It was a nervy afternoon for Jersey’s men, as they required penalty strokes to get the better of a clinical Brighton & Hove outfit at Les Quennevais.
| Jersey | Brighton | |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Shots | 4 |
| 6 | On target | 4 |
| 3 | Pen corners | 3 |
| 1 | (Converted) | 0 |
| 0 | Green cards | 1 |
Contesting the third round of England Hockey’s Men’s Masters (over-40s) Trophy, Jersey allowed their opposition to claw back a two-goal deficit and send the match to strokes. Despite finishing the second half on the back foot, it was the hosts, however, who maintained their composure to win the shoot-out 4-1.
Although pleased to progress, Reds’ skipper Steve Ritzema was disappointed that his team let their lead slip.
‘At 3-1 up we seemed to be well in control of the game and things were looking good,’ he explained.
‘We’re still working out what happened … we seemed to give them some extra room in that midfield, they had an overload on the left and we had a big gap open up between the midfield and forward lines.
‘There was a bit of disconnect and we lost that flow and pattern to our play. We started to miss our tackles and we seemed to have a ten minute spell where we couldn’t do anything right and they nicked a couple of goals.
‘Towards the end, we got ourselves back, still had chances but, in fairness, it was a pretty tight game and we’re quite relieved to have gone through on penalties.’
It was a disastrous start for the hosts as, despite starting with the ball, they found themselves 1-0 down inside the first 30 seconds. Having stolen possession, Brighton fired the ball to the left post where Richard Cook converted with ease.
James Wetherall finished from a tight angle to level the game after Stuart Ramskill had robbed a Brighton defender, and it was again the Ramskill-Wetherall link-up that fired Jersey ahead, as Wetherall cleverly deflected home a Ramskill shot.
Despite scoring so early, Brighton didn’t have another meaningful attempt on goal in the first period, leaving Jersey with a deserved 2-1 lead at halftime.
Having started the second half in the same vein, Jersey opened up a two-gaol cushion as Simon Watling slotted a penalty corner drag-flick into the top left corner.
At that stage the Reds looked comfortable but ultimately they were unable to defend their advantage. Two excellent team goals, both finished off by the lively Pietro Attala, brought Brighton level and, in truth, the visitors might have snatched the victory in the dying seconds.
To the delight of the home support, however, it was Jersey who prevailed in the penalty strokes as Adi Heelis, Watling, Ramskill and Ali Hall all found the back of the net, while Jersey keeper Roger Le Maistre watched one attempt onto his left post and saved another.
Ritzema added: ‘We shouldn’t have got ourselves in that position but we did and it’s something we need to work on. Finishing the game off seems to be a problem of ours and we had the chances. We could have killed it off at 3-1 but they were always lively upfront.
‘But everyone was magnificent on the penalties, they held their nerves and Roger made an excellent save to put us through.’
The Jersey men will play away at Cirencester in the next round.
Roger Le Maistre, Ed Daubeney, Andrew Steel, Adi Heelis, Neil Merritt, James Wetherall, Steve Ritzema (capt), Si Watling, Stuart Ramskill, Ali Hall, Stuart Gower, Andrew Brown, Karl Moore, Arran Eagar, Richard Gilpin, Will Church.
Prior to that, a dominant second-half performance against Sonning ensured Jersey women’s veterans progressed to the quarter-finals of England Hockey’s Women’s Masters (over-35s) Trophy for the second year in succession.
Having fallen behind right on the cusp of halftime, the Island side outclassed their opponents in the second period to emerge as deserved 3-1 victors.
| Jersey | Sonning | |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Shots | 8 |
| 9 | On target | 7 |
| 10 | Pen corners | 5 |
| 0 | (Converted) | 0 |
| 1 | Green cards | 1 |
| 1 | Pen strokes | 0 |
Stand-in Jersey manager Janet Hall, who was leading the team in the absence of Raydene Stracy, was delighted to see her side triumph.
‘I think the girls played really well today,’ she explained.
‘The second half was much better than the first half. I think, in the first half we were a little bit tentative and let the players come onto us. In the second half we were definitely far more positive, played the ball around a lot better and we created a lot of opportunities. Although we didn’t convert all our chances, thankfully we did get three goals.’
The hosts applied plenty of pressure in the first period but they struggled to really test the Sonning goalkeeper, despite winning numerous penalty corners. And it appeared as if it was not going to be Jersey’s day when the opposition keeper saved Chrissie Helmholt-Kneisel’s miscued penalty stroke three minutes before halftime.
Disappointed not to have taken the lead, the Islanders problems were compounded when Sinead Adamski collected a rebounded shot on goal – which Jersey keeper Laura Besnard had saved well – and finished into an empty net.
Despite the setback, Jersey pushed on in the second half and drew the scores level almost immediately when Sarah Heelis calmly converted having collected a direct ball from Helmholt-Kneisel.
Midfielder Ciara McQuaid robbed a Sonning defender, coasted into the circle unchallenged and fired a rasping shot into the bottom left corner to give Jersey the lead with just under half an hour to play.
The visitors’ best chances for an equaliser came on the break, with long balls leading to their most meaningful attacks. However, on the few occasions when they did breach the Jersey circle, Besnard stood strong to preserve her team’s lead.
With fewer than ten minutes remaining, Heelis fired the ball to the back post where Sally MacDowall provided a stereotypical deflected finish to confirm the result.
Despite going behind, Hall always remained confident that Jersey would find a way back into the match.
‘I think we were the much stronger team and I didn’t think there was ever going to be an opportunity for us not to score. It was obvious we were going to have more opportunities to score and thankfully we took some of those chances.’
Having been eliminated at the quarter-finals last season by eventual champions Woking, Jersey will be intent on going one further on this occasion when they meet Crewe Vagrants at home on 1 March.
Jersey are sponsored by Brewin Dolphin.
Becky Henwood-Darts (capt), Laura Besnard, Sarah Kerley, Sarah Heelis, Chrissie Helmholt-Kneisel, Zoe Smart, Tracey Vallois, Yana Vibert, Kelly Cutting, Tiffany Newbald, Sally MacDowall, Ciara McQuaid, Gaby Way, Lisa Grant. Manager: Janet Hall.
PICTURES: JON GUEGAN
