Match Reports 21 & 22 Feb 2026
- 6 hours ago
- 10 min read
Another win for the Ladies 1's, 3's, 4's & 6's in the league, and a great winning start for the Beavers, but a cup defeat for the 3's on Sunday.
Fylde 1 2-1 Sheffield 1
Fylde Ladies 1st team welcomed a struggling Sheffield side to Mill Farm on Saturday. Fylde were well aware of the danger of teams fighting relegation, and with injury problems of their own they were ready for a tough game.
Despite Fylde dominating play, it was Sheffield who took an early lead after winning a penalty corner on a counter attack. That was one of only two circle entries they had in the first half, with Fylde creating multiple goal scoring opportunities but failing to find the back of the net.
Fylde continued to push for an equaliser in the second half, and a cute pass from Lucy Wane set Nicky Kellet up for an excellent first time finish.
Sheffield struggled to handle the pace of Jess Wharton, and after Lucy Wane found her in the circle, Jess beat two players and the keeper to make it 2-1.
Fylde saw the game out from there, and were pleased to take the 3 points with only 12 players and numerous injuries.
Fylde will make the long trip to Durham next week for a crucial game in the battle for 3rd place
Fylde 2 1-1 Lancaster & District 1
Fylde knew this was a must-win fixture against a side that had beaten them 2–0 earlier in the season, and with confidence high and a strong set-up, they started brightly. Determined and effective work down the right flank quickly put Lancaster & District under pressure, with Fylde regularly penetrating the D and winning several short corners. Dawn Child came agonisingly close to opening the scoring with a deft deflection that just cleared the bar.
Fylde continued to move the ball well, pinning L&D into their own half. Another excellent move down the right saw Dawn Child lift the ball over the keeper and into the goal, only for play to be pulled back for an earlier foot—frustrating, but Fylde kept their composure. Sustained midfield pressure eventually paid off as a perfectly weighted ball found Camilla Wyles, who unleashed her trademark reverse strike into the backboard to give Fylde a deserved lead. Fylde saw out the first half comfortably, allowing little to no threat on their own goal.
The second half followed a similar pattern until the final ten minutes, when Fylde briefly lost their shape and allowed L&D more possession. Despite this, Fylde looked most likely to extend their lead, with strong attacking play from Chelsea Atkinson and Keira Tomes —playing her first match back after travelling—and Issy Gut unlucky to see her effort hit the side netting.
Late pressure from L&D eventually resulted in their first short corner of the match. Fylde initially defended well, but the rebound fell kindly to an L&D striker who reacted quickest to smash the ball past a helpless Sophie Slawson, levelling the score.
Disappointed not to take all three points, Fylde could still take plenty of positives from another strong performance. With every point crucial, the girls will look to push on again next week.
Fylde 3 4-0 Kendal 1
Fylde 3s’ Saturday match was the season’s biggest game yet, deciding whether the point gap narrowed to two or widened to eight in a top of the table clash.
The whole team was nervous and despite half being severely jet lagged from their Barbados school hockey tour home trip and only 12 players, they came out fighting from the very beginning.
In the first 10 minutes, Kendal pressed high, creating pressure. However, Fylde’s defence kept calm and dealt with it perfectly. They switched the ball round the back with precision, finding the gaps. Although, Fylde attempted to press up the pitch, Kendal remained dominant until 17 minutes in, Lauren Mayor took the ball quickly from a 16 hit out, sending it back to Abbie Southern who shifted it over to Flo Worden, driving the ball down the side line and finding Sophia Melling who passed through the Kendal defender to Talia Armstead who put the ball past the keeper that came out for Abi Wensley to finish it off in front of the line. 1-0, a real team effort.
At half time, heads were high and they went back out in the second half hungry for more goals. Although Fylde were leading by 1-0 they knew it wouldn’t take much for Kendal to counter attack, so they knew they had to stay ‘on the ball’.
The fight continued from both sides, Kendal started to work their way out of a 16 hit out, which Abbie Southern intercepted and passing the ball through to Natalie Smith, linking with Abbie Warburton and Jessica Jennings who had a perfect touch and drove towards the baseline and crossed it over to Talia Armstead on back post to make the score line 2-0.
The second half saw a complete switch up between the two teams where Fylde were now dominating after having been under pressure in the first half. In the 57th minute, Natalie Smith made a cracking tackle in our defensive 23 and out skilled the Kendal opposition, passing the ball onto Olivia John-Haslam in the middle. Liv then slapped the ball from outside the 23 all the way down the middle to Abi Wensley who positioned herself incredibly in front of the keeper and slotted away the 3rd goal off her back foot and into the corner of the goal. The movement, speed and finish was exceptional and gave the 3s a well deserved 3-0 lead which left coach Jay Currey pacing up and down the slide line with his hands in front of his eyes in utter shock.
As if that wasn’t enough only 4 minutes later, Fylde were awarded a short corner, the ball was injected the Liv John-Haslam who made a great decision to divert from the routine and flick the ball onto the backboard for their 4th and final goal.
A highlight of the game was when Natalie Smith shouted to over the Abbie Southern “we’ve got her” whilst double teaming, before taking the ball off the opposition player.
This performance was the best the girls have played all season. Every pass, tackle and decision was on point. The girls put 110% effort into the game and were rewarded in exactly the way they should have. We could not be prouder as a team to say we are 8 points clear at the top of the league with 5 games left to play.
Player of the match this week could have gone to every single one of those girls on the pitch, but this week Natalie Smith showed incredible skill and work rate throughout, bagging herself a well deserved man of the match.
DOD went to Abbie Southern for putting the insane 4-0 result in as 0-0 on GMS which is still up for debate ;)
Fylde 3 0-6 University of Liverpool 1 (Sunday)
After an exhausting weekend with half the team arriving back from a Barbados hockey tour with school and top of the table clash the day before, Fylde 3s travelled over to Northern HC to play their Lancashire cup final against Liverpool Uni 1s.
The girls went into the game with the mindset of leaving everything they could on the pitch despite the result, knowing they were about the face an older, stronger and a more physical side.
From the starting whistle, Liverpool shifted the ball around the pitch quickly, making leads into gaps, trying to make attacking threats from very early on. Fylde held strong and defended well considering the immense pressure they were put in from the beginning. Despite this, Fylde managed to break through on a few occasions and were able to create their own attacking threats but unfortunately, couldn’t convert.
At half-time Liverpool led 4-0. Fylde needed to adapt to their style of play so we pushed high despite having numerous attackers behind them. This, however, did work well for them, we created more opportunities in our attacking half and turned the ball over in the middle more frequently. Fylde played the ball round the back well, using the midfielders to bounce the ball in and out to try and work the ball around the Liverpool side.
Even though the second half brought more opportunities, Fylde were still unable to find the back of the net on this occasion but Liverpool scored only twice in the second half which was a positive for the 3s to take away as this showed a much better performance this half against the slick university side.
With today not being the 3s day to come away with the cup trophy, they still take away many positives and things to come away and learn from the game which will help them finish off their push for promotion this season. It was a great team effort, and they did what they said they would do which was to work as a team and leave everything they’ve got on the pitch.
Man of the match went to goalkeeper Emily Byers who made outstanding saves throughout the game, receiving not only our praise, but also the opposition and umpires.
DOD had many contenders today including Abbie Warburton and Natalie Smith breaking down with a flat tyre on the way to the game, but went to Abbie Southern YET AGAIN, after another series of unfortunate events when the kit bag ended up in Manchester after Saturday’s match, having to drive there in the morning and come back for a lift to the game, then proceeding the leave the kit bag that was retrieved in her own car and having to meet her dad at the next junction to get it back again. She then topped it off at the end of the match doing 3 cheers for Lancaster, not Liverpool!
Fylde 4 2-0 Lancaster & District 3
Fylde were awarded a short corner in the first few minutes, Olivia Hartley-Smith slid a precise ball to the far post where Sophia Taylor was poised to deflect it in.
This was quickly followed up with another short corner that saw Olivia score herself from a hard slap that landed in the small gap between the near post and the keeper.
Fylde were strong throughout, Lancaster & District unable to break into Fylde’s 23 at any point.
Clitheroe Blackburn Northern Devt 0-2 Fylde Development
Fylde 6/Dev squad reduced from 16x players to 13x players on the day but still had a well balanced team which played excellent hockey to beat Clitheroe & Blackburn Northern Development 2-0.
Imi Todd opened the scoring against her school friends from Westholme in the first half and Jenny Strachan scored her first club goal in the second half.
Cora Sweeney had another busy game in goals as CBNHC added some strong experienced players into the mix to put pressure on Fylde.
India Reville had a strong debut game in defence and coach Fran mixed-up the overloaded defensive line-up by pushing players into new midfield roles.
Amelie and Elizabeth repaid Fran’s trust with great performances, also Ruby and Penny showed stamina and great skills in the midfield.
Farzana, Faith, and Alice helped to keep a tight defensive line, even though we forgot to start with 11x players in the second half!
It took coach Fran ten puzzling minutes to work out why the defence was under so much pressure and the structure didn’t look right but with three on the bench it suddenly fell into place - Farzana was rushed back on to fill the gap!
Carrena and Olivia kept plugging away but couldn’t add to the scoring and Penny, as Captain, took one for the team, receiving an unfair Green card, but the team continued to stand strong and firm.
It was another great result for this developing team who are bonding well and enjoying their hockey.
Timperley Beavers 1-4 Fylde Beavers
Mixed Junior Friendly
The crew from Mill Farm made the most of a game at Timperley to show exactly how good they are. In a game where Fylde had many opportunities, the whole team worked well together and showed a wonderful appetite to win the game and do the right things. Despite the wet weather the team created a superb team performance which will have allowed all of them to grin happily despite the hostile weather on the journey home.
After an even opening where Fylde and Timperley had the ball in each other's D, Fylde scored with an excellent strike through Philippa when she finished a flowing team move from deep in the Fylde half by sliding the ball between the goalkeeper and the post.
Timperley got back in the game after a somewhat harshly given penalty corner was put into the corner of the goal. However that proved to be a momentary set back as the team quickly regained the initiative with a super strike from Hugo into the goal.
From that point forward it was very much a game of attack vs defence for Fylde as they tried to add to their tally. They were unfortunate when the ball passed by the post with no one there to put it away on a number of occasions. The only times that Timperley got forward their threat was quickly snuffed out by the excellent defence of Zach, Harry and Lucy who were diligent in their defence but also keen to make positive passes up the pitch.
In the 3rd quarter, Fylde scored another goal when Techari hit a fine strike to the right of the goalkeeper and onto the backboard from a penalty corner. The final goal of the game was then scored by Marianne after another short corner.
The team might have scored more but hit the post twice and managed to tickle it wide of the goal from close in. At the end of the game all the players were justifiably proud of the way they had played and also of the result.
As a coach it was really pleasing to see the wonderful attitude of the team - they worked extremely hard, listened to what was asked of them and then worked for each other. They really tried to transfer the ball across the field and keep it wherever possible. They were also willing to play wherever they were asked and not one moaned about coming off.
A massive thanks to every player for making me so proud of them and also for all the families that drove to Timperley on a what became a stinking wet afternoon. I know I have not mentioned every player here but there were massive positives for all of them and I really enjoyed watching them and working with them! Up the Beavers!
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