Saturday January 17th, 2009

CAMBS Ladies Premier League

Ely City Ladies 1st XI (2) vs Market Deeping Ladies 1st XI (1)

Ely started strongly, but good defensive work kept them at bay for the first quarter of the game. A number of great stops from Deeping keeper Angie Cox, and crucial clearances from Ellie Allam and Fay ‘Bob’ Shepherd prevented Ely scoring. It seemed that their first goal would only be a matter of time.
Ely attacked down Deeping’s left and a cross into the D was finished well by the Ely centre forward.
Ely continued to dominate for the remainder of the first half. A number of determined runs relieved the pressure but Deeping struggled to pass the ball through a solid Ely midfield.
Deeping responded well to the half time team talk, starting the second period much more energised and adapting to Ely’s play they began to create more opportunities.
A pass from Skipper Sarah Smith found Kirsten Hackett unmarked in the D. Her shot squeezed through the leg’s of the Ely keeper but was stopped on the line by a defender’s foot. From the resulting short corner Deeping got their equaliser. The corner was taken by Amy Gwilliam to Becky Allam who found Sarah Smith by the penalty spot. Her shot was well saved by the keeper but the clearance fell to Sophie Goodrum who slap hit the ball into the far corner of the goal.
The revival was short lived. Deeping failed to clear the ball out of their D and Ely scored a scrappy second goal. Despite Deeping’s best efforts they were unable to find a way back into the game. Their joint players of the match were Ellie Allam and Kirsten Hackett

CAMBS Ladies Div 2

Market Deeping Ladies 2nd XI (2) vs Bourne Ladies 3rd XI (1)

What turned into a close game started with a long period of Deeping dominance when their strength and enthusiasm threatened to blow away Bourne’s young but skilful side. Deeping didn’t make loads of chances and they were grateful when a nice sweeping move saw skipper Nicky Buckby add to her vast tally of goals by smashing home from close range. Deeping were not stringing enough passes together but attacked successfully through the driving runs of Kat Kennedy while Danny Cooper found space to feed Buckby up the left wing.
A hard-working team performance probably deserved a win but as Deeping ran out of a bit of steam in the second half, Bourne threatened more and more. Leanne Fane held the defence together and Alison Swift continued her goalkeeping comeback in style.
Then a long through ball from Kennedy found the lurking Buckby and she cleverly found the corner of the net for her second.
Bourne then took a half chance brilliantly giving Swift no chance and there was lively last five minutes including a Fane clearance off the line as Deeping held on.

CAMBS Mens Div 2 N

Norwich City 2nd XI (4) vs Market Deeping 1st IX (3)

Deeping went into this game after a couple of poorer league performances and with three key players missing. Norwich have been in good form and this showed as they went 2-0 up before half time.
At half time Deeping re-organised and decided to take the game to Norwich. Within a few minutes they got a goal back through Henry Winfield Chislett.
Norwich were awarded a flick half way through the second half and on another day Deeping heads may have gone down but not this time.
They changed formation again and got back into the game with goals from Russ Seton and Phil Arnold to mark a fighting comeback. A draw would have been a good result for Deeping considering the circumstances, and they became more defensive and tried to see out the remainder of the game.
Sadly Norwich got the goal they were looking for to make it 4-3. Pete Jeffery was Deeping’s hard-working man of the match while keeper Stu Ireland gave Deeping a chance by making some excellent saves.

CAMBS Mens Div 4 NW

Horncastle 1st XI (3) vs Market Deeping 2nd XI (3)

A sluggish start to the second half of the season saw unbeaten Deeping grateful to come away with a point from a game against one of their fellow promotion hopefuls.
As Deeping struggled to find their way, Horncastle opened the scoring with a simple breakaway goal. Deeping felt aggrieved as the ball appeared to have hit a Horncastle foot in the build up prior to the goal but the controversy was only just beginning.
Deeping equalised shortly after through Ali Rowledge, and an immediate change in formation to 4-5-1 looked to settle Deeping down briefly.
Horncastle struck back with a short corner flick. Simon Biggs was unlucky not  to continue his regular goal line clearance heroics, the ball hitting his chest before dropping over the line. Biggs then promptly went up the other end to convert a short corner of his own to level the scores.
Deeping started the second half much improved and grabbed a hotly disputed goal through Chris Mann to make it 3-2. This served to fire up Horncastle, and ironically this seemed to bring the best out of Deeping, who enjoyed their best spell of the match. An injury to Horncastle’s influential playmaker then saw them seem to wilt briefly, but Deeping failed to capitalise on the moment to raise their game and finish off the match, allowing Horncastle to grab a much deserved equaliser with 13 minutes remaining.

CAMBS Mens Div 6 NW

Market Deeping 3rd XI (1) vs Horncastle 2nd XI (1)

Unbeaten Deeping will definitely see this as three points lost as a defiant Horncastle defence backed by some outstanding goalkeeping took a terrible battering from Deeping but pinched a point.
Deeping were slightly under strength, but still put out a good side with Tom Richardson prompting a string of attacks from centre half.
Deeping dominated the first half and their attacking was fast and frantic. Finally after going close a vast number of times, they opened the scoring when a calmer passage of passing in the D found Muddy Waters free to sweep the ball high across the keeper into the side netting.
This should have settled Deeping but they continued into the second half trying to lash glory goals rather than move the ball around and wasted several penalty corners. Right wing Mark Kendall seemed able to get around the back at will and he set up four or five chances without Deeping taking advantage. Alex Gale missed several good chances and hit the post; Richardson was equally guilty and the Horncastle keeper made an outstanding save when Tom Allam kept his head in front of goal and placed his effort from a rebound in the corner.
As so often happens, Horncastle looked dangerous on their two or three breaks and they scored an outstanding equaliser against the run of play. They even had the odd chance to win it, right up to the end, while Deeping tried to hit back. Rob Dunn’s late effort came closest, rocketing into the net illegally high from a short corner.