BARRY LADIES 3

LLANISHEN/ LLANDAFF 2

BARRY Ladies Hockey team secured their place in top flight hockey next season with a win over old rivals Llanishen Llandaff.

The team will play in Premier 1 division next season.

They travelled to Pontypridd for the game and found themselves 1-0 down at half time. This was against the run of play as Barry were attacking the majority of the first half.

Llan/Llan had a free hit just outside the circle and the ball was deflected into the goal by a Barry defender.

Barry decided at half time to make a bold change and take off a midfield player Lucy Woolacott who had had an outstanding first half, and bring on centre forward Ceri Western.

With Ceri hanging up front this gave a better option for the through ball and that's exactly how the equaliser came with a long ball through the middle from Captain Jane Hardwick. Ceri took the ball round the keeper gave herself quite a tight angle but still found the corner of the net to make it 1-1.

This should have been a turning point for Barry but despite attacking wave after wave Llan/Llan's defence kept Barry's forwards at bay.

With the volume of attacking Barry left a hole in midfield which allowed Llan/Llan to break and force a penalty corner. There was a scramble on the Barry goal line and Llan/Llan's centre forward who had been menacing the Barry defence struck the ball and Barry found themselves 2-1 down. The next 20 minutes saw the ball go end to end.

Barry's goalie Rachelle Tobin made an outstanding save which had it gone in could have finished Barry off. But what was to come was the best 4minutes of hockey Barry had played all season.

The whole team seemed to move up a gear and a new edge to their play appeared. The ball was worked well from defence with a strong hit out from Jo Wright which found Michelle Hunt who put a wide ball out to the right wing Ceri Western.

An early ball was expected but Western took the ball further on towards the back line then pulled it back to Sam Pascoe who slipped it through to Rachel Fairweather in front of goal.

She took the ball around the goalie and pushed the ball towards the goal line. A Llan/Llan defender cleared it off the line but the determination of Rachel saw her next attempt cross the line. There was two minutes left on the clock and Barry had made their minds up to go for the win and not sit back and settle for the draw.

The last attack of the game saw Barry win a penalty corner. Western took the corner to forward Claire Salisbury who slipped it to Lucy Woolacott, who was back on the field to replace an injured Dawn Dobbs.

Evans reversed hit the ball with her back to goal to find Sam Pascoe who calmly found the back of the goal through the goalkeeper and three defenders on the line to give Barry one of the greatest wins in the club's history.

The winning goal had come in the dying moments; the final whistle came as the goal was scored.

Squad: Jane Hardwick, Dawn Dobbs, Ceri Western, Michelle Hunt, Lucy Woolacott, Jo Wright, Sam Pascoe, Rachelle Tobin, Bethan Owens, Rachel Fairweather, Claire Salisbury, Gemma Lewis.