Petroc Division One

Dart 2 0,

Dart Two hosted Dartmouth in the last game of the season, with Dartmouth wanting to finish the season with a win.

In the end they were unlucky not to have scored more than the single goal and out of the two teams Dart would have been much more relieved with the score.

Dartmouth could have been ahead within the first minute, Han­nah Pillar releasing the ball to Sarah Barrett, who in turn found Lucy Pillar. Lucy took the shot on and the Dart ‘keeper saved, only for the ball to fall to Alicia Wadeson, who saw her shot carried out for a long corner.

Two minutes later Alicia Wadeson came close again, as did Freya Bradley, Sarah Barrett and Lucy Pillar. Ellie Malley kept another clean sheet with a brilliant reaction save and then saved another goal-bound shot with an excellent diving save.

After an action-packed first half, Dart­mouth players were much happier with their performance.

Lisa Hunt, unable to play, made a couple of suggestions in the half time talk and it was decided that they would give it 10 minutes into the second half and bring on Ellie Langman and make a change to the right hand side.

With the second half under way Sarah Bar­rett took the game to Dart, so much so that when she took a side-line ball and tried to release Becca Squires, she hit the ball and broke her hockey stick.

With 10 minutes gone, Dartmouth took off Alicia Wadeson and brought on Ellie Lang­man.

Ellie came on at right mid, Lauren Rogers pushed up to right wing, Freya Bradley went over to the left wing and within two minutes the cunning plan worked.

Sarah Barrett picked up a loose ball and passed the ball to Lucy Pillar, who took the ball into the opposition’s D and struck a fierce shot which the Dart ‘keeper could only parry to the advancing Lauren Rogers.

She made no mistake on picking up the re­bound and put Dart­mouth ahead with a well-deserved goal.

From then on Dart found it hard to stop the onslaught from the Dartmouth combination of Hannah Pillar, Sarah Barrett and Lucy Pillar.

On the odd occasion that Dart did break through the Dartmouth mid, Dart had Darcey Wall, Jo Rendle and Julie Pillar to contend with.

All the Dartmouth players must feel proud of themselves, each one of them put in a professional performance and players like Sarah Bar­rett, Lucy Pillar, Han­nah Pillar, Jo Rendle and Julie Pillar must feel proud of the manner they have introduced the younger players of the Dart­mouth team to this wonderful sport.

The younger members have had an apprenticeship from some special hockey players and the youngsters have fitted seamlessly into the Dart­mouth squad and will only strengthen the club for next season.

The match was kindly sponsored by Be­linda and Dave Duffy for the second time this season.