B R Ladies 4

Sheffield 2

She's back! After weeks off with injury Rachel Doherty found her old form just when it mattered most, scoring all four of Ben Rhydding's goals to secure a polished victory and three vital points easing them nicely away from the bottom end of this Northern Premier League.

After two excellent performances against Don Valley and Winnington Park, the Ladies really needed to capitalise and this win against old rivals Sheffield was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Sheffield opened the scoring with a goal from a broken down corner routine but it was with great relief that Rachel Doherty slammed home her first goal after coming close several times.

Jo Ellis intelligently putting lessons learned from training into practice, drawing her defender to the back line to make room in the 'D' for Doherty.

Then it was the ever-watchful Mel Gough who slotted a beautiful ball through to Mel Thompson who laid off to Doherty to make short work of claiming her second goal.

Sheffield were always building up the play through the middle and Gemma Anderson was forced to make some telling tackles. Sheffield, good on the overlap scored a second goal going into the half-time break and Ben Rhydding had to come out with all guns blazing.

The next 20 minutes saw relentless possession hockey rewarded with several penalty corners after some good work on the right from Barrett, Goodwin and Dowley. Indeed it was Goodwin who unselfishly slipped the ball under her arm in front of goal for Rachel Doherty to finish.

Rhydding were now able to keep Sheffield on the back foot, zoning off all free hits flawlessly and showing great support play in all areas of the pitch.

Izzy MacDonald gave endless service to Rachel Doherty who sliced through the Sheffield defence time and again and was inevitably to score a fourth.

Clare Britcliffe came out very positively during any danger moments and was a goal-keeper with great resolve who was not going to let anything disrupt this heartfelt victory - earned by exemplary team spirit and unified play but the last word was with the sheer genius of Doherty.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.