Cardiff City 3 Away, 1sts
19-6 Remco Broekhuis (4), Dave Thomas (3), Joey Niblett (3), Lee O’Sullivan (3), Jack McNamara (2), Rachel Knight (2), Sian Hunt (2), Alison Eaves, Julia Harnett
The Dragons first team made it’s debut in the brand new Welsh League at Howells on Tuesday night, notching an opening 19-6 win against a Cardiff City reserve side who are still deciding on a team name!This years team has a slightly different look to it, with Amy Shillabeer promoted from the second team, Dave Thomas returning from injury and Jack McNamara transferred in from the University. The Dragons also gave league debuts to Alison Eaves and Julia Harnett, while Lee, Sian , Rachel, Joey and Remco remained from last year’s side.
The game started well for the Dragons, with goals from Rachel and Remco in their first two attacks, and with Joey and Jack getting in on the scoring too, we soon held a comfortable lead. As the half went on the Dragons spread the scoring round with Dave and Sian landing runners, to go with Joey and Jack’s drop-off shots, and Remco’s penalty. City pegged us back with a smartly taken goal of their own, but the half time score of 11-1 was testimony to some good control of both posts, a very low error count, and good shot selection, and hard work in defence. Jack made way for Lee, and Julia for Alison in the second half. We continued to put up shots from all over the court, but these didn’t drop with the same regularity as in the first half. Lee became the 7th Dragon on the scoresheet, his long-shot being the first of a rapid fire hat-trick, which he finished off with a great dummying move after being set up by Remco from the other end of the court. (This was in fact only the second best goal of the game, being a carbon copy of Joey and Dave’s move in the first half!)
Our opponents will be pleased with their second half performance, they landed 5 goals of their own, including 3 from their newer players, and competed much better around the post.
Overall, an encouraging result for the Dragons first string. Julia and Alison turned in two excellent debuts, with Alison being particularly unlucky not to get in the scoresheet. Goals came from all round the court and from a variety of players, control of the ball and post was good most of the time, and the defence was tight and well-organised.