Senior 2: DLHC 1XI 3-3 Saintfield
Finally, finally a hard-fought, well-earned and richly deserved point on the board for the 1XI of Donaghadee LHC’s 1XI in a 6-goal thriller against Saintfield on Saturday.

With the early January cold snap having put paid to any hockey the previous weekend, last Saturday was the first match back after the Christmas break for both sides, with Saintfield flying high in second position in the Senior 2 league table, and Donaghadee have amassed enough points at the halfway stage to be sitting reasonably comfortably in 8th.

The Dee girls have been agonisingly close to valuable points on a number of occasions this year, with no better example than at the start of the season when these two sides met and only a single goal to Saintfield was the difference.

With only 12 players available it was a fairly straightforward selection for coach Willie McAdam this week, and it was Donaghadee who looked the more lively of the two sides in the opening quarter. It was great to see Helen Herron back in midfield and she settled quickly into a rhythm of breaking up play and driving forward in the middle of the pitch as Donaghadee looked to gain early ground.

Indeed it was the home side who threatened first; a Donaghadee penalty corner strike whistled past the left upright and Row Moore – playing further forward on the left of midfield – also got a shot away as Saintfield scrambled to clear the danger from the Dee.

As Donaghadee looked to exert more pressure, Rachelle Pearson and Jan Morrow both pushed up on the right to cut out danger and feed an ever-dangerous Jess Moore on the wing, with Donaghadee creating the better of the chances in the opening exchanges.

Saintfield aren’t up there in the table without good reason however and they turned the game on its head in the second quarter with two clinical penalty corner routines. The first strike left Dee keeper Faith McMillen no chance and the second – which Kathy Sinnamon did well to get a stick to – also ended up in the back of Donaghadee’s goal to give the visitors a seemingly comfortable lead going in to the half time break.

If quarter two was all about the Saintfield goals, quarter three was all Donaghadee’s. Hitting back quickly after the restart, Dee were working the ball well through midfield with Kerry Kennedy creating a lot of space to ping the ball about as Donaghadee looked to regain some ground. A super through ball from Kerry found Carolyn Scott at the edge of the circle and the latter’s clean strike gave the Saintfield keeper no chance. 

Within minutes Donaghadee were back on level terms: Jordan McWilliams’ initial shot looked to be going slightly wide but Carolyn was on hand to bunt in at the back post to bring the Dee back level. 2-2 going in to the final quarter.

With Donaghadee pushing forward in search of their third, a quick break from Saintfield looked to create space for their dangerous centre forward but Paige Reilly and Megan Inglis combined well with good communication and neat defence to ensure that attack was snuffed out. The visitors did however get their third thanks to, once again, another clinical penalty corner. 3-2 and down to the last 5 minutes.

With time ticking firmly on and looking to be in Saintfield’s favour, Donaghadee won a penalty corner of their own. Jess Moore got the deflection and with the ball looping up and over the keeper, time seemed to stand still as the defence of one team and the attack of the other all stood agog as the ball took an age to come down to clink against the underside of the right angle of the far post and the crossbar to drop just over the goal line, in what turned out to be almost the final play of the game, and much to Donaghadee’s absolute jubilation.

A belter of a match in which both sides played some lovely free-flowing attacking hockey, in what Donaghadee hopes will be the start of a decent run of results. Jordan McWilliams was voted Player of the Match and she thanked both the Ulster Hockey umpires for their officiating and Northern Ireland Building Surveys for the match ball sponsorship.

The 1XI have a week off before their next match against Owls away on 31^st January but there is match action this weekend at BGS for the 2XI against Bangor in the Junior Plate, pass back there at 2.30pm. 

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