Saturday 13th March 2010

CAMBRIDGE Ladies Premier League

St Ives Ladies 2nd XI (1) vs Market Deeping Ladies 1st XI (1)

Two of the best Premier league sides met at St Ives but it was Deeping’s Angela Cox, the best keeper in the league, who had the last word.
Both sides boast excellent defensive units, Deeping’s based on youth and St Ives’ on experience but Deeping struck in the first minute of the game when they won a short corner which bobbled around the D before (seemingly as usual) Becky Allam popped up and knocked it home.
The rest of the half was quite evenly matched, though it was St Ives who created the lion’s share of the chances, especially towards the interval when Deeping kept out a string of short corners.
Cox had already made a couple of decent saves, but the second half, when Deeping’s hard working midfielders and forwards began to look tired, saw a string of saves.
Eventually a calm finish from St Ives left them plenty of time to find a winner, but Cox just went on stopping. Even when she made her only error of the game she recovered to make the save and late on when a point blank shot sneaked through, a triumphant Ellie Allam came steaming across behind her to clear the ball off the line.
Deeping’s players can be proud of themselves as well as their keeper as they put huge amounts of effort into the game. Unfortunately a win for Newmarket sees them slip into third in the Premier league

CAMBRIDGE Ladies League Division 1

Market Deeping Ladies 2nd XI (0) vs Huntingdon Ladies 1st XI (6)

High flying Huntingdon duly dispatched Deeping.

DIVISION 2N

Market Deeping 1st XI (2) vs City of Peterborough 3rd XI (2)

Barring a miracle for Bourne and a disastrous finish for Deeping next season will see a return to the traditional local derbies of 20 years ago, as it looks like the first teams of Deeping, Spalding and Bourne will all compete in the same league (Div 2N)
Despite some last minute changes in personnel Deeping took another small step to 2N safety by pinching a point from City of Peterborough.
Peterborough were out of the starting blocks first and took the lead in the first ten minutes with a fairly soft goal. They remained on top for the majority of the half and it wasn't until 30 minutes in that Treve Wagstaffe linked with Nick Brocklehurst and he scored Deeping’s equaliser.
Half time saw a change in Deeping’s format but it took a short corner and another goal from Peterborough to inject the much required desire into the team.
Acting skipper, John Plant threaded the ball through to Brocklehurst and he weaved his magic to slip the ball past Peterborough's bewildered keeper. MoM: Nick Brocklehurst

DIVISION 3NW

Market Deeping 2nd XI (2) vs Cambridge Nomads 2nd XI (0)

A well taken brace from Jack Seton, coupled with Deeping's second clean sheet of the season ensured that their penultimate game threw up a few wishful what-ifs as they contemplate life back in Div 4NW.
Once again Deeping's injury curse struck them down, this time before a ball was even hit. Dan Medd, returning from a broken hand, broke down in the warm-up with a back injury, forcing an emergency reshuffle. With no sub available, Medd went up front and striker Ben Dalgliesh dropped to right back. Chris Mann, another who has endured a wretched season for injuries failed to last the first half, unable to continue after turning sharply and aggravating the achilles injury which has dogged his season. So with Deeping down to 10, with a man immobile, Nomads were scenting a win, but Deeping scrapped and harried, and were looking good for their 0-0 halftime scoreline.
Coaxed out of retirement, the returning Jeremy Phipps rolled back the years, showing remarkable agility and hand-eye coordination to swat the ball away from underneath his own cross bar not once, but twice in quick succession to deny a dumbfounded Nomads attack.
Moments like that can suddenly make a side believe it could be their day, even when Dalgliesh went down with a back injury
Both he and Medd battled on through obvious pain to scrap and harry Nomads so they were unable to make their extra man advantage count.
Then Seton put the home side in front, sweeping home a well-hit cross from the industrious Neil Burford. Nomads then struck a post with a superbly-executed reverse stick shot, but with Phipps and Tokens making tackle after tackle, Nomads never got the shots away they would have hoped for.
Seton then finished off another Deeping counter attack, deftly flicking the ball over the 'keeper for 2-0.
Mike Gregson and Paul Byrne put in mammoth shifts in the midfield as Deeping tackled and fought for every ball. Nomads did put the ball in the net but the umpire had already blown for a short corner, and even that was then reversed following an outburst of dissent from a Nomads player. Deeping now look to finish the season in positive form as they take on March IIs next week.

DIVISION 5NW

Market Deeping 3rd XI (7) vs March Town 4th XI (1)

Deeping’s third team is still whistling the Great Escape as they added three more points to their growing tally and moved further out of the relegation slots. All they can do is go on winning and hope that other teams don’t make the most of their games in hand.
This win took them ahead of March (though March have a game in hand) and they must be wondering why, when they have put out strong sides before, they haven’t been able to bring back the points.
Intermittently available Oakham schoolboy Tom Richardson effectively ended the game after 15 minutes when he completed his hat trick of a drag flicked short corner and two goals in open play.
March responded with a fast break and well-taken close range goal, but Paul Tancred drag flicked a fourth and after watching six or seven rebounds from the goalscorers’ efforts bounce back off the keeper, Ben Walden thought he’d tidy up the mess and smashed home.
Tancred added a second and to compound the mystery of the failures early in the season Jaz Phagora also demonstrated again what an effective drag flicker he can be to complete the scoring.