Carrick outgunned by Raphoe

Raphoe 4

CARRICK Ladies Hockey Club found themselves outgunned by long-time rivals Raphoe, succumbing to a 4-1 scoreline on Saturday at Carrickfergus Amphitheatre.

In spite of the final scoreline, Carrick produced a reasonable standard of hockey especially in the first half and initially looked capable of turning around a 2-1 half time deficit.

A first half Raphoe goal after twenty minutes was quickly cancelled out by a Lois Passmore equaliser and, while the visitors again edged ahead just before the half time whistle, Carrick were at that stage still well in the running. In the second half however, Raphoe’s clinical finishing, allied to a series of squandered opportunities by Carrick, saw the visitors edge further ahead with a fourth goal coming in the final minute of the match.

“We certainly can’t deny this scoreline is far from flattering for us,” said the Carrick spokesperson after the match, “but our hockey was reasonably good at times and the final margin could and should have been a lot narrower. Quite simply, Raphoe made the most of their possession and we didn’t. They attacked in numbers, stretching our defensive line, while we were much too thinly spread in the final third of the pitch.

“We were quite strong on the right with Caris Greenwood and Natasha McWilliams providing some good feed into the circle, but we completely failed to take advantage of their crosses and we clearly need to look at our front of goal and far post shortcomings. Most of Raphoe’s attacks also came from the right but they were much more effective than us in the circle. Jackie Spence, our double goalscorer against Parkview, was absent today but that’s no excuse really and we should have done a lot better in front of goal. Equally, of course, we have to look very closely at why we conceded four in a single match. That needs to be sorted urgently.

“Its certainly not all doom and gloom. The girls played some really nice hockey at times today. If anything, we probably played better than against Parkview last weekend. But Raphoe were much more efficient at exploiting our weaknesses both in defence and attack. There’s no reason at all why we can’t come away with a good result this coming Saturday at Grosvenor and its important the girls keep their heads up and remember the positive points from today’s game. We’re slowly but surely improving in every match and the players shouldn’t regard the result as a backward step. They’re definitely better than this one scoreline might suggest, but everyone now needs to work that little bit harder to prove it!”

Carrick Ladies first team squad: Sara Beattie, Emma Boal, Michelle Finlay, Caris Greenwood, Stacey McGookin, Kerry McIlroy, Natasha McWilliams, Trish Neill, Emma Nichols, Julie Oliver (C), Lois Passmore, Melissa Taylor.