Petroc Division One

Exe 4 3,

Exe spoilt Dartmouth’s unbeaten run last week as the visitiors had their chances but failed to convert.

Another day and Dartmouth would have come away with the win, but alas Exe put away their chances took the points.

Exe obviously did their homework on Dartmouth and put up a strong defence to soak up the Dartmouth pressure.

Exe scored just before the end of the first half, much to the amazement of the Dartmouth players.

Coach Matt Putt gave the Dartmouth team some encouraging words at half time and the ladies looked forward to the second half.

Putt changed the line-up slightly to give Dartmouth more of an attacking force in the middle.

Exe, however, were having none of that and quickly worked out what Dartmouth were up to and within five minutes of the second half they were two goals up.

Lucy Pillar stepped up to the mark and scored soon afterwards to reduce the deficit, picking the ball up from deep, taking on the Exe defence and beating both them and the advancing goalkeeper.

Dartmouth are masters of the comeback and were gifted six penalty corners, all in a space of three minutes as they kept the pressure on.

Another umpire may have gone to their pocket to reduce the penalty count, but Dartmouth could and should have converted their chances.

The stubborn Exe defence and good goalkeeping kept the Dartmouth dominance at bay before Exe delivered the killer blow, scoring against the run of play.

They then parked the bus for the last eight minutes.

Try as they might Dartmouth couldn’t get past the defence and came away even more determined to take on Exe’s third team this weekend.

The match was sponsored by Dean Martyn another regular sponsor for the Dartmouth club.

Alisha Wade­son was voted player of the match after knocking on the door for this honour for a couple of matches.

The team was grateful for the welcome return of players Dar­cey Wall and Charley Langman.