With 1 league game now
left to play, Newmarket maintained a clean sheet on Saturday and are
guaranteed promotion. Town were hoping for double figures in a bid
to achieve 100 goals by the end of the season, something they
wouldn’t have dreamed of last year. Scoring has been hampered by 3
cancelled games and they will need to score 14 against Ely, the
score 10-1 to Newmarket at their last meeting.
At March, scoring
started at 3mins, Beth Wombwell slicing in a ball from a short
corner. Following a corner push, Sarah Haird was on the post to
nudge in the 2nd goal from a top D strike. A cross from
Lydia Fyson set up the next goal, slotted in from the opposite post
by Sarah Hummersone.
March responded with
more threatening play but couldn’t score. Hummersone soon received
the ball on the right wing, feeding it in for Tracy Cockerill to
finish from the left. Practice showed as Newmarket settled into
their comfortable short corner routine at 33mins, the initial shot
was blocked but right half Isabel Hooley sent it back and found the
backboard for the first time in 2 years! Just minutes later the
half time whistle blew as Newmarket won another short. The sequence
was played and Wombwell claimed her 2nd goal.
March did not make the
goals easy and Newmarket were forced to raise the level of their
game. The visiting defence saw more action than usual but it will
still be a step up for them in division 1 next season.
The pace slowed in the
2nd half as cold muscles tired. A massive strike from
Fyson at the edge of the D blasted past the keeper at 41mins. Town
lost Cockerill to a knee injury and Helen Redmayne brought fresh
legs and great support on the left wing.
Mid-way through the
half a diving shot across goal by Haird was tapped in by Hummersone,
0-8. With 10mins to go, Hooley crossed a ball to Wombwell, for her
to complete her hat-trick and end the scoring. This game showed
some of Newmarket’s best play so far. They play at Ely, 12:00, next
Saturday.
