The fine citizens of Bingham would have been perplexed at around 1.18pm on Saturday with the screech of screaming emanating from the leisure centre hockey pitch as the final strike of the match secured Newark Ladies second team their first win of the season.

This was a closely contested game which could have gone either way. It was understandable that the home side looked dejected at the end.

Newark started the match brightly and for the first quarter probably dominated the play. Some excellent play up the wings from Amy Baugh and Rachael Tongue created chances around the ‘D’ and after a couple of neat saves from the very agile South Notts goal keeper, a weighted pass from Susan Tate to Ann Crockett-McLean beat the goalie only to ricochet off the post (embarrassingly, there was a hint of premature celebration from Ann!)

The pressure from Newark continued with a couple of short corners awarded, but not converted.

However South Notts counter-attacked quickly on a number of occasions all of which were either intercepted by the menacing presence of player of the match Caz Hauton or dealt with by an in-form defensive back four. Star goalie Sarah Gray was called upon a couple of times to make crucial saves. Indeed the Newark defence of Jacky Nullis, Sue Birkett, Sarah Cubbitt and Caz Hauton successfully defended at least half a dozen short corners in the first half alone.

Newark went into the half- time break with a spring in their step and brimming with confidence. But this was to be short lived. The second half saw South Notts taking the initiative and it was a good fifteen minutes before Newark showed the standard of play they had displayed in the first half.

Once again South Notts had a series of short corners two of which were cleared away by Jacky Nullis and another one was dealt with by Sarah Cubbitt. The visiting defence were impenetrable!

Eventually Newark broke free to attack in numbers and were awarded two short corners. The first didn’t quite work but the second saw a superbly dispatched push out from Holly Cloke, slipped by Katherine Hawkins with pin point precision for Ann Crockett-Mclean to strike cleanly on goal. Unfortunately a defenders stick sent the ball through the air to painfully connect with the inner thigh of a South Notts defender who was planted on the goal line. Even though a penalty flick could have been awarded everyone was relieved to see the home player gingerly continue with the game.

And so play flipped quickly from end to end. With a couple of minutes to go the hosts were awarded another two penalty corners and Newark held their breath. No fear – the defence came to the rescue AGAIN. And so the last minute saw Newark press hard once more. Their efforts and determination were rewarded with a penalty corner and the final whistle blew. 

This was the moment; this was the chance. Newark decided to repeat the previously disallowed routine and this time the ball hit goal and all hell broke loose!

Hugs, screaming, whooping – but most of all a huge sense of relief!

So bring on the rest of the league – Newark Ladies are finally finding some form and belief. The odds of staying in the league are stack firmly against us – but we’re not going down without a fight (metaphor to any opposition reading this!).

Thanks must go to Arran Coggan who has kept his belief in the team and sacrificed his own game this week to watch ours. And thanks to Jo Motson who did a great job umpiring the match, despite only newly qualifying.

Coach Arran Coggan said afterwards, “This has been coming for a few games now, the team are starting to really gel together and showing the determination to keep plugging away, but I don’t want any more matches like this, my heart won’t take it much longer!”.