Okehampton ladies 4

Isca fourths ladies 2

PLAY was fairly evenly distributed between the two hockey sides at first as both tussled for an advantage. 

The style of the visitors from Newton Abbot kept their players deep in defence with sudden breaks out. This pulled Okehampton into the middle and with players all close together the ball was not moving cleanly. 

The best play took place when Oke used short passes to move around the opposition rather than push their way through — a tactic that bought the first goal when the ball was zig zagged from Tara Davidson, to Jane Jones to Lesley Bingham to Kim Davey to score after 20 minutes. 

A second came when Joey Drake provided a good push off a short corner which Kim Davey controlled quickly and then struck a clean ball straight into the goal from the top of the circle.

Newton Abbot's talented centre half led several attacks with excellent ball control taking her past several defenders.  A dribble along Okehampton's back line and then a pass across was tipped past Viv Weatherington to pull one back.

Oke's Jo Moppett came off injured and Kim Davey, player of the match, showed herself well able to step into the breach.  Ably backed by Kim Bland working hard in the centre, Lesley Bingham, Kim Davey and Louise Weller made several forays deep into Newton Abbot's half.  All displayed grit, speed and determination but to no avail.  Several times the ball passed the goal mouth or slipped off by the post. Lesley Bingham too went off injured but Okehampton increased the lead through Davey. 

Long hard balls down the centre kept feeding the Newton Abbot attack.  They pushed down and Okehampton were under the cosh for some time with stirling work in defence by Brieze Read and Abby Colton. However a short corner from Newton Abbot ended in a goal for visitors 3-2.

Davey took the push off and darted up the pitch, through the opposition and within a minute had scored again to secure the victory for Okehampton.