The men and women’s hockey teams kicked off their campaign yesterday. Dan Baker and Liam Ray report.
Written by Liam Ray
The University of Lincoln women’s hockey team began their season with a comfortable win over Warwick on a wet and blustery afternoon in Lincoln. Goals either side of the break from their persistent attack ensured an easy start to their campaign.
It was a scrappy start to the match with both sides trying to get to grips with the tricky conditions but it was Lincoln who created the first chances of the match from two consecutive penalty corners. Both were wasted and this set the story for the rest of the half: lots of Lincoln pressure but no goals to show for it.
However, just before half time, Lincoln’s superiority broke the Warwick resistance as a fluent team move ended up in their forward finishing delicately from a close angle.
It was a massive blow for Warwick and they never recovered. After the interval, Lincoln once again penned their opponents into their own half and they reaped the benefits. This time, a penalty corner was awarded and it was finished accurately by Lincoln’s number 37 whose shot went in off the post.
Shortly after, it was 3-0. An almighty scrap in the Warwick area ended in the ball nestling into the back of the net with all of the Lincoln team jubilant.
Warwick was deflated and never really threatened the Lincoln goal in the second half. The second goal was immediately followed by the third and this knocked the stuffing out of the Midlands side. Lincoln, on the other hand, was understandably delighted to notch their first win of the season and will want to use this performance as a platform to build on for the rest of the campaign.
Written by Daniel Baker
A Tom Pinder hat-trick gave The University of Lincoln Men’s hockey first team a comfortable 7-3 win against Nottingham Trent’s second team.
Lincoln started brightly and knocked the ball around well but it was Nottingham who struck first. Following a swift counter-attack, Joe Lee put the ball past Freddie Kemsley to make it 1-0.
Both sides had chances following the goal but Nottingham doubled their lead six minutes later when Josh Fry turned in Will Steed’s penalty corner.
Despite good saves from Nottingham goalkeeper Hamish Hall, Lincoln then got back in the game when Pinder set up Stuart Biggs to halve the deficit.
Within two minutes, the game changed. Pinder got the equaliser following good teamwork and Marcus Eales made it 3-2 to Lincoln following another penalty corner.
Pinder then got his second after his powerful effort from well outside the penalty area flew in to make it 4-2.
Lee then struck another effort to get the score back to 4-3 which was how it stayed until the break.
After half-time, Lincoln took control. Straight from the restart, Steve Adams added their fifth to restore the two-goal cushion.
The visitors could not direct their through balls and were made to pay as Biggs got Lincoln’s sixth with a chipped effort.
Pinder then completed his treble by adding the seventh to give his team a winning start to the season.
Captain Daniel Bell told The Linc: “[At] 2-0 down some mistakes happened but the result speaks for itself. We did really, really well.”
Team manager Shaun Ryder added: “The turning point was probably the second goal, to get it back to 2-2 after being 2-0 down [because before the goal] it could have turned into a rout for Trent. From that point, the momentum was with Lincoln.”