A dominating 7-0 win for league leaders South Notts over West Bridgford in the women's hockey

IT WAS a dominating 7-0 win for league leaders South Notts Hockey Club after they welcomed the second-placed West Bridgford to Bingham in their latest match.

Fiona Oliver led her team onto the pitch against a home side captained by Eleanor Wallace.

South Notts were looking to play wide, use their wings tactically and maintain a short passing game that kept possession.

14-year-old Evie Bates stepped up into goal to replace regular goalie Elizabeth Turner who is out due to injury.

The backline of Eleanor Wallace, Jo Shaw, Liz Foster , and Fiona Sweetman assisted Bates in keeping a clean sheet.

From the first whistle, the South Notts Team kept moving into space, making themselves available with all team players eager to contribute.

The midfield displayed technical efficiency and supported the forwards as the side started to put goals on the board.

West Bridgford started well as they pressed forward with flair and imaginative play.

In the midfield, Sophie Runciman for South Notts managed to cut off many of the opportunities West Bridgford tried to get started.

Elsewhere in the midfield, Sophie Atkinson, and Kate Parker kept wide and drifted inside to link up with the South Notts forwards as the side started to counter-attack.

South Notts’ Coach Euan Temple said that the midfield was paramount to the victory as they found open spaces for the team.

Up front, South Notts had Gemma Robinson, Ruby Ryan, Alex Stephenson, Rachael Grupping, Becky Humphris, and Samantha Markwick.

The attacking element of the team were tenacious, fast, and showed excellent skill to get the ball into the net so many times.

Robinson drew the defence in cleverley by hugging the far post.

Humphris continued to be a thorn in West Bridgford's side as she regularly exposed holes in their defence.

Grupping was the first on the board and struck in the 17th minute as she rattled one off the backboard.

The hosts notched up another two before half-time.

This included a goal which saw Markwick drop deep and feed Humphris a beautiful pass to allow her fellow attacker to notch up her second.

At half-time, Eleanor Wallace commented that to be 3-0 up against the second-placed side was a great achievement but they could not be complacent.

In the second-half, Parker appeared from nowhere twice and notched up a brace.

Humphris crisped another and Stephenson speared inside, to lob one past the visiting keeper.

The final score was 7-0 with West Bridgford failing to convert several opportunities.

The game was watched by a good crowd which included the club's men's 3rd side led by captain Neil Batty.