Amber Valley Hockey Club seal easy win against Woodlands

Sarah Poplar scored from a goalmouth scramble to open the scoring for the Hornets, before Bev Allan added a second a short while later with a reverse stick lifted shot straight from the training ground.

Just as it looked like the Hornets were taking control of the game, Woodlands had a breakaway which their attacker took full advantage of with a fine shot deep into the corner of the goal.

This led to Woodlands having more in the way in possession and saw them coming out of 50/50 tackles with the ball.

This still didn’t spur the Hornets on to play flowing hockey, but they worked hard to carve open a disciplined Woodlands defence and when Dawn Spendlove found Sarah Poplar with a great pass,

Poplar slipped the ball to Sarah Joyce to extend the Hornets lead before the break.

The second half saw a much more settled Hornets and Joyce was able to open the scoring in the half, before Emily Hall found herself in front of the goal and touched the ball over the line.

It was a penalty corner that allowed the Hornets to extend their lead further when Lynn Creswell kept her head to feed Joyce.

She then completed her hat-trick and, as the Hornets started to push forward again, a jinking run from Jennie Bowmer allowed her to feed Charlotte Welsby whose shot across the D was finished by Sarah Poplar once more.

A final penalty corner for the Hornets led to a great save on the line from the Woodlands defence to deny Welsby opening her account for the day.

But the Hornets were delighted to take 3 points from a match that at 2-1 could easily have slipped away from them.