Sophie jefferson eng u18s proof #4 by Gerry gpfoto.ie

U18s EuroHockey Championship 2016

England U18s

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Ireland v England 0-3 England began their pursuit of European glory with a 3-0 win over home hosts Ireland with a superb first half laying the base for their victory at the Mardyke. The English were flying in the first half, racing forward at speed at every opportunity. They scuppered a couple of early corners but, from their second, recovered the ball and captain Holly Munro broke down the right, centring the ball perfectly for Sophie Jefferson to swipe home for a fifth minute lead.

England 1 (T.Howard) Germany 6 (F.Gunther, N.Pluta 3, K.Kiefer, L.Arndt) A hat-trick from Nicola Pluta put Germany back in contention in the Pool. Germany started the game with relentless pressure on the English defence from the starting whistle! England held off until the 11th minute when a scramble in front of goal saw Feline Gunther defect a rebound into the goal. Constant pressure by the German’s, hunting it seemed like a pack, saw them 4-0 ahead by half time.

Ireland’s counters were dangerous with Niamh Carey’s runs and some neat one-touch passing causing problems. But England were ravenous for more goals and they got their second in the 18th minute from Mimi Tarrant, her shot from a corner switch deflecting into the backboard.

England did have some chances in the second half and clawed one back via a well worked corner, back to the injector Tess Howard who took no hesitation in firing home England’s only goal of the game.

They threatened more but Hannah McLoughlin made at least two brilliant interventions to block out chances, one an exceptional diving tackle with the goal beckoning for Lily Wolstenholme. Ireland were dealt a further blow when captain and goalkeeper Emma Buckley had to retire injured before half-time. Her replacement Liz Murphy made two key blocks before the break to keep it at 2-0. The hosts showed more attacking fire in the second half, winning a couple of corners while Tess Howard was required to brilliantly clear another chance off the line with a last ditch volley. But England had the cutting edge and when the chance fell to Lily Wolstenholme, she duly smashed home from the top of the circle for the clinching third goal with 12 minutes to go. For Irish coach Stevie Arbuthnot, he said he was “a bit gutted” with how his side began the match. “Credit to England for the way they started; they stepped up on us an we didn’t respond. It was disappointing from our perspective that we didn’t react and they fully deserved to go 2-0 up and while we scrapped after that, we never really got a hold of the game.” Team England England England

Minute Shirt # Player Action Score 5 8 JEFFERSON SophieField Goal 1–0 18 12 HOWARD Tess Penalty Corner 2–0 59 3 WOLSTENHOLME Lily Field Goal 3 – 0

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The game finished 6-1 and Germany’s Coach Markku Slawyk said he that today he was “Very happy with the performance and the result, the performance against Russia was good, but the result not.” He added that he was very happy with the number of goals that his team had scored. Team Minute Shirt # Player Action Germany 11 19 GÜNTHER Feline Field Goal Germany 17 10 PLUTA Nicola Penalty Corner Germany 26 18 KIEFER Katharina Field Goal Germany 30 10 PLUTA Nicola Field Goal Germany 48 21 ARNDT Liv Penalty Corner England 60 12 HOWARD Tess Penalty Corner Germany 70 10 PLUTA Nicola Field Goal

Score 0–1 0–2 0–3 0–4 0–5 1–5 1–6

Russia 2 ( Borisova, Golubeva) England 4 ( Gooderham, Jefferson, Millington, Wolstenholme) England U18 Girls booked their place in the semi finals of the U18 Eurohockey Championships with a 4-2 victory over Russia. The sides exchanged early goals in the opening 15 minutes and England looked the slightly better of the two sides in the early stages but Russia settled into the game and there was little between the two as the half time whistle rang out. England got off to the ideal start in the second half as Sophie Jefferson hit a sweet strike from the top of the circle after faking a pass and gave her side the lead. The sides again exchanged goals, this time within a minute of each other, but England secured their spot in the semi finals with a converted Penalty Corner by Lily Wolstenholme in

the 62nd minute. Team England Russia England Russia England England

Minute Shirt # Player Action 9 5 GOODERHAM Abby Field Goal 16 13 BORISOVA Valeriia Field Goal 36 8 JEFFERSON Sophie Field Goal 49 23 GOLUBEVA Anna Field Goal 50 9 MILLINGTON Lucy Penalty Corner 62 3 WOLSTENHOLME Lily Penalty Corner

Score 0–1 1–1 1–2 2–2 2–3 2–4

U18 EuroHockey Championships Semi-Finalists Line Up For The Girls Event 27th July 2016: In the Girls Tournament, England, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands are the qualifiers for the semi-finals of the U18 EuroHockey Championships! Netherlands 3 (F.Moes, P.Dickie, C.Bosch) England 0 A more intense and accurate game from England than we have seen so far, saw them hold off the Dutch until the 38th minute. F.Moes opened the scoring from a PC in the 38th minute. The second for the Dutch was scored by P.Dicke. England worked hard to get on the scoresheet matching the Dutch for speed, but the 3rd goal in the 67th minute. Speaking to England’s head coach after the game, ex-Irish International Sarah Kelleher said she set some expectations that they could bring the game to the Dutch, whilst tactically she hadn’t changed much but had finessed some key aspects of the play. She felt that in the first half they could have put some chances away. She added about the players “I cannot question the work rate of the girls ” They kept up with the high press. She was disappointed to not have earned more corners! Talking about their upcoming Medal game she felt that the performance of today has given her great belief in the girls and their ability to come away with a medal from the Champion

ships. “The girls are on the high, they are disappointed to have not beaten the Dutch, isn’t that a great place to be!” Team Minute Shirt # Player Action Netherlands 38 6 MOES Freeke Penalty Corner Netherlands 46 22 DICKE Pien Field Goal Netherlands 67 17 BOSCH Carmel Penalty Corner

Score 1–0 2–0 3–0

England 1 (L Millington) Belgium 1 (L Goeminne), England win 3-2 in a shoot-out England goalkeeper Miriam Pritchard proved the hero as she kept out three Belgian shoot out efforts to earn the girls EuroHockey Youth Championships bronze medal in dramatic fashion. It came at the end of a high octane battle between two incredibly closely matched sides with both side having chances a plenty. The Belgians got the first sense of the form Pritchard as she kept out a couple of corners while Alexia ‘t Serstevens was denied at close quarters. England upped their tempo and bossed the latter part of the first half with Lily Wolstenholme a key threat. And they went in front 90 seconds into the second half when their press secured possession deep in enemy territory. Lucy Holder picked up the ball on the right baseline and while Pauline de Ryck got a great touch to deny her, the ball broke to Lucy Millington who slammed home from the top of the D. They went close to a second from a corner soon after but Elisha Evans shot slid just wide of the right post. Wolstenholme also stung the pads of de Ryck before Belgium fought back.

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