Ladies hockey team start to panic at 4-1 behind (From Penarth Times)

Ladies hockey team start to panic at 4-1 behind

IT WAS a disappointing weekend for Penarth Ladies Hockey Club, after both the Firsts and Seconds were convincingly defeated at home.

The Firsts took on Howardians Firsts, a team they lost to earlier in the season in a friendly fixture.

It was clear from their warm-up that the visitors were psyched up for the match and this showed when the game began, with the Howardian players winning the majority of 50-50s and looking dangerous in attack.

However, Penarth were also passing the ball round well and won a number of short corners.

Unfortunately for Pen-arth, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock after 20 minutes with a goal in open play. They doubled their lead when they scored again five minutes later.

At 2-0 down, the Seasiders began to play more defensively and the visitors attacked even more.

This allowed Penarth to counter attack and seconds before the half time whistle Isabelle Thomissen swept the ball over the Howardians' keeper from Kate Morgan's pass to make it 2-1.

Penarth still felt that this game was theirs for the taking in the second half, especially if they could get an early goal.

However, much to the disappointment of the home support, it was the visitors who struck first to make it 3-1 and then went 4-1 ahead five minutes later.

Despite there being so much time left, the Seasiders seemed to panic and stopped building up their attack with short passes.

The determination of the Howardian players showed through as they intercepted Penarth passes time and again, missed very few tackles and had numbers coming through in attack.

As time ran out for the Penarth players they had to admit that on the day the better side won - though they are still top of the table and will come out fighting next week.

l It was a similar story for Penarth Seconds, who went down 5-1 at home to the young, fit University of Cardiff side that the Firsts narrowly beat two weeks earlier.

The score remained reasonably close in the first half, but two goals in the last 10 minutes for the students made the win look decisive.

The Seconds have now slipped a place, to fourth in the table on goal difference.

This weekend, the Firsts travel to UWIC Firsts at 12.30pm while the Seconds will be taking on UWIC Seconds at home at Leckwith, at 2.30pm. The Thirds will be playing Bridgend 2nds away.