Match Reports 18 & 19 Oct 2025
- Peter Latimer
- Oct 21
- 11 min read
The Ladies 3's continue their 100% winning streak, the Ladies 1's gain their 1st win, and the Men score 10 against Preston.
Fylde 1 3-1 Durham University 2
On turf that glowed in autumn's light,
Two teams set forth to fight the fight.
Durham bold, in colours proud,
But Fylde roared louder, fierce and loud.
The whistle blew — the game was on,
A battle waged till daylight gone.
But from the start, the signs were clear:
Fylde had fire, grit, and gear.
Jess Wharton struck with power and pace,
A blur of skill, a deadly grace.
The net did ripple, cheers rang high —A goal that lit the Lancashire sky.
Rebecca Worthington found her lane,
Through pressure, passes, wind, and rain.
With calm precision, she broke through,
And sank it home — the score was two.
Then Lisa Perry claimed her prize,
With steely focus in her eyes.
The third went in — no room for doubt,
Fylde’s fans erupted in a shout.
Not 2-1, let's set that straight,
It’s 3-1 marked in victory's fate.
Don’t twist the tale, don’t sell it short,
This win’s for history’s proud report.
At the back, Katie Barker shone,
With glove and stick, she stood alone.
A wall unbroken, brave and true,
With saves that stunned the Durham crew.
Yet not all fair, the clash was rough,
Grace took hits, the game got tough.
Assaulted? Yes, the fouls were bold —
But still she stood, defiant, cold.
They played with heart, with skill, with soul,
Each player striving for the goal.
And when the final whistle blew,
The scoreboard told what Fylde well knew:
They won with passion, strength, and flair,
Left Durham gasping for their air.
Three to one — a tale well spun,
Fylde Ladies 1s — job done.
Fylde 1 1-3 Newcastle University 1 (Sunday)
report to follow
Scorer: Jess Wharton
Lancaster & District 1 2-0 Fylde 2
Fylde 2’s started slowly and were immediately on the back foot as Lancaster came out strong, pushing forward with pace and purpose. Lancaster’s midfielders proved difficult to contain, linking well with their forwards to work the ball into Fylde’s circle and finishing neatly to take a 1–0 lead after just ten minutes.
Fylde soon settled and began to create opportunities down the right, with Sally Livesey and Sara Jane Tomlinson combining well, but despite their efforts, Lancaster’s defence stood firm and Fylde struggled to get clear shots away.
A speedy Lancaster break down their right led to a controversial moment just before half-time, a high ball into the circle not blown by the umpires, allowing Lancaster to scramble the ball home for a 2–0 lead at the break.
The second half saw a much-improved display from Fylde. The team worked tirelessly on their match play, Emily Greenwood showing her growth in the 2s with excellent leads and strength against the Lancaster defence. Fylde showing stronger connections between defence and midfield and creating more confident attacks on the Lancaster circle. Despite their efforts, the final ball just wouldn’t fall kindly, and it wasn’t to be Fylde’s day as the match ended 2–0 to Lancaster.
Fylde stayed positive as we had some brilliant moments and continue to work hard with their new players and guiding and nurturing the juniors to become better more confident players for our club.
Kendal 1 2-4 Fylde 3
The Ladies 3’s this week faced another top of the table clash, this time with a trip to unbeaten Kendal Ladies 1’s. With availability issues throughout the club, game day illness to Abi Wensley, and a horrific injury to captain Abbie Southern in the week, the league leaders travelled up the M6 with 12 players. This week we saw Emily Finney stepping up, as well as a deadline day re-signing of Aleisha Mansfield who returns after 5 years away from the club.
Following on from her surgery on Friday, the only thing Abbie wanted to make her feel better was 3 points and to stay top of the league. With that in mind, the girls duly obliged.
A shaky first 10 minutes saw Kendal attack from the off with a dominant display including a flurry of chances, luckily to no avail. The determination of Fylde saw them start to gain control of the game, and after 13 minutes found themselves 1-0 up following on some good work from Natalie Smith driving through the middle to find Sophia Melling’s sharp run, before cooly putting the ball through the goalkeeper’s legs.
Fylde could sense more opportunities and continued to carve out more chances. Some amazing play by debutant Emily Finney saw her entice 4 Kendal players to try and steal the ball off her, but every single one was calmly rolled and sent away empty handed. The ball was then fed around the back line with some slick passing to shift the play down the right. A ball through to Abbie Warburton and long run to the baseline saw a cross to our goal machine Sophia Melling after losing her marker. 2-0.
Half time came and with Fylde clearly on top, the words in the team talk were to keep digging in and keep doing as we are.
The Fylde press was working wonders against a backline that wasn’t used to being put under so much pressure. This led to turnover of possession to our midfield time after time. This again was highlighted with a third goal for Fylde after some fantastic work from Aleisha Mansfield and Sophia Melling to hurry the Kendal defence into another wayward pass, this time picked up by Olivia John-Haslam. She drove through the middle towards goal, with three runners ahead of her occupying their defence, she strolled to top D before calmly slamming the ball into the far corner.
Kendal pulled a goal back after a well worked short corner by reversing the ball into goal. 3-1.
Unfazed, Fylde continued to dictate play, and again following more good work in the press, this time with a through ball from Lydia Hayhurst into Natalie Smith. She had time to turn and link up with Sophia Melling in the D before awaiting the return pass at the back post. After playing 1-2 with their goalkeeper, Smith found the goal with a cheeky reverse flick over the line.
With 5 minutes to go, Kendal pulled another goal back after the ball finding its way to a player unmarked just outside the D. She then linked up with a back post runner to tap home.
Being 4-2 up so close to the end gave us just enough time for our at-home recovering captain to be FaceTimed in to watch the closing minutes and be part of the post-match team talk. A lovely touch by the girls.
The togetherness of the group, along with the grit and determination on show from the girls today was what allowed us to put in such a strong performance. They never stop putting the work in, and they are getting their rewards for that with their league position. Every single player put in a real shift against a strong Kendal side.
The team racked up 7 different nominations for MoM this week, showing just how well the whole team played, but our overall winner was Emily Finney for her fantastic skills, sensible ball retention and clever balls up the line.
#UpThe3’s
Lancaster & District 3 0-0 Fylde 4
Fylde 4s took 14 outfield players to Lancaster this week to face off against new merged club Lancaster & District. Sharron Bolton relayed the strategy to add in an extra defender in place of a keeper to start and then push Lancaster back to give us an extra player further up field.
Fylde started well, easily outpacing Lancaster and showing confidence on the ball. A sandier pitch slowed down passes and forced Fylde to be more meaningful in their decisions. Lancaster broke through to attack Fylde’s D seeing them awarded a penalty corner, which Fylde defended well, led out by Izzie Thompson.
From this point onwards, Fylde spent the majority of their time in the opposition’s half, taking in the ball to the D but struggling to get through most of Lancaster’s team who packed the D consistently. Alyssa Woodman impressed, winning short corners, which Fylde failed to convert.
The second half saw 90% possession by Fylde in Lancaster’s half, Isla Carter reading the game well and distributing the ball to the forwards who attempted to find the goal. Lancaster’s goalkeeper had a good game, restricting Fylde from breaking the deadlock.
Free hits from Lancaster were intercepted by the forwards but on the occasion they reached their target the opposition player was quickly dispatched by Zoe Kirkham, Izzie Thompson and Evie Bromley who held strong at the back urging the team to press high. The goals remained elusive as the final whistle blew on a nil-nil draw.
A clean sheet with no keeper must be taken as a huge positive but frustrating for the team when unable to find a gap through the 8 opposition players permanently planted in the D.
Southport 2 5-2 Fylde 5
It was a long voyage across the Ribble this week as our eager team lined up to face a tough senior opposition at Southport, with our new teammate Chloe Jo Simmons making her debut.
From the first whistle, we knew it was going to be a hard game. Southport came at us with speed and strength, hitting the ball up the pitch and testing our defence, led by Fran Loffler-Thompson. Ellie Hope held our midfield brilliantly, controlling the game despite constant tackles and holding her own in several 2 v 1 situations.
The whole team worked tirelessly, but the fast pace of the match began to take its toll. Southport kept pressing forward, firing shots on goal but often missing the mark. Matilda Thompson, working hard at the back, continually challenged their attack and stopped them from breaking through.
With only minutes left in the first half, Southport finally broke the deadlock with a long-awaited goal. Moments later, after a short corner, Fran’s valiant defensive effort unfortunately resulted in a penalty flick. Southport converted it just before the whistle, putting us 3–0 down at halftime.
We regrouped during the break and stepped back onto the pitch determined to take the game to Southport. An unfair call from the referee gifted them another goal, but we refused to give up.
Eleanor Bullough and Bella Coupe Carroll worked hard up front, creating options and pushing past Southport’s defence. After a scramble in front of goal, Bella tapped the ball in behind the keeper to get us on the scoreboard.
With renewed energy, we struck again — and Kayt Rayner found the backboard after a few near misses to bring the score to 3–2.
The final ten minutes were end-to-end, but some excellent play from Sophia Appleyard, driving up the right side and linking with Birdie Singleton, kept us pressing for another.
Down the other end, Sienna Kitson came into her own with some strong defensive work, while Faye Jackson in goal made outstanding saves, diving to deny Southport any further chances and getting cheers from their men’s side in the process!
Although the match ended 5–2, it was a well-fought game. A strong opposition may have won the day, but it was a positive, determined performance from our 5s squad — one that shows we’re still fighting for that top spot.
Well played girls!
Fylde 6 Development 4-2 Longridge Development
Longridge had struggled to play matches this season due to opposition cancellations and had also only been able to raise 8 players for this match. Fylde agreed to play the game whatever the circumstances. In the end, on Saturday, Fylde and Longridge development team played a well fought 9-a-side match.
Fylde decided to play a 3-2-3 formation after GK Faye Jackson arrived from a previous match in the nick of time.
Longridge started strong scoring a goal within first 5 minutes but this was soon matched by Ruby Roberts at 12 minutes, who was part of the strong rotating forward line with Freya Wood , Imogen Todd and Esme Bradley.
Fylde settled into a lovely playing pattern which was supported by an effective defence line from Carrena Leverton, Faith McGillivray and Farzana Choudhury. This led to Esme Bradley putting Fylde 2-1 ahead at 18mins.
The battle continued with Amelie Horabin controlling play in the midfield connecting brilliantly with Julie Knowles, Olivia Branthwaite, and Freya Wood. Imogen Todd took the advantage at 30 minutes to make it 3-1 at half time.
High praise and tactical talk at half time from Bernie and Adrian was taken on board.
Longridge came out fighting once again to score half way through second half but Fylde answered this at 60 minutes with a 4th goal from a short corner play from Julie Knowles.
End result 4-2 to Fylde.
Fylde 1 10-0 Preston 7
It was a later start for the men this week with pushback being at 4.00p.m., everyone was motivated for this game given the feisty affair last season. With an almost full squad (apart from Pete Latimer), a good warm-up, tactics sorted, we were ready for the game ahead.
A little bit scrappy for the first few minutes and Preston had an early shot, from a long ball through, which went wide. Fylde tackled and intercepted passes and then quickly gained dominance of this game.
Fylde played with conviction, driving forward from the back, making passes and playing direct hockey. Lovely play by Richard Clarke who set up Jay Mayne who narrowly missed and hit the side of the goal. However, it wasn’t long before the first goal came from a great tackle by Simon Holt when Preston attempted a long ball through. Fylde attacked down the left side, and the forward Jay Mayne entered the circle, and the first goal was scored, 1-0 to Fylde.
The second goal was started when Paul Thomson intercepted Preston, linked up with Tim Van Rijn who then directed the play down the right, entered the circle and a clinical finish by Richard Clarke.
When Preston did have the ball, strong tracking and defending, leading to interceptions and mistakes from Preston meant that Fylde had the ball and had lots of scoring opportunities as they drove forward, with some strong individual runs and good link up play. Another shot at goal by Fylde hit the keeper’s pads and a great solo run by Simon Holt dribbling through the field didn’t end with a goal but was impressive.
Fylde were becoming relentless, attacking Preston and it was 3-0 with Tim Van Rijn getting the goal. A long corner and almost another goal with a shot and then Sam Ayoma did make it 4-0 with a great shot. The goals were coming quick and Jay Mayne made it 5 after Josh Bywater knocked the ball on to the near post.
Preston then had a couple of penalty corners, however Harry Gordon got hold of the ball and ran down the centre of the pitch, which almost ended with another goal with a circle entry from the left Clarke making a shot and hitting the keeper’s pads.
Simon Holt, Harry Gordon, Charlie Oliver and Tim Van Rijn really took a hold of this game, finding the passes, making dominant runs, breaking lines and this turned into a very impressive and a very well worked performance. Linking up with all the players on the team and creating a great team performance. At the end of the first half Fylde were leading 5-0.
The second half started as the first ended with Fylde having further chances. A penalty corner was awarded to Fylde and Mayne’s shot was wide.
There was a flurry of chances for Fylde, another which hit the keepers’ pads, a cross flying pass the goal, but no-one could get on the end and a shot which went wide.
Fylde players continued to make shots against the Preston goal, saves from the goalie and shots flying wide. Preston did then have a brighter spell and started linking up and were awarded a penalty corner which was saved by Fylde’s goalie Craig Nutter.
Harry Gordon then drove from defence, linked up with Simon Holt, then Will van Rijn’s diagonal pass across goal towards the back post to Richard Clarke who made no mistake and scored- 6-0 to Fylde. Gordon shortly after dribbled through the Preston defence to hit a strong reverse shot straight into the back board.
The next goal came from Will Van Rijn, to make it 7-0. Simon Holt made it 8-0 and benefitted from a driving run from Harry Gordon. Mayne always lively in front of goal shot wide a few times but continually demonstrated his talent.
Another goal for Will Van Rijn made it 9-0, and the final 10th goal went to Harry Gordon.
Overall, a great performance from the men today, with Man of the Match going to Henry Brogden for his solid performance.
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