Ladies 1s
Ladies 1s faced a challenging SBU side at Southwell. SBU were keen to assert their position within the league, as were Newark. Swift passing and interlinking play in the first half resulted in Newark leading at half time following a straight strike short corner drill from Kate Lambert - one of many textbook strikes that she has scored so far this season.
Newark started the first half, pressing hard and tackling strong with Laura Donaldson testing the SBU defence on numerous occasions with her slick stick skills. Before long, right back, Jade Feavyour (in her own words) 'channelled that bad boy' down the side line, linking well with Mel Woods, before slotting the ball into goal making it 2-0.
The lack of subs tested the fitness of the Ladies 1s in the second half and SBU were able to capitalise from a short corner with 10 minutes to go. Strong defending from the Katie/Kate duo and Amy Crouchy/Baugh prevented SBU from scoring on numerous occasions, but with seconds to go SBU charged their way through to goal making the final score 2-2. Despite the disappointment with the scoreline Newark's desire to win was evident and it was a great team performance.
Player: Hannah Coe
Ladies 3s
South Notts v Newark Ladies. 3's. On a cold but bright day, Newark Ladies 3s arrived at Bingham hoping to consolidate their lead at the top of the Notts League Division 2. However, with 3 key players missing and two having already played a match, Newark were faced with a full and determined South Notts squad out to prove that they did not deserve their current position at the bottom of the league. In a tense and sometimes physical first half, Newark dominated possession but too often gave the ball away and allowed South Notts to cause the Newark defence, and Coach, concern. However, all threats were dealt with satisfactorily with Abbie Moisey in her first outing with the 3's deserving special mention for her application and skill under pressure. The midfield pairing of Captain and Vice Captain consistently supported the defence and martialled the attack throughout. Eventually, the pressure in the South Notts half led to a prolonged goal-mouth scramble, the ball finally beating the excellent Keeper and giving Newark a desperately needed goal. After wise words from Coach Paul Halfpenny, Newark took their places for the second half determined to increase their lead. Unfortunately, Newark were now facing into the low sun which caused some difficulty in determining who was who. South Notts soon took advantage, firing an unstoppable ball from the edge of the 'D' into the top left hand corner of the goal to equalise. Both teams were now determined to find that winning goal and after another goal-mouth scramble, the ball found the South Notts. net to give Newark the lead. South Notts did not give up and nearly equalised in the last seconds of the game with an almost identical shot to their goal, this time brilliantly deflected behind the goal line by Player of the match, GK Freya Grocock. Final score 2 - 1 to Newark 3's.
Player: Freya Grocock
Ladies 4s
Ladies 4s arrived at North Notts where the icy weather greeted them. Newark were determined to put right the loss of the previous week. North Notts won the toss and the match began and we soon settled making some good 1 -2 passes from Louise Goodman and newcomer Sam Wade creating some chances with Millie Wightman making some good runs. Unfortunately, we were unable to bury them into the goal. North Notts quickly turned the game around and took a shot on goal and scored. As the half was drawing to a close we were playing some great hockey.
After the half time motivational talk from Sally Halfpenny we made some positives moves with newcomer Izzie Shelton coming back to help out the defence and using her youth and speed to run down the wing and pass to Millie Wightman who took the ball into the D but unfortunately wasn't able to finish off with a goal.
Newark tirelessly brought the ball into our attacking half with Louise Goodman making some great passes to Sam Wade and Izzie Skelton to make her runs into the D and passing to Millie Wightman but it wasn't to be with North Notts defence marking up tight. Again North Notts switched the game into their attacking half which followed some great defensive work of George Redican, Sally Halfpenny, Abbie Moisey, Kanky Andrews, Holly Brown with Clare Dent making some great saves which kept the score at 1-0 for the majority of the second half. Unfortunately North Notts took advantage of some lucky runs and scored 2 in short succession ending the match with 3-0 score which really doesn't reflect the teamwork of a great development team.
Score 3-0 (Loss)
Player: Millie Wightman
Mens 1s
Newark went into this week looking for their 5th straight victory in the league and their 7th of the season, the only thing standing in Newark’s way was a Derby team who started the weekend near the bottom of the table. Newark started the game quickly showing why they were sat top of the league, with Derby starting the game off and trying to move forward which put Newark on the back foot, however Tom Roper stole the ball in the middle of the pitch and turned a Derby midfielder before sliding a pass through to Ryan Foster whose pace put him clear of the Derby defence and as he rounded the keeper sliding the ball into the back of the net within the first minute. Newark kept the pressure on the Derby defence moving the ball around quickly and direct through the middle and to the forwards, chances went a miss again for Newark with the Derby keeper pulling off some great saves, with 12 minutes gone Newark moved the ball quickly down the right and fired the ball across the area to an unmarked striker, who only managed to find a derby defender on the line resulting in Newark being awarded a penalty flick. Scott Robinson stepped up to take the flick which he put away sending the keeper the wrong way and firing it into the side netting giving Newark a 2-0 lead. Derby seemed to settle down after the goal keeping the ball, moving it around the back but never troubling the Newark defence, Newark stole the ball back from the Derby midfield and moved forward at pace which the Derby defence could not handle and found Ryan Foster free to score his second of the game. Newark kept hold of the ball creating chances but were unfortunately not able to put them away meaning at half time Newark went in 3-0 up with keeper James Wakeland not having touched the ball. Derby started the second half a lot stronger than they had shown for the 1st half, with moving the ball and creating a few opportunity’s on goal but where unable to put the ball passed keeper Ben Bradley. Derby eventually won a short corner which they moved well to have a chance on goal but Dave Colcomb put himself in the way to head the ball away but this gave Derby a penalty flick which they managed to put away by sending Ben the wrong way. This seemed to wake Newark back up again and they started to move the ball again and create chances going into the final 15 minutes of the game Newark where creating chance after chance and the strike force of Davies and Smith combined for Sam Smith to fire the ball low and hard into the bottom corner of the goal making it 4-1. This kept Newark going who kept getting a string of short corners but where unable to put them away, the final play of the game was a Newark short corner which Scott Robinson dragged the ball on to the end of Ryan Fosters stick who only managed to drag the ball wide of the goal. Goals: Ryan Foster x2, Sam Smith and Scott Robinson. Man of the Match: Tom Roper and Ryan Foster.
Mens 2s
Newark lost 5 1 to a strong Burton team
Simon Higgs scored consolidation goal late in 2nd half to get something from the game
Joint man of match Tom Broome and James Barker