East Grinstead Ladies 1’s travelled to Brighton on Saturday to play a closely fought match against the league leaders, Brighton & Hove 1’s.
 

In the absence of Coach Richard Leman (away in Sheffield… something about being President of GB Hockey… priorities..?), the injured Nicky Hamstead stepped in as Coach for the day. Following an inspired team-talk, EG began very positively, taking Brighton rather by surprise (they had beaten EG 5-1 earlier in the season so may have been expecting a walk in the park…). Indeed, following this early pressure, Stephanie Baggett skilfully won EG a penalty corner five minutes into the match. Lottie Gregory stepped up to fire a strike to the right corner of the goal, which the Brighton post defender was unable to stop.
 

EG maintained the pressure, but Brighton were beginning to find their form as well and threatened the EG goal. Nine minutes into the match, Brighton scored from a penalty corner, levelling the score at 1-1.
 

The pace of the game remained high, and the next ten minutes saw further scoring opportunities at both ends. The EG forwards (Steph Baggett, Louise Keith and the returning Briony Bray) worked hard up front to create space for each other and for the EG midfielders to attack. On 16 minutes, Vicky Griffiths won a free hit outside the circle which she passed in to Briony Bray who then coolly pushed it past the keeper for a 2-1 lead.
 

Brighton immediately fought back, but the EG defence was solid and managed to break down much of Brighton’s attacking play. Michelle Wolfe, Louise Shaill and Ellie Sawyer all marked tightly at the back and frustrated the Brighton forwards. However, on 22 minutes Brighton’s centre forward managed to sneak in front of goalkeeper Nikki Robinson to skilfully deflect the ball into the goal.
 

With the scores level again, both teams continued to commit players to attack, making the match an exciting one for the spectators. Unfortunately for EG, Brighton scored a third goal shortly before half-time from another corner, making the score at half-time 3-2.
 

The second half was equally close-fought. Youngsters Emma Pearson and JoJo Blunt worked hard throughout and put together some excellent passing moves down the left for EG. Nikki Robinson soaked up the pressure on her goal and denied Brighton several chances to score. The ever-versatile Helen Prinsloo played all over the pitch, and used her strong hit to good effect in distributing the ball to the EG forwards.
 

Despite sustained pressure on the Brighton goal, EG were unable to convert any second half opportunities. Both Louise Keith and Vicky Griffiths went close to scoring for EG but they were unable to convert their chances. Brighton, however, were rewarded for their patience on 52 minutes, when they scored a well-worked goal following an excellent attacking move down their right. This was the only second half goal, making the final score 4-2 to Brighton.
 

EG remain fourth in the league and next week will play Burgess Hill away.
 

Scorers: C Gregory, B Bray