The Isle of Man under-18 girls hockey team faced a strong Folkestone side in the semi-finals of the EH Championships U18 Girls Tier Two Plate on Sunday.

The Manx team started positively, with some good attacking running from forwards Sofia Cosgrave, Lucy Cartwright and Hannah Nuttall.

Their first chance arrived early on when Cosgrave intercepted a loose pass and burst forward, but the Folkestone defence recovered well to smother the danger.

The home side found some joy down the right-hand channel, with some tricky baseline runs and crosses, constantly causing a threat by putting the ball into dangerous areas.

IoM captain and goalkeeper Robyn Stones made several impressive saves, but the first goal was scored through a close-range rebound to make it 1-0.

The rest of the half continued in much the same vein, with Folkestone creating chances and threatening the Manx goal, forcing Stones to make numerous saves.

Despite the latter’s best efforts, the clinical home attack capitalised on the rebounds and utilised their well-worked short corners to go 4-0 up 30 minutes into the match to take control.

They were also awarded a penalty flick as a result of a stick tackle in the D, but Stones saved superbly to keep the score to 4-0 at half-time.

The Isle of Man’s closest chance of the first half arrived after a fine midfield run by Evie Watterson who ran the length of the pitch and delivered a dangerous cross, but the Manx forwards agonisingly narrowly missed the ball.

After a team talk and a slight rearrange of positions, the visitors set up for the second half with Cartwright dropping in as an additional midfielder in the hope of getting her on the ball more.

This provided some extra support to the centre of the pitch, which allowed for a much more even second half.

The Manx play improved as the game wore on, with the team attacking and defending as a unit. The girls remained focused despite the scoreline and there was plenty of strong midfield play from Lucy Cartwright, Macey Crellin, Evie Watterson, Elena Caley and Ruby McCubbin, with some smart link-ups and ball progression.

The islanders had success going forward in the wide areas where the wing backs, namely Jemma Quayle, Hannah Ashton-Forster and Olivia Quayle, played some great attacking hockey down the channels, combining with the midfielders to bypass the Folkestone players.

This resulted in the Isle of Man sustaining longer spells of possession towards the end of the second half, progressing up the field and winning a number of short corners, although unfortunately not being able to convert any of these chances.

At the other end of the pitch, Folkestone managed to grab a further two goals, one from a strong short-corner strike and another from a close-range rebound to round off a 6-0 victory for the hosts.

As voted by the team, the IoM player of the match was awarded jointly to Stones and centre back Megan Simpson who enjoyed a calm and composed game, doing an excellent job at distributing the ball out from defence, and preventing numerous Folkestone attacks with some crucial tackles in and around the D.

Overall, it was an unfortunate end to a great run in the competition for the Isle of Man girls, but they can be extremely proud of their efforts in getting this far.

RACHAEL MIDDLETON