Luton Town Ladies 1st XI v Bishop's Stortford 2nd XI

The touchpaper was lit for a sparkling encounter when Luton Town Ladies 1st XI faced Bishop's Stortford 2s this Saturday November 5th with just a single point separating the teams in 2nd and 3rd place in the 5 Counties Premier Division.

The game started with a topical bang, Luton's 1st goal being a real cracker that will no doubt be in the running for the goal of the season. As captain Emma Whitehall picked up the ball under pressure in her own half, Stortford could have been forgiven for not recognising the imminent attacking threat. A simple pass back to sweeper Ella Dagnall who played the ball down the line for Rochelle Lewsey to pick up, a well weighted pass to Beth Carlisle to run onto and a cut back to Suzanne Starkey who finished exquisitely meant the visitors found themselves 1-0 down. It is simple, flowing, textbook hockey like this that is making Luton a credible threat in the league this season and a lesson to all on how the game can and should be played.

Luton's second also came from a break out of defence, but was a much more straightforward affair. Rochelle Lewsey picked up the long cross field ball and ran straight into the circle. Her first shot was blocked by the very capable Stortford Keeper, but the rebound fell fortunately for her and there was no stopping her second attempt.

Stortford proved that they would not let Luton have an easy victory and their tenacious nature in the face of some excellent hockey should be applauded. They scored what would ultimately be their only goal of the game with a superb strike which thundered past keeper Shannon Smith just before the break. 2-1 half time.

After the fireworks of the first half the second was a slightly less exciting affair, although both sides had their chances. Stortford's best was when the ball re-bounded off of the top of the crossbar, whilst Luton had a Starkey penalty corner strike cleared off the line by a defender. A 2-1 win to Luton puts them into second just a point behind leaders Saffron Walden.

Player of the match this week was Rochelle Lewsey who put in a solid performance whilst Emma Whitehall received the mare of the match award for spending an enforced 2 minutes off the pitch due to a slightly dodgy tackle that umpire Mary Walsh took exception to.