The island under-18 girls hockey side hosted Chorley Phoenix in round two of the England Hockey Under-18s Tier Two Knockout Championships at the NSC on Saturday.

The team started at a high tempo, putting pressure on the Chorley defence and getting into dangerous areas.

Despite this, the Lancashire side opened up the scoring after a counter-attack. But the Manx girls responded quickly and found the back of the net via a back-post deflection from Ruby McCubbin.

Isle of Man continued to put pressure on Chorley’s defence, forcing the keeper to make a number of important saves. 

After going into half-time at 1-1, the hosts emerged strongly and continued to use the right-hand channel with the pace of Molly Wheeler.

Despite the play being all from the IoM, a penalty corner led to Chorley scoring again. But this did not stop the IoM belief and there were more good spells of attack and build-up play through Hannah Nuttall, Evie Watterson and Macey Crellin.

Again from a penalty corner, the island were clinical and Evie Watterson’s impressive strike levelled the scores.

But another breakaway goal meant that the IoM were 3-2 down with four minutes remaining.

Player of the match Elena Caley came back onto the pitch at right wing after suffering a knock to the head earlier. She made an immediate impact, applying further pressure and helping to win a short corner.

Once again, the hosts converted through a well-worked set-piece and a Lucy Cartwright finish.

After 70 minutes the score was 3-3, meaning the tie would be decided by a penalty shootout.

In this instance, it was decided flicks would be taken to determine the winner of the match. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the IoM’s day as they lost the shootout 3-2.

The u18s will now go down to the plate competition and play their next round in the new year.

Manx Hockey Association would like to thank OAK Group for its continued sponsorship of the island junior squads.

EMILY MIDDLETON