Petroc division one

Teign seconds 2

This was a day for the fringe players to shine and Becca Squires, Lauren Rogers, Freya Bradley and Alicia Wadeson didn't let their team mates down writes Jeff Hunt.

Darcey Wall put in her best performance in a Dartmouth shirt and despite missing a few key players, the seamless introduction of the younger players made the game all the more exciting.

Not only did the game give the new players some much-needed time on the pitch, but these kind of games give the new players the confidence to take on strong teams like Teignmouth.

Coach Matt Putt can only take positives from this game and in the near future the young players will become permanent fixtures in the squad.

Teign went ahead through a quick counter attack with 12 minutes gone.

That goal was short-lived, however, with Dartmouth soon finding themselves on the score sheet.

Lauren Rogers received the ball from Sam Webb and swept it towards Lucy Pillar, who samshed the ball into the Teign goal, levelling the scores with fifteen minutes of the first half left.

Teign weren't finished just yet and hit back with a fortuitous goal. A Teign player crossed the ball into Dartmouth's D from the left wing, the ball ricocheted off a defender and past the 'keeper.

This error cost Han­nah Pillar the 'yellow brick' award.

Darcey Wall never stopped running up and down the left wing, making a nuisance of herself to the Teign defence.

The Teign players just could not stop Darcey crossing the ball in, but Teign admirably defended when the ball entered the D.

Dartmouth pushed for the equaliser, but Teign's defence was too strong for the Dart­mouth attack and the score remained two goals to one in Teign­mouth's favour on the half-time whistle.

Director of hockey Jeff Hunt had to ring the changes for the start of the second half, taking off Becca Squires and bringing on Chel­sey Rendle.

The half-time talk from skipper Lucy Pil­lar told the team that the game wasn't lost, to focus on ball retention, keep using the wings, believe in yourselves and the goal will come. Lucy also praised Dar­cey for her non-stop running on the left wing.

With the start of the second half, Dartmouth saw a lot more possession and pushed for the elusive goal.

Chelsey Rendle re­leased Jamie Rendle on the right wing and got some much-needed ball into the opposition's D from the right wing.

Hannah Pillar picked up the pace and re­leased Sam Webb, giving the back four for Dartmouth an attacking option.

Ten minutes into the second half, Hunt made more changes, taking off Julie Pillar and Lau­ren Rogers and bringing on Freya Bradley and Alicia Wadeson. These in­spired substitutions brought Dart­mouth a much-needed equaliser.

Jamie Rendle got the ball into Teign's D and Lisa Hunt slotted it past the advancing 'keeper.

Teign, angered by the equaliser, started to put the pressure back on Dartmouth but the defensive efforts of Chloe Edwards, Chelsy Rendle and Ellie Malley meant Teign just couldn't get a third and the score remained 2-2 at the final whistle.

Dartmouth are in action again this week where they travel to Exeter to take on Isca V.

The club wishes to thank Brian Smalley for buying the club some much-needed practice balls.

The player-of-the-match award went to Sam Webb for her gut­sy performance in the mid, with Darcey Wall a close second.

The game was kindly sponsored by Ollie at the Taj Mahal, Dart­mouth's local Indian restaurant.