LOCH Lomond Hockey Club’s second XI shrugged off the loss of several players to chalk up a fine 5-1 win at home to Ardrossan II last Saturday.

With only 11 players available, Loch Lomond knew they’d have to work their socks off – and they started off with great pace, creating plenty of chances in the opening 10 minutes before opening their account when midfielder Philippa Filmer scored from a seemingly impossible angle.

With goalkeeper Heather Smith constantly communicating with all her team-mates and the defence playing as a strategic unit, the home side kept Ardrossan at bay and added to their tally when Elaine Wotherspoon slotted home a deft reverse stick strike to leave Loch Lomond 2-0 up at half-time.

A strategic positional change at half-time in a bid to close the gap between defence and midfield which had appeared on a few instances in the first half, saw Bongiwe Tshabalala slip back to help out an injured Filmer and show great skill as an attacking midfielder.

And it didn’t take Loch Lomond long to add to their tally after the break, when a brilliant pass out of defence was picked up by midfielder Ava Currie – and her cross was met first-time at the edge of the D by Wotherspoon, who gave the Ardrossan keeper no chance of saving her shot.

Both teams began to tire slightly in the second half, and the pace of the match slowed, but Loch Lomond didn’t let up in front of goal, and nor did the home defence give Ardrossan much leeway at the other end.

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Goal number four for the hosts came from some good passing into the danger area, met by a hard strike from Eve Howard which flew high into the net courtesy of a deflection – a lovely birthday present for the scorer.

And Loch Lomond made it five with just five minutes to go, this time Amy Daveney getting her just reward for working hard throughout the match and finding some great open positions down the left flank.

Ardrossan finally breached the hosts’ defence with two minutes to go, but Loch Lomond were well worth their win and the margin of victory – which could easily have been greater.

Effort, enthusiasm and team work are so important, and Loch Lomond had it in spades for the whole match.

Thanks as usual go to Andy Richardson for umpiring.

Loch Lomond’s player of the match prize was awarded to Amy Daveney, with Eve Howard as runner-up.

Ardrossan gave their Loch Lomond player of the match accolade to Bongiwe Tshabalala.

Team: Heather Smith, Melanie Birch, Jane Neil, Caroline Lyall, Anna Currie (capt), Eve Howard, Amy Daveney, Ava Currie, Elaine Wotherspoon, Bongiwe Tshabalala, Philippa Filmer.