Ladies’ Sirens fightback falls short

WIDNES WILD LADIES .. 4 SLOUGH SIRENS ............. 7

THE Widnes Wild Ladies team staged an heroic late comeback in their Women’s Premier League home game against the Slough Sirens at Planet

Ice Widnes on Sunday but, unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough to prevent them ultimately slipping to a 4-7 defeat.

This was a very entertaining game from start to finish and, apart from an unfortunately subdued middle period, was closely contested throughout.

Slough took the lead after 5 minutes but were otherwise kept at bay by some stubborn defending and a superb display of netminding by the Wild’s Stephanie Drinkwater, who turned away 25 shots in the first period to keep the score at 0-1 at the first break.

The visitors scored again just 49 seconds into the second period and with the Wild women constantly pressing forward to try and break their duck but having no luck in front of goal, went on to add 4 more unanswered goals.

With the scoring standing at 0-6 after two periods, a rout looked on the cards but, 4 minutes into the third period, Ellie Walsh O’Neill fired in her first ever competitive goal for Widnes and the atmosphere around the rink noticeably lifted.

Slough scored again on 48 minutes to extend the lead to 1-7 but the Wild players had a definite spring in their step and looked a lot more dangerous going forward.

A goal from Jemma Brown on 52 minutes boosted the mood and further strikes - from Kate

Fairclough and Leen De Decker on 55 and 58 minutes respectively – sparked further hopes of a dramatic late comeback but, unfortunately, the clock ticked down far too quickly.

Had the game gone on for an extra 5 minutes or so, the result might have been different - but the Wild Ladies can be especially proud of their performance in the latter stages as they out-shot their opponents by 22 to 15 and won the final period 4-1.

The Winifred Mabel Letts memorial MVP awards sponsored by Poet In Residence Lucy

London went to Aniko Gaal - who previously played for the Budapest Stars in the European Women’s Hockey League back in her native Hungary – and Jemma Brown for Widnes, and were presented by match volunteer Tricia Holt.

The Widnes Wild Ladies team are next at home on Sunday 1st May when they take on runaway league leaders Bristol Huskies in the Women’s Premier League at Planet Ice Widnes – 4.15pm face off.