LOCH Lomond Hockey Club's second team turned in a superb collective effort to beat Western Wildcats' third XI 2-1 at Hermitage Academy on Saturday.

Right from the first strike of the ball Loch Lomond pressed hard and defended high – and the approach paid off, with all the first half play in Western's territory as Loch Lomond passed well, used the width of the pitch and created several goalscoring opportunities.

A dominant first half display by the hosts meant Western could only get the ball into the Loch Lomond D on a handful of occasions.

However, despite using the rolling substitutes rule well to bring on fresh legs when needed, Loch Lomond were unable to convert any of those scoring opportunities into goal, and the half ended goalless.

In the second half Lucy MacRae and Jenny Tripney continued to control the middle of the park, making good use of all the balls fed from the back.

But it was super sub Elaine Wotherspoon who made the breakthrough shortly after entering the fray – and her goal was no more than the home team deserved for their efforts.

Chloe Harrison also made an impact when she came on, feeding well to Megan Glover up front.

But Western always had the potential to cause trouble on the break, and it was from one such counter-attack that Loch Lomond were caught out as the visitors made it 1-1.

But the home team didn't let their heads go down after the loss of that goal, and their approach of continuing to play textbook hockey from the back paid off when MacRae scored what turned out to be the winning goal.

At the other end, Emma O’'Neill played a blinder in goals, making some great saves in the second half.

With only a few minutes to go the home side protected their lead by sitting tight at the back – and when the final whistle came, they certainly celebrated a great team effort and a great win as an awful lot of hard work came to fruition.

A great team effort and what a great win. All of the hard work came to fruition.

Lucy MacRae was given the player of the match, Jenny Tripney was runner-up, and Jenny was also chosen as the Loch Lomond player of the match by the opposition.

Thanks to Richard Schooling for umpiring.

Squad: Emma O'Neill, Jane Neil, Mel Birch, Anna Currie, Kara Kerr, Anna English, Jenna Gallacher, Lucy MacRae, Jenny Tripney, Alanna Hill, Amber Wells, Lex Clarkson, Megan Glover, Elaine Wotherspoon, Chloe Harrison, Ava Currie.