Saturday March 4th 2006

Cambridge League Div 2

Market Deeping Ladies (5) v Peterborough Town 4th Ladies (2)

 Market Deeping’s ladies made the brave decision to move their game from 10am at short notice and avoided any threat of frost. Back at full strength they looked really good for this last Cambs Div 2 league game of the season - and from the off they passed the ball beautifully, only limited at first by their finishing.  Then Janet Eagle-Smith scored the first of a very fast hat trick, picking a loose ball up in the D and forcing it home from close range.
Deeping continued to control play, using the space wisely and running it down the right. Clare Stevenson’s cross was popped up by the keeper and Eagle-Smith running at full pelt drove it into the net like a test batsman on the front foot for one of the best goals of the season. Deeping then intercepted the Town push back and ran straight to the D, and won a short corner. The first two strikes were saved but Eagle-Smith was on hand at the far post to complete her hat trick. A powerful short corner strike from Catherine Flitton was turned into the net by a defender, but then Town broke quickly to make it 4-1.

In the second half Town improved, they marked harder, passed more and made play more even.  Deeping's defence stayed tight with Lisa Jackman marking Town's usual goal scorer out of the game. Town did make it 4-2 with a perfect short corner strike. This seemed to wake Deeping up and for the last ten minutes they repeated their first half domination. Jenny Brassington and Helen Middleton utterly controlled the midfield while Karen Goddard and Sarah Smith ran rings round the Town defence up front. They were rewarded with virtually the last hit of the match as Catherine Flitton showed she could also place rather than blast her short corners.

Deeping end the season in second place in the league and now wait with bated breath to find out how many teams will be promoted. They’ve shown they should survive in Division One, and with superb recruitment, they’ll be running a friendly second team next year.

East Div 3NW

Market Deeping 1st XI (4) v St. Ives 1st XI (1)

Deeping expected to get a lively and skilful young St Ives side that would run them around and test them and that’s what they got. The first ten minutes or so were close before Paul Tancred opened the scoring and Chris Mann doubled the lead.

After St Ives pulled one back, a double strike by Tancred in five second half minutes won the game and ensured that Deeping would continue in third place in 3NW.

East Div 5NW

St. Ives 4th XI (0) v Market Deeping 2nd XI (1)

This was the biggest game of the season for perennial underachievers Deeping 2nds – and this season it seems they’re no longer going to flatter to deceive. Their passion and commitment has been second to none and this week they all but sealed promotion to 4NW by beating their closest rivals.
They expected a hard, close game and they got one, with a much-changed home side from the team that had lost to lowly Horncastle the previous week.

The whole game was very even, with both defences proving impossible to break down. St Ives had obviously decided to mark the goal machine out of the game, and Steve 'Muddy' Waters was closely watched throughout the game.

In the end Deeping and Waters had to wait until the last three minutes. The ball broke free on the right, and Mike Gregson switched it inside to the impressive young debutante Jack Seaton who squared the ball accurately to Paul Byrne. Byrne swept the ball hard into the D for Steve Waters to slot home the winning goal with a first time sweep. With minutes remaining, Market Deeping stayed composed and held out for the win, They need just three points for of promotion with three games to go and they haven’t lost since Christmas. 

East Div 7NW

Market Deeping 3rd XI (7) v St. Neots 5th XI (0)

Deeping’s third team clinched 7NW promotion with two games left as they steam-rollered lowly St Neots. Deeping risked playing an unusual formation with the immaculate Simon Taylor at centre back and Steve Allam at left back. Andy Gregson at left half has been outstanding since coming back from an 18 month lay-off and Deeping had the bonus of Nick Maxey at right-half.

 It was quickly clear that the new formation worked well and after 20 minutes of domination, Matt Brown’s soft shot opened the scoring. Deeping weren’t happy though, and decided to try a “selfish centre forward” in the unlikely shape of sweeper Steve Windsor doing his tribute to second team goal machine Muddy Waters. |n the last 15 minutes of the half he haunted the penalty spot, greedily feeding off superb play by Brown, Maxey, Kevin Richardson and Ben Walden.

Windsor narrowly missed two chances, then scored the second, set up the third for Kevin Baker, then scored his second. With the game won he went back to the bench, and enjoyed goals from Baker, Walden, and Trelawney Wylie as Deeping dominated the second half. Taylor had limped off, but with Steve Allam in his place, and Gregson at left back, keeper Adi White never touched the ball. Despite promotion, table topping Deeping still need four points from the last two games to win the league on goal difference, and will probably lose their table topping position for the first time next week, when they have a week off.