Greenisland Ladies Hockey Club

Winning start for Greenisland Under 14s

On Sunday 18th October, Greenisland Ladies Under 14 Squad sponsored by Sainsbury’s Carrickfergus kicked off the new season in the Ulster Girls U14 League at Jordanstown against Grosvenor. With 7 new faces in the squad and having just played and won their first match as a team on Wednesday evening the girls were confident that they had the ability to win this match.

From the beginning the Greenisland Girls controlled the match, with captain Jade Gardiner controlling her team from Centre-Back. Within 5 minutes the first goal of the match came, a superb ball in from Claire Courtney found centre forward Hannah McCleery who placed the ball perfectly into the bottom corner of the net. With confidence high the girls began to pressure Grosvenor winning a series of short corners. Captain Jade Gardiner got two goals in the space of 6 minutes from 2 consecutive short corners and 2 outstanding strikes.

3-0 up the girls did not sit back, great work in across midfield from Claire Courtney, Carly McReynolds, Emily Macartney, Courtney Hall and Rachel Scott kept supplying the forward line of Hannah McCleery and young Caprice Flanaghan with countless opportunities to score, however an on-form Grosvenor goalkeeper kept them at bay.

After half time Grosvenor began to pressure the Greenisland defence, however superb tackling and control from the back line of Shannon Cavey, Jade Gardiner, Rebekah Murray, Emma Murphy and Goalkeeper Kara Munn prevented Grosvenor from scoring.

A great clearance from Rebekah Murray found Carly McReynolds unmarked, she laid the ball out right to Claire Courtney who ran it into the circle, in a goal scoring opportunity Claire was very selfless as she crossed the ball to Hannah McCleery who grabbed her second of the game.

Jade Gardiner showed her fantastic skill taking the ball out of defence and running it past 4 players before winning a short corner. As the ball came out to young Hannah McCleery who was on a hat-trick there was only one place it was going, with a fantastic strike she put the ball into the bottom corner of the net putting Greenisland 5-0 up and grabbing her third of the game.

Next up was birthday girl Emily Harris, showing fantastic skill and link up play with centre midfielder Courtney Hall they switched the play to the right, were Claire Courtney was unmarked, Claire dashed into the circle, pulling the ball back to the left post were Emily Harris was on hand to smash it into the net. Final Score 6-0 to Greenisland. A fantastic team performance, well done girls. Many Thanks to Barbra Webber for umpiring. Player(s) of the Match – Jade Gardiner and Hannah McCleery.

Team: - K Munn, E Murphy, J Gardiner (Capt), R Murray, S Cavey, C Courtney, E Macartney, C McReynolds, R Scott, E Harris, C Hall, C Flanaghan, H McCleery.

Greenisland Under 14 squad, coaches and club would like take this opportunity to extend their sincere thanks to the new Sainsbury’s store in Carrickfergus who are kit sponsors for both the Under 12 and Under 14 Squads this year. Their support is greatly appreciated and Greenisland are proud to wear the Sainsbury’s logo on their new kit.