Toon girls on the Money

AFTER all the snow frost and general bad weather Ballymoney Hockey Club finally got a match scheduled for Saturday against Lisnagarvey at the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre.

And the local girls got 2010 off with a bang, sweeping aside the visitors 4-1.

The team welcomed back to the fold Megan Frazer who is at home from Maryland in America for her Christmas holidays and she definitely added strength to the Money side.

Money were also fortunate in that Bridget Cleland was available for selection this week as both her and Lauren Barr will be taking up their international duties next week.

Money were very quick to get of the mark and with only two minutes gone on the clock they were 2-0 up, the first came via a Megan Frazer short corner strike which was only seen by the Garvey defence when they were picking it out of the net,the second was a good combination between Bridget Cleland who weaved her way through the Garvey defence before slipping the ball to Julie Allison who made no mistake from close range.

Money continued with the pressure but Garvey continually cleared their lines with long balls out of defence. In the 10th minute Garvey were awarded a short corner and from the second retake they scored with a deflected shot.

Money were quick to reply and in the 13th minute Angie Huey who had a screamer game at right back slipped a perfectly timed ball through to Katie Mullan in the Garvey circle who hammered the ball into the Garvey goal.

Garvey came straight back at Money and it told a super save from Sammy-Jo Greer who deflected a shot onto the cross-bar and away to safety and in the following minute Greer saved from a short corner minutes later and Julie Nelson cleared it to safety.

In the 20th minute Money were awarded their 2nd short corner of the game and Megan Frazer’s second goal was a carbon copy of the first.

Money were now 4-1 up and both teams continued to try and added to their tally before half time but to no avail.

Compared to the first half the second was somewhat of a let down from the spectators’ point of view with no goals being scored but both teams had several opportunities but were thwarted by the stern defences, Diane McNeill have several good chances with two being saved and one going over the bar, Garvey were awarded two short corners but they could not find a telling short and with Money’s third short corner of the game Frazer failed to find her hat-trick.

This was a good start to the New Year for the Money girls who have found it difficult to get the training in with the weather but the next few weeks will prove difficult with several first team players unavailable for selection.

Many thanks to all those who came to support, manager Liz Lamont, physio Colin Greer and also to Lauren Barr.

Ballymoney firsts are at home to Omagh in the Senior Plate this Saturday, match starts at 2.30pm.

The seconds are away to Armagh in the league while the thirds are at home from 4pm.

Their opponents have yet to be confirmed.