Debut girl McCrum finds Coleraine winner
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Coleraine’s Claire Allison sweeps through the Belfast Harlequin defence on Saturday.
Coleraine 1st XI squeezed past Belfast Harlequins 3rd XI to go into the seconnd round of the McConnell Shield on Saturday, but they made it difficult for themselves in a game, where they should have put alot more goals past their opponents who are a number of leagues below them.
Coleraine started with a number of chances on goal but the visiting keeper was on form and cleared any shots on goal. Continued pressure from Coleraine finally paid off when they were the first to go ahead as good work from the midfield and forwards released Rachel Minihan in the circle to put the ball past the Quins keeper.
This buoyed the Coleraine team and they continued with some good posession hockey.
It was Harlequins who were next to score, however, when they latched onto a stray pass from the Coleraine defence and put the ball into the net to level the field.
At half-time a stern talk from coach Peter Semple and position reshuffle seen Coleraine come back into the game.
They had a number of chances to go ahead but it was Katie McCrum in her debut game for the team this season who latched onto a loose ball to put Coleraine ahead once again.
Coleraine held tight and withstood a number of penalty corners in the last five minutes to scrape through.
There were some promising moves from the young team but overall they will be hoping to improve their game as they resume their league campaign.
This weekend the team have no match but they face Portadown at home on the 8th November. Many thanks to umpires Geezer & Pearlie.
Team: A McGill, L Kemps, S Nutt, S Gilchrist, J Oliver, L McGowan, S McDaid, G Simpson, A Nicholl, R Minihan, C Allison, K McCrum
