In anticipation of the final of the Women’s Hockey 5s on 25 January here is some information on the two finalists: Bowdon Hightown and East Grinstead:
Team: Bowdon Hightown
League position 2014/15: 1st
Top goal scorer: Sally Walton [20 goals].
Star players: Amy Tennant and Sally Walton
Route to the final: Played 8, won 5, drew 1, lost 2, scored 45.
Semi-Final: Bowdon Hightown 5-4 Canterbury.
Quotes, Bowdon Hightown Tina Cullen:
On beating Canterbury and getting to Wembley: “Semi-finals are always really tough as there’s so much to gain but also so much to lose. We’re really pleased to get to Wembley and we hope we can give a better account of ourselves than last year. The girls are really delighted to have made the final.”
On Bowdon’s key players: Amy Tennant was brilliant. She saved three certain goals in the first half and then at the end she kept us in it. She’s played superbly this year but that was her best performance. Canterbury said she was awesome. We have good penalty corners. Sally is great on those and I think we scored 2 from 3 in the semi-finals. Our defensive work with Michelle Liptrot, Sally, Sian French and Lisa Crewe is excellent too. We play good indoor hockey and are a strong unit. We’ve got to focus on the here and now and put last year behind us. We want to give a good account of ourselves because we don’t feel we did ourselves justice last year, but we just have to go out and do our best and see where that leaves us.”
Team: East Grinstead
League position 2014/15: 2nd
Top goal scorer: Sophie Bray [12 goals]
Route to the final: Played 8, won 5, drew 1, lost 2, scored 36.
Semi-Final: East Grinstead 1-0 Slough
Quotes, East Grinstead Captain JoJo Davis:
On getting to Wembley: “Pleased is an understatement. We’re ecstatic. It’s been a bit up and down across the two weekends and we were disappointed to lose a couple of games, but after the first weekend we were two points up on where we were last year and we’d beaten the likes of Canterbury and Reading which shows how far we’ve come.”
On their chances in the Final: “We fancy ourselves in the final we’re quietly confident in our abilities. We’re a squad and we don’t depend on one or two players we are a unit and we rotate the players regularly and it’s a squad performance that we thrive on.”
Click here to find out all the results, statistics and goal scorers from the 2014/15 Women’s Hockey 5s Championships so far.
