The Isle of Man under-14 girls hockey team were victorious in the EH Tier Two Plate Competition at the weekend.

The Oak Group-sponsored team went up against their Garstang counterparts and triumphed 1-0 thanks to Faith Teare’s strike.

The Manx team started the game at pace and with determination, which led to a long spell of play in and around the Garstang D, but their opponents’ defence stood firm to stop them scoring.

The game became very end-to-end and competitive, with the island defence holding fast thanks to Darcey Killey, captain Florence Heselton, Mya Harding and Darcey Gilbert who made some excellent saves.

Faith Watterson picked up anything coming through then distributed to put the islanders back on the attack.

The first half finished 0-0 but, after a good half-time team talk and a change of formation, the Manx side emerged with more determination.

The midfield came into play more, with Erin Fox, Eva Moore, Lauren Collister, Cate Ellis and Saoirse Gell doing a great job of blocking off the routes to aid forwards Gracie Evans, Faith Teare, Rhea Maher and Hanna Crookall.

The girls attacked and defended as a unit with a determination to score a goal no matter what.

Successive short corners proved the difference though. The first was temporarily dealt with by the Garstang defence but only at the expense of another short corner.

This time it was pushed out by Eva Moore to Watterson at the top of the D who unleashed a clean shot at the corner which was saved by the goalkeeper, only for Teare to pick up the rebound and slot home the decisive goal.

Garstand pushed for a late equaliser but the Isle of Man girls defended well and then counter-attacked through Maher and Teare.

In the end, there were no further goals so it was the Manx side that progressed to the next round of the competition.

DEE GIMBERT