HOCKEY: Cross nets twice as Carrick end ‘mini-slump’

The visitors were clearly intent on trying to capitalise on Carrick’s mini-slump as the opening half of the game was all end-to-end stuff.

The visitors were pressing hard on goal at every opportunity, while Carrick also threw everything into attack.

The hosts had a number of short corner opportunities, all of which came to nothing, and then very nearly came to grief when a Limavady break near the end of the half saw their final effort bounce off the Carrick crossbar before being cleared to safety.

In the second half however, the home team grabbed control early on courtesy of a vintage Christine Waide goal. The long-serving Carrick midfielder broke from the halfway line, eluded all attempts to dispossess her, and slammed the ball into the Limavady net.

Boosted by their early strike, Neil McConnell’s Carrick delivered a formidable period of effective teamwork denying their opponents any realistic likelihood of making a second-half comeback.

Carrick’s second goal, scored by team captain Amy Cross was a classic example of enterprise and teamwork as the ball was neatly worked into the opposition circle by a number of girls in green for Cross to clinically finish the move.

Limavady’s attempts to rally themselves for a last-ditch effort to claw their way back into the game were finally dashed with five minutes to go when Christine Waide dispossessed her opponent on the 23-yard line, weaved her way past a defender into the circle and centred to the waiting Cross to net her second goal of the match, and Carrick’s third.

Carrick Player of the Match: Natasha McWilliams.