Saturday 09 March 2013 | ||||||||||
11:30 | H | StPk | Men’s 2s |
2:3 |
Blackburn Northern Mens 1s | NWHL Div 5 N | ||||
12:00 | A | LUAT | Ladies 3s |
9:1 |
Lancaster and Morecambe Ladies 3rd | LCWHA D3 | ||||
13:00 | H | StPk | Ladies 2s |
3:2 |
Pendle Forest 2nds | LCWHA Div 1 | ||||
13:30 | A | BNSC | Ladies 3s |
0:4 |
Clitheroe Ladies Ladies 4ths | LCWHA D3 | ||||
14:00 | A | WC | Men’s 3s |
0:6 |
Lymm Men’s 3s | NWHL Div 8 N | ||||
14:00 | A | LLU | Men’s 1s |
1:1 |
South Lakes Men’s 1s | NWHL Div3N | ||||
15:30 | A | UCSC | Ladies 1s |
1:0 |
Lancaster and Morecambe Ladies 1st | LCWHA PD |
Mens 1’s
Blackpool Men’s 1st team showed their battling qualities in a hard fought 1-1 draw away to South Lakes. Once again heavily depleted with injuries and unavailability, Blackpool travelled with a bare eleven including debutant Chris Pickles after impressing in the second team. The eleven effectively turned to nine when Chris Hocking and Ian Swaine both picked up injuries in the opening few minutes, but without substitutes, both continued to play on with limited movement. Despite this handicap, Blackpool took the lead through Mitchell Blakemore after he linked up well with Nathan Woodman and James Slater. South Lakes soon began to dominate the play and won a series of penalty corners that were well defended by Nick Rainbow and his men. Slater took a blow to the hand to further Blackpool’s injury woes, but despite the heavy pressure from the home side, Blackpool made it into half time with their slender lead.
The second half saw much of the same as Blackpool defended deep and tried to retain possession where possible, whilst the large crowd got behind the increasingly frustrated South Lakes forwards. It was more bodies on the line for Blackpool as Nathan Woodman lost a tooth from a miss hit pass, and Rob Dingle was struck on the toe. However it wasn’t all one way traffic as Blackpool had chances on the counter attack to double their lead when Blakemore’s reverse stick shot smashed into the post and the ball raced across the goal mouth just evading Hocking’s reach. Eventually the pressure told, and a South Lakes found their equaliser with less than ten minutes remaining. A tense finish brought chances for both sides, with the best coming in the dying moments when the ball just beat Slater to the line before he could get his shot off. Both sides could take a lot from the game, with South Lakes picking up a crucial point in their fight for survival, whilst Blackpool will be very proud to hold on despite their injuries. Captain Nick Rainbow was voted man of the match for his great saves, as his team remain 4th in Division 3.
Men 2’s
Once again Blackpool 2’s had a weakened side due to a number of injuries, up against the 2nd placed team in Division 5, Blackburn Northern 1st team. The team put up a good fight with the younger lads that stepped up playing really well, namely Kieran Armstrong, Sam Robinson and Josh Boyne. In fact Boyne scored from open play along with Martin Hayes but the team were unlucky to concede three and lose 3-2.
in mid-table 7th in Division 5.
Mens 3’s
Blackpool 3s travelled to a tough away game vs Lymm 3s with only 9 men due to injuries and availability issues, including their injured captain Alex Diver, out with torn ankle ligaments from two weeks ago. Despite this Blackpool started brightly and managed to create a few chances from some swift counter attacks. However Lymm managed to make the extra men count and went 1-0 up. Blackpool managed to win a penalty flick just before the interval but were thwarted by a good save from the Lymm keeper. In the second half the fatigue of playing with 9 told and Lymm’s squad of 14 managed to score another 4. Despite a spirited effort from a young team Blackpool slipped to only their first defeat in the last 7 games! They slip to 7th in Division 8 with Lymm leap-frogging them into 5th.