Beccles 2, Lowestoft Railway 1FOR one reason or another both teams had to start this Division One Martin & Acock league game with 10 players. This was an actually only a minor problem for Beccles as they had to play the entire first half without a goalkeeper as the kit had not turned up!Lorraine Greenwood, who has never played anywhere but in goal, had to take up a temporary position of the forward line.

Beccles 2, Lowestoft Railway 1

FOR one reason or another both teams had to start this Division One Martin & Acock league game with 10 players. This was an actually only a minor problem for Beccles as they had to play the entire first half without a goalkeeper as the kit had not turned up!

Lorraine Greenwood, who has never played anywhere but in goal, had to take up a temporary position of the forward line. It was in this period, when Beccles had 10 outfield players and no goalkeeper, and Railway had nine plus their keeper, that Beccles took the lead.

Beccles had been barraging the opposition's defence and Lorraine Greenwood came close to scoring on a couple of occasions despite her foreign position and also not being 100 per cent well.

There was a series of penalty corners awarded to Beccles in the first half and it was from one that Beccles took the lead after 15 minutes.

Debbie Mann received the ball from Ali Foreman's hit and slipped the ball to Carol Maycock who shot the ball hard towards the goal. The Railway keeper had it covered but Debbie then nipped in between the defence to deflect the ball past the keeper.

Beccles played brilliantly in the first half and played some lovely passing moves on their quest for goals. This was particularly noticeable from the three midfield players - Ali Foreman, Carol Maycock and Annette Freeman - who all gelled well together. Coral Moore put in a sound performance receiving the ball well and turning on her marker and generally running everywhere.

Despite the arrival of the goalkeeper's kit by half-time, Beccles seemed to relax a bit and did not play with quite the same determination and accuracy as in the first half.

On the other hand Railway came out refreshed after they had received their half-time team talk and gave the Beccles defence some troublesome periods.

However, on one such attack from the left, Beccles were given a long corner. Laura Cook, who has shown a superb display of hockey all season, hit the ball to Ali Foreman who forced her way into the D where the ball fell to Debbie Mann. Despite a foul in the D from a Railway defender the umpire played advantage, allowing Debbie to finish the move off to put Beccles 2-0 up.

Railway pulled one back from a penalty corner with 12 minutes left. They bombarded the Beccles defence and had seven penalty corners in succession, even having to play out a couple of these after the 70 minutes had elapsed. This was a nerve-racking time for all players but the Beccles defence stood strong for all three points.

This week Beccles are away to Harleston Magpies, 1.45pm start.