Ashford Ladies 2s v West Hampstead 5s

It was a very cold and snowy day when Ashford 2s met West Hampstead 5s for the return game.
In the first five minutes WH secured a PC and took Ashford's defence consisting of Abi Hackie, Kate Thompson, Tracey Holland Elize Brown by surprise and taking the lead.
Ashford quickly retaliated with an individual run by speedy Jenny Tippell who scored from an acute angle smashing the ball into bottom left hand corner.
Settling down Ashford started to play some good hockey with great distribution from Sue Lane in the centre. Sue Lane sent a through ball to Maria Cavilla who was lining up for her shot and was robbed of a goal by a barge off the ball from the last defender, Ashford were frustrated when this only resulted in a long corner.
Maria again was unlucky after Claire Brant swept a ball to Gillian Clegg who slipped to Maria whose goal was disallowed after umpire blew for a foot.
Ashford continued to pressure with Jackie Parsons causing havoc but were unfortunate not to capitalise even after a couple of melees in the messy zone.
Half time was therefore 1-1.
The second half started with WH taking advantage of a mistake in midfield and securing the first goal of the second half once again taking the lead at 2-1.
Again Ashford bounced back with Maria Cavilla winning Ashford a penalty corner. The straight strike to Jackie Parsons was then slipped right to Gillian Clegg who passed back to Parsons who smashed it into the net making it 2-2.
Ashford's third goal came from a quick break from Ashford's Kate Thompson in defence down the line to Gillian Clegg who carried the ball and crossed the ball to Becky Hewes who fed Tippell to score her second and allowing Ashford to take the lead again at 3-2. Ashford's fourth goal again came from defence with Tracey Holland clearing out to Freddie Chudleigh on the right half who chipped it beautifully to Cavilla in the D who battled her player to put the ball in the net. Ashford's momentum led to a cracking ball from Elize Brown to Freddie to Tippell who beat the keeper one on one and from the left pushed the ball into the goal, 5-2 to Ashford.
A mistake from Ashford's sweeper resulted in WH scoring their third making it 5-3. WH scored their last and final goal just seconds from the final whistle end after a long corner move.
However Ashford took the 3 points with the 5-4 win and remain in 2nd place.
With a 14 point lead on third place but still trailing 10 points to Indian Gymkhana in 1st place, Ashford are still gunning for promotion :-)