Petroc division one

KS Cougars 4,

Dart 1

This Saturday sees a top-of-the-table clash with Torbay starting at 10.30am at the Kingsbridge Community College pitch, all support will be most welcome as the Cougars look to establish a clear points lead at the top of the league.

To start last week's training weekend, the Cougars travelled to Totnes on Saturday to play local rivals Dart accompanied by Simon Lee and Claire Dobison of One Hockey Coaching.

With a camera manned above the pitch to record the game for a feedback session later, KS were determined not to succumb to stage fright.

Starting well, KS took the game to Dart and soon won a short corner; looking to get back into their usual game plan of establishing an early lead, Bex Darke injected to Nic Bowes for the stick stop.

Captain Helen Symons stepped up and flicked high and left.

Managing to get a touch of pad to the flick, the Dart 'keeper could only deflect on to the bottom of the crossbar as the ball dropped just inside the right-hand post to give KS the lead with four minutes gone.

The Cougars continued to move well with the ball as Emily Read and Sarah Budgen covered strongly at the half positions against Darts attacks. Lou Read kept the middle of the pitch secure as Bex Darke and Chloe Harvey worked tirelessly in their inside channels.

With eighteen minutes gone and with some solid attacking spells, an open passing move down the right saw Symons find Heather-Jo Webber in the D. Deadly from close range, Webber tapped in to take the Cougars 2-0 up.

Despite the Cougars' continuing return to form, there are still the odd scrappy spells in their game, which Dart took good advantage of during a strong break.

They won several clever short corners to finish a good attacking spell with a crisp shot from high in the D to pull a goal back.

As the best form of defence can be attack, KS immediately hit back as fresh legs from substitutions kept the momentum going forwards.

Hannah Durrans, Rachel Roberts, Tess Morris and Abi Bell all worked hard in maintaining width for the Cougars to play into, allowing Symons space to roam in front of goal. 

Making space for herself in the D, Symons fired towards goal as Webber came in on the angle to take the rising ball on the move for a superb deflection goal and extend the KS lead to 3-1.

Breaking at half-time, the One Hockey team provided some additional coaching points and tweaks to the Cougars' set-up as KS had the opportunity to try these out during the second half.

Starting the second half well, KS controlled play for the first ten minutes to protect their lead and settle back into the game.

Dart continued to play good hockey and came at KS strongly with good passing moves and solid skills around the D.

Backs Fi Wadey, Claire Jones and Gemma Harvey covered well, with solid interceptions backed up by Claire McIntosh in goal, who pulled off some stunning saves to keep KS ahead.

Battling through the Dart pressure, the Cougars stepped up for the last 15 minutes and strung together some of their best passages of play.

With Symons playing higher up the pitch and Darke and Harvey owning the inside channels with their superb work rate KS found space to play into as they attacked in numbers.

With ten minutes remaining Darke cut inside and fired towards goal to find Abi Bell on hand ready to deflect in through the melee to make the final score 4-1 to KS.

The Cougars looked stronger than they have since the Christmas break and continue to enhance their game as they chase down the league title.

Meeting again on the Sunday for a full day on pitch KS enjoyed a full days masterclass from One Hockey looking at all aspects of their game, the Cougars would like to thank Simon and Claire for their hard work in delivering a great weekend of development for the club and players.