde weren’t quite fast enough to reach!
Lytham kept fighting back only to be greeted with a very strong and agile Sadie Atkinson who displayed excellent skills to turnover the ball in the midfield and pass to Sophia and Hattie up front. Fylde held strong, earning a short comer at the final whistle, sadly not to add to the goal tally. A solid challenge from Lytham and a win we had to work for.
Fylde 5s continue to impress and hold their own against experienced sides as we approach the end of the season with buckets of positives.
Clitheroe Blackburn N Devt 3-3 Fylde 6 Development
On Thursday evening we managed to increase our player count from nine to twelve. On match day it had increased to fifteen! Such are the delights of fielding a Development team which is a mixture of skilled players, Back to Hockey enthusiasts, and young starters.
A late 4:30pm start away against Clitheroe & Blackburn Development team meant that Bernie Loffler took charge, as Team Manager, whilst Player/Coach sister Fran raced over from other coaching duties at Mill Farm. Ellie, Olivia, Megan and Emily (switching from Gk to striker role) came from their earlier 4th Team match and balanced-out the opposition’s stronger players. Carenna returned from injury with Michelle and Julie completing the adult line-up. Michelle’s daughter, Emily, was joined by Faye (Gk), Hattie Musto (on her debut), Evie, Alyssa and Bella to complete the youthful contingent.
When coach Fran arrived the game was already in full flow with a 2-1 lead and a goal from Alyssa Woodman and Michelle Finney. Fran had decided to stay warm and wrapped up as bench players were now fully engaged and being organised effectively by Bernie.
The game ebbed and flowed as the teams were well matched with Michelle scoring her trademark mark tap-in and (Gk) Emily Byers scoring a fine first-time sweeping shot from a right hand side cross in one of many well structured attacks.
With a 3-1 lead and ten minutes to go, the match seemed won, but the opposition had other ideas, scoring two quick goals and were encouraged by their equaliser. They repeatedly stormed forward but were thwarted by two fine penalty corner goal line clearances by Julie and good kicking by Faye in goals.
Honours were shared in the 3-3 draw and enthusiasm reignited in players who enjoyed the experience of playing without pressure of results and just having some good hockey fun!
Keswick 3 4-6 Fylde 1
It was an all-day trip north into the mountains, past the lakes, and out west to Cockermouth for Fylde’s grandads and school kids, and some were so keen that they arrived 15 minutes before even the changing rooms were opened.
After a morning drop-out, Fylde were down to a basic 11, and forced the veteran Pete Latimer to take to the pitch despite an old man’s bad back, but some magic gel was applied and he gingerly took up his defensive position with Phil Weir and Ollie Holmes giving him extra support.
Fylde looked the better team from the off, with Luke Hitchen and Fin Taylor impressing in midfield with their skills. However, as usual, possession and territorial advantage didn’t lead to any goals for 10-15 minutes.
It was Luke Hitchen who broke the deadlock when he took a quick free hit in the left corner, catching the Keswick defence napping, dribbled around the outside of the D, then entered at the top and took a straight strike with power, beating the goalkeeper.
This relaxed the visiting team who started playing some beautiful passing hockey, attacking down both wings, ably supported by the full backs Charlie Oliver and Paul Thomson. It was Charlie Oliver who attacked down the right flank and fired a cross which found young Sam Asquith in the centre of the D with time to hit the ball past the keeper into the goal.
Phil Hope was desperate to get into the action, especially in his battle to be top scorer against his son Luke Hitchen, and he had several swing and misses, before he had his chance after a dribble and cross from Fin Taylor, and he riffled a shot into the roof of the net.
3-0 and cruising, Fylde were then slightly unlucky to conceded, when Phil Weir tackled a spinning striker inside the D but was very unlucky that the ball just bounced back to the striker, who then took a well-aimed shot across goal into the near post.
Half-time and Fylde wanted to continue what they’d been doing the first half, however they perhaps got carried away attacking and forgot their defensive side when they needly conceded another goal to Keswick.
Still 3-2 ahead, Fylde were unlucky not to concede to another counter-attack which could have led to a different game. Instead, Fylde went on another attack and won a short corner. Tim van Rijn’s injection was slower than normal, which meant that Phil Hope had to carry the ball back out of the D before re-entering and taking a shot, which was hard and accurate, hitting the back board.
The goals started to flow again in a golden spell for Fylde. Paul Thomson was again attacking up and down the left wing, seeking the glory of another goal like last week, and he crossed into the D, for a touch from Charlie Oliver which Tim van Rijn then managed to divert into the goal for a 5-2 lead.
Fin Taylor had several solo dribbles, beating numerous defenders, and with one he managed to round the keeper as well to make it 6-2.
With Fylde attacking so high, Keswick did counter-attack and score two consolation goals, much to the annoyance of the Fylde defensive line, but the result was never in doubt at this stage, and the final whistle was blown for a 6-4 win for the visitors.
The team then enjoyed the hospitality back at Keswick’s clubhouse with sandwiches, hot chips, and a cake-off (a tight 2-1 victory to Victoria’s lemon drizzle cake against Keswick’s chocolate brownies) before setting off on the long journey home.
Man of the Match was awarded to Charlie Oliver for his attacking down the right wing and 2 assists from his crosses, with Sam Asquith second in the voting.
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