The sun was shining along with the Hockey in the early encounters with both teams crisply playing the ball around nicely. It was the blues of North Norfolk who drew first blood though, opening the scoring after good work by Charlie Fiske followed by Lucy Spencer speed and reaction to keep the ball in play, setting up Jemma Falconer to score.

Bury rallied and forced goalie for the week Sarah Powell into a couple of brilliant reaction saves. They kept pressing and made it 1-1 shortly after.

Again the play was end to end, both teams playing some lovely hockey and working hard. It was Bury who made it 2-1 on a break with a great little finish from their centre forward, nipping in to deflect the ball right in front of Sarah leaving her no chance.

2-1 at half time but still all to play for.......

In the second half North Norfolk stepped it up and were the better team, keeping their shape and restricting what Bury could do in attack.

Both teams had chances but it remained 2-1 until when with about 8 minutes to go Lucy Spencer produced a bit of magic.....not only did she chase down a ball that look destined to go off the back line, beating the goalkeeper to it in the process, she managed to then keep her balance after slipping to bring the ball back in field and lob the now retreating goalkeeper to score a stunner in off the far post.....

This really took the puff out of Bury and North Norfolk believed they could go for all 3 points....they beat Bury to every ball in midfield and kept their attackers out of the game with some sharp interceptions at the back.

With 2 mins to go, the blues pressed and had a couple of short corner chances that were cleared, but with 10 seconds left the blues were awarded one more. One more chance to take all 3 points.....Julie Mercer produced another pin point hit out, Hanna Hall hit another crisp shot from the top of the D that deflected off a Bury stick and foot (refreshingly good umpiring to allow the advantage) to fall to Jemma Falconer who made no mistake to bury Bury and make it 3-2.

No better way to win a game and a result that our performance deserved. Going away with 11 players is a tough ask but everyone played their part in a memorable win, I simply couldn’t have asked for more.

Well done ladies. Bring on next week ???
Written by Ellen Vanlint