City of Bath 4 Marlborough 2
A much depleted squad, due to half term commitments, made their way to City of Bath (October 22).
The team was bolstered with Imogen Bartlett and Emily Carter-Davies making their debut and Chloe Darlington stepping into Vicky Moxham’s goalkeeping spot.
Marlborough were lucky to even have a starting eleven as some of the team forgot to get off the motorway at Bath and ended up in Bristol.
Marlborough started strongly with some great team play and attacking runs into the D. But unfortunately they did not manage to convert these runs into goals and with City of Bath breaking well, the Marlborough defence had to work hard.
A number of short corners were saved, but City of Bath managed to pass across the keeper and after a scrappy defence got the first goal. Marlborough started strongly again and managed to equalise courtesy of Ctaherine Manley.
Marlborough continued to play good hockey, but City of Bath were good on the break and play went from end to end. City of Bath scored a second goal and then, with two Marlborough players having been sent to the sin bin, a defensive mistake meant a penalty flick was awarded – making it 3-1.
A fired up Marlborough worked hard and attacked bringing the score back to 3-2 with another goal from Catherine Manley. With tiredness setting in, City of Bath managed to score another goal with a 4-2 result not totally reflecting the game.
Marlborough are now looking forward to having some home games having started the season playing four out of five games away from home.
The Marlborough News Online player of the match was Chloe Darlington.