On a chilly Friday evening, 13 ladies made their way to Clontarf HC’s fabulous new pitch that was glistening in the floodlights. Our opponents were Loreto ladies Vets who are doing well in division one so we knew we had a tough match ahead!
Vets hockey is all about the craic and team so always great to catch up with the ladies and see how their week has gone since our last match away to Bray. Fiona Shanahan, Hero of last week’s match arrived with our sweet smelling Elite Healthcare shirts and jellies and we were ready to go!
We were first to strike with a well worked goal setting Shelley up with a sweet strike. 1-0 to Clontarf! Loreto fought back and peppered our defence which finally broke and a goal snuck into the bottom left hand corner.
The play was back and forth, end to end stuff and Zoe & Karen on subs bench were enjoying the action & tea. Nikki McMullen in the centre like a captain of a fun cruise in Ibiza steering the party and passing left & right to Nikki Mooney and Triona on the wings.
Loreto pulled ahead with another goal but Clontarf knew they could fight back! That we did with a cracking shot from Shelley for 2nd goal that Loreto goalkeeper couldn’t have seen it was that fast!
2-2 and Loreto replied with a shot in from top of the D that took a deflection or Loreto stick, which remains a mystery, as ball hit in like a crisp lightning bolt! How do Clontarf Vets reply to a 2-3 scoreboard I heard our faithful umpire Dick Forrest say……this is how the ladies replied!
Lynn A, Lynn B, Emer & Marianne freed the ball from the back and it connected with a sprinting Sue Dunphy who flew up the wing and struck a sweet strong ball to Triona who at top of Loreto’s D was poised to do some damage! That is exactly what she did, a bullet of a shot hit that smashed the Loreto backboard….. 3-3 and the final whistle!
Another enjoyable game with the ladies, it’s been two fabulous seasons winning Div 2 and mid table in Div 1. We’ve a squad of 26+ players some players who have played in virtually all leagues, ex club players who run the line, hold the pints and cheer us on and also we have attracted new players to the club in Hannah, Jean, Shelley and Eva. A very happy band of Ladies!
Final Score: 3-3
Goal scorers: Shelley x2, Triona
Match Report: Ladies Vets vs Loreto, Friday 4th February 8.30PM
Written by: Zoe Willshire