Saturday 1st February
Ladies 1s v Nottingham Trent Uni 1s
Newark played away at Nottingham Trent Uni this week facing their first ladies team who are looking for promotion this season, currently sitting 2nd in the league.
After losing 7-1 to the side earlier in the season and with the bare 11 players after several injuries from the previous week, Newark had their work cut out against a young squad of 15 players.
Right from the start of the match, NTU used their pace to move the ball around the pitch and pushed towards the Newark defensive quarter. Held off by Hayley Chaplin and Megan Cocker in the middle, Newark looked undeterred and after settling into the match, used the speed of wingers Bea Smith and Rosie Staniforth to their advantage.
NTU handled the pressure well and began to push their attacking players high, goal hanging behind sweeper Anna Hall. This drew the Newark defenders back, creating gaps in the middle of the pitch which NTU capitalised on making gains in the middle and having several shots on goal in the first twenty minutes.
Goalkeeper George Barratt made some cracking saves and dives but after conceding several short corners which Newark defended, NTUs finally put a scrappy goal away, shortly followed by another from open play.
After re-grouping at half time, Newark looked more aggressive on the ball, but with defender Megan Cocker sustained a knee injury taking the side down to 10 players, the away side began to look tired.
NTU put away another goal with a deflection from a shot on goal. A few minutes later, a fourth followed.
Not deterred, Newark continued fighting and won two penalty corners. Despite two awesome shots on goal from Hayley, Newark were unable to get on the score sheet.
Sophie Chambers then received her second green card of the game leaving Newark down to 9 players, but the team manged to hold the score and finished a tough match with a final score of 4-0 to NTU.
Player of the match – Rosie Staniforth
Ladies 2s v Boots
The 2’s played a hard-fought battle this week away at Boots. Due to an injury early on, the Newark side were forced to start with 10 players, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from their impressive attitude.
Boots were in top form and the defence suffered wave after wave of attacks which resulted in Newark being 4-0 down at half time.
Half way through the second half, Newark suffered another blow when a player endured a head injury meaning they were down to 9 players. Although clearly tired fighting against the 13 players of Boots, Newark never gave up and managed to keep the Boots players at bay.
A fantastic display of composure and determination meant the girls final score was 6-0.
Ladies 3s v Worksop 2s
It has been an extremely tough season for a young side and after a string of defeats, the ladies 3’s lost 1-0 to Worksop after managing to keep the score line 0-0 until the final ten minutes. Worksop finally broke the defence deflecting a shot on goal into the top corner to take the win.
Another incredible team performance.
Player - Ann Crockett-McLean
Ladies 4s v West Bridgford 5s
The beginning of the match was very even with most of the play in the middle of the pitch. Newark started strong, passing among their players but struggled to work their way up the pitch.
Soon, West Bridgford had made their way to the Newark D, but Newark’s strong defending prevented any goals. After this, as a team, Newark made their way up the pitch along the wing, Evie making some nice runs. After a short corner in the West Bridgford D, Moira managed to score an excellent goal that lifted Newark’s spirits.
In the second half, West Bridgford came back strong, working up the pitch as more of a team, which unfortunately lead to an equalising goal. Newark managed to quickly adapt to West Bridgford’s new style of play and soon were back in the West Bridgford quarter, although Newark didn’t manage to take the lead.
Towards the end of the second half, Newark started to lose the ball with some fatal mistakes made which were taken advantage of by West Bridgford. Final score, 3-1 to WB.
Player of the Match : Evie Archer-Dytch for her great runs - particularly in the second half.
Men’s 1s v Loughborough
After a winning streak before Christmas and maintaining their position at the top of the league, Newark looked to have the advantage going into their game against Loughborough Uni 4s on Saturday. Having beaten the side at home 3-1 in the early part of the season, Newark had it all to play for but with a number of injuries and playing on a bouncy Loughborough pitch, the 1sts conceded a 6-0 loss against the student side who now move to top of the league, with just a 9 goal difference ahead of Newark.
Men's 2s v Burton 3s
Lost 7-0 2-0 at half-time 2nd half missing in action
Men's 3 vs Trent Uni 2
Men’s 3s Full Match Report. Newark faced Nottingham Trent Uni who were top of the league, unbeaten, had not conceded and had scored over 130 goals so far this season, they are also a team who would likely be challenging for the title 2, 3 or even 4 divisions higher so a result was always going to be a big ask. Newark frustrated their hosts in the first half with some stout defending and saves from Tim Gosling in goal who pulled off some blinders to keep the score to just 3-0 at half time.
Newark struggled to create much and at times moved the ball too slowly to trouble the opposition but at the end of the half a small spell of pressure resulted in a couple of penalty corners. The first saw captain Seb Huftons strike saved by the keeper then with Tim McManus and Craig Joynes bearing down on the ball the keeper looked to purposely smoother the ball. Penitentially a flick to the visitors but Newark had to settle for another penalty corner instead. This time Hufton slipped the ball to Ciaran Logue, unfortunately with a free shot at goal the ball took a awkward bobble which led to the ball skewing off Logue’s stick and going high and wide.
The second half saw Newark make a few more forays into the opposition half one great chance came when Logue found striker Craig Joynes with a great long ball Joynes with a defender and the keeper for company should probably have took the shot on himself but instead played the ball across the goal just out of reach of his strike partner. Despite these promising moments Trent Uni continued to dominate possession and with Newark unable at times to clear their lines added 4 more to the score making the final score 7:0
It seems to be customary when a team loses to a superior opponent to describe the performance as High spirited but I think that would not do justice to the effort that this team put in over the 70 minutes and their fantastic team spirit and own superiority in previous matches. Some notable mentions this week:
It was noted a couple of weeks ago that defender Dave Beedham may have been a little under the weather after having one to many sherbets the night before, well this week it was the turn of striker Tim McManus and if Dave had one to many Tim had Wonka’s entire sherbet stock, non the less he still put in a good shift.
At time’s there was some great tackling from Newark, Charles White put in a fantastic showing at the back but the tackle of the match came when Ciaran Logue took it upon him self to tackle his own team mate (Martin Tustin) the resulting spilt ball led to Trent being gifted an easy goal (it was a great tackle though)
No goals Man of the match = Tim Goslings Tim received MOM after receiving 11 of the 12 votes cast, runner up with 1 was Dan Jackson, now the team assumed this was a sympathy vote but there were muted allegations of bribery so an independent panel was tasked with looking into it and found he apparently had a legitimate case for his position as runner up (don’t know what game they were watching)
Thanks also to William Saunders for sponsoring our new coaching coats!