Women’s East Hockey League Premier Division
Norwich Dragons 1s 3-6 Ipswich 1

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Women’s East Hockey League Division 1N
Norwich Dragons 2s 1-3 St Ives 1

A quiet day at the Den, with just 3 home fixtures, meaning plenty of time on the pitch to warm up for the Ladies 2’s. The squad were put through their paces by Rob Wagstaff and were ready for the start and started the game brightly.

There were some early attacks for Dragons, through the lively Laura Ward and Issy Wolfe, who put pressure on the St Ives back line, however the score remained goalless during the first 10 minutes. Defensively Dragons knew they needed to remain on their toes, as St Ives threatened on the break especially attacking down their right and it was through one sharp break, that St Ives took the lead – the ball far too easily moving from St Ives defence to attack, leaving Dragons Keeper Emma Cleland exposed to a one on one.

Dragons were still in this game however and forced a number of short corners through good work from Helen Busfield and Sam Franklin. Their first effort was blocked, however from the resulting short, a disguised slip pass from Donna Vaughan found Hannah Hardy in space, whose bumbled effort found its way through the defenders and the keeper, for the equaliser. Sadly this was to be the end of Donna Vaughan’s involvement in the game, with a sprained ankle forcing her off.

Having to reshuffle, Dragons moved Claire Canning into the middle who in her second game for the team, did exceptionally well to hold the middle. Unfortunately before half time, St Ives took the lead again through their skilful and influential forward, who again attacked down the right, along the baseline and smartly slotted home.

The second half saw a similar pattern, in that Dragons had their spells of play, but all too often, failed to find each other with some basic passing, which constantly heaped pressure on their back line. There were chances at both ends and short corner opportunities for both teams, but the score remained 2-1 for the majority of the half. With 10 minutes remaining there was a major goal mouth scramble, with some excellent last ditch tackles by Sarah Borrett and Player of the Match Kiera Goymour and somehow Emma Cleland keeping the ball out. St Ives forced a short corner out of this melee, where they struck the ball goalwards, finding Sarah Borrett on the line who made a great attempt to clear, however the umpire deemed the ball to have crossed the line.

This sealed the points for the visitors. Dragons will be disappointed as they had some decent spells in the game, but all too often their stray passes are meaning they are putting themselves under pressure. They are a determined bunch however, and know that through hard work in training and with sheer determination, they can and will turn results around!

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Mens East League Division 2N
Norwich Dragons 1s 3-0 Dereham 2

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Mens East League Division 3NE
Norwich Dragons 2s 0-2 Ipswich 2

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Men’s East Hockey League Division 4NE
Norwich Dragons 3s 5-5 Pelicans 3

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Men’s East League Division 4NE
Norwich Dragons 4s 2-1 Newmarket 2

This Saturday the Men’s 4’s faced a journey to Newmarket. Making the trek with the bare 11, we knew were in for a good game. The first half presented many opportunities for the side but the final ball was lacking for both teams ending the half at 0-0.

With the half-time team talk and the help of our master tactician (also known as Adrian’s granddaughter) over, we headed out for the second half with one aim in mind, winning. However it didn’t all go to plan when Newmarket tried to slip a ball across to their striker but it was met by 2 of our defenders sticks and found it’s way into the Dragon’s goal. We continued to push hard for a goal when we were finally rewarded when a long corner taken by the captain was slipped right for Peter Davison to bury in the bottom left corner of the goal. At 1-1 with about 10 minutes left both teams were pressing hard to find a winner. It was Dragons that managed to find the win though with Adrian Kemp finding a ball to a waiting Pedro Goss at the top of the D who rifled home a shot past the keeper.

The final minutes of the game consisted of solid defending from the Dragons until the final whistle blew, leaving 11 tired Dragons with a well earned win. MOTM was hard to single out but eventually it was agreed that Pedro Goss deserved it for his brilliant skills down the left wing and an excellent late winner

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Men’s East League Division 6NE
Norwich Dragons 5s 0-3 Felixstowe 3

On a Saturday Afternoon Dragons made the short journey to Felixstowe. It was a top of the table bout, with both teams near the top of the table. Dragons travelled with 12 players, all hungry for victory.

Dragons started well, with most of the play going our way, and a lead looking likely. However Felixstowe scored a goal on the break catching out the whole team by surprise. Dragons responded well, slowly coming into the game.The introduction of Connor Adams caused problems in the Felixstowe defence. However another Felixstowe break saw them double their advantage, and Dragons went into half time trailing 2-0.

Some positive words were said at half time, notably Jon Price who was the teams tactician for the day. The return of Lee’s oranges of power motivated the side and we went out in good spirit. Matt Armstrong had plenty of joy down the right hand side putting in some dangerous crosses, which unfortunately we were unable to score from.

Sadly Felixstowe suddenly found themselves 4 on 2, and got a third goal, finishing in a slightly harsh scoreline of 3-0.

Joint MoM went too Andy Webb and Connor Adams. Andy backed up last week with another solid performance at the back, while Connors dribbles caused several problems to the Felixstowe defence. Anyways, move on to next week.

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Men’s East League Division 7NE
Norwich Dragons 6s 1-4 Norfolk Nomads 2

This week M6 had a surfeit of players with an injured John Butler having the difficult job of running the bench. Still lots to learn by way of match craft – particularly not giving the ball away, understanding role when subbed on, posting up, tighter marking. In essence our youthful exuberance was not a match Nomads all round experience. Nomads scored 3 in the first half with 2 of those being self inflicted by giving the ball away. M6 did score when a Mike Banham short corner variation was converted by Alan Quinton.

After halftime talk, M6 played a more controlled game & had good chances squandered to pull level but then allowed Nomads a further breakaway goal. A performance which did warrant a MOM award & from which lessons must be learned to take to Newmarket next week.