It took us the first ten minutes to settle in on a pitch that had been frozen the night before but thawed out and, in the end, the playing conditions were ideal,’ said coach Shelagh Herbert afterwards.
‘In those first ten minutes we rode a few scares well and throughout the game we conceded two many short corners, but once we settled in we played some really good hockey.
‘Travelling away the day before meant everyone was ready for the game and during the middle period I felt we really dominated.
Mark took all of his goals well, but then we could have scored more and really killed the game, especially after we went 2-0 up.
Tom Millar, for example, deflected one ball just wide and we missed another short corner opportunity because nobody was following up .
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then they scored a late goal with three minutes remaining but we played the ball into the corners and held on to win.
‘The team has matured tremendously in the last year and I can’t describe how proud I am of every one of them.
It was an end-to-end game but, looking back on it, we kept possession well and deserved to win.
‘The quarter-final draw’s at lunch-time on Monday.
It will be interesting to see who we’ll play, but on the evidence of this game, the team are good enough to keep on winning.’
Although Dicker scored the first goal from a drag back and flick from a short corner in the 13th minute, North Notts had already forced two short corners and, immediately after going 1-0 ahead, only a smart save by Jason Weber stopped a tremendous Notts’ shot in open play.
But the longer the game went on, the more assured Jersey looked whenever they had the ball.
Even though that one goal was the only one of the half, at half-time Herbert was confident in her team’s overall feisty performance.
‘Immediately after the break Stuart Ramskill made a break on the right, broke into the D and Mark (Dicker) deflected the ball into the net to put us 2-0 up,’ said Herbert.
‘After that we maintained the pressure, but I knew that, for the number of short corners they had, they would eventually score, which they did in the 58th minute.
Responded
‘But we responded immediately.
Mike James on the right won a short corner and another powerful drag and flick by Mark in the 60th minute saw us take the lead 3-1.
‘With ten minutes remaining they threw caution to the win and attacked us one on one and, with three minutes remaining, scored direct from a hard, flat corner.
‘But Jersey played out the last three minutes really intelligently, by playing toward the opposition’s corners, something we’ve practised in training.
For me, those were an awfully long three minutes, but I was pleased with the way Jersey allowed the time to run out.
Despite Mark’s three goals, I wouldn’t like to single out any one player, but I would like to say how much this team has matured as a side.
We used every player on a roll-on, roll-off basis.
Everyone arrived, everyone played, and everyone deserved to win.
As a coach, you can’t say much fairer than that!’
Investec Jersey: Jason Weber, Simon Watling, Bobby Minty, Dan Lundy, Bradley Wherry, Mark Dicker, Stuart Ramskill, Arnou Helmholt-Kniesel, Tom Millar, Peter Millar, Nathan Maguire, Luke Maguire, Mike James, Robin Le Quesne.
Coach: Shelagh Herbert.
Guernsey HC crashed out 6-0 in the fourth round against Banbury.
The greens were outclassed yesterday at the Oxfordshire club who are top of the South League Premier Division Two.
