It was another adventure in hockey-land on Saturday morning with my first visit to the Carrickfergus Amphitheatre to cover local side Castle in their Ulster Senior Cup tie against Dromore.
The Senior Cup is held for teams in the three Provincial Senior Leagues in Ulster I believe and we picked up the competition in the Last 16 Round.
Dromore were quick off the mark with Sarah Wilson claiming the opening score, 6 minutes in, off a penalty corner. The visitors continued to apply pressure throughout the opening quarter and hit the post off a penalty stroke shortly after.
Castle looked for a response but most of their breakouts were dealt with before they got into the final third and given the amount of possession that Dromore had I was somewhat surprised that the quarter ended without further score.
The home side began to work their way into the game throughout the second quarter though Dromore, once again, had the edge but they were unable to find the net, leaving the score at 0 – 1 as the teams changed ends.
The Carrick side put in a strong shift in the third quarter and looked to be turning the game before Dromore’s Rachel Sullivan got the final touch in a rare penalty corner to take the score to 0 – 2 by the end of the third quarter.
Now trailing by two the home team continued to push forward but they were unable to breach the visitors defence. Dromore always looked that little bit sharper in attack and they ended the game well in control for a 0 – 2 win and a place in the Quarter Finals.
It was an enjoyable game and we’ve well over 300 images in our gallery.
