The Vipers travelled to Telford, just a fortnight after a narrow victory over the same team at home. A nasty back injury meant that Coach Laura couldn’t make the trip, and even though Bernie stepped up to be our coach for the day, league rules required us to have 2 coaches on the bench. Showing great spirit, Telford thankfully provided us with a coach to sit on our bench to allow us to play the game.

The game started, as the previous one had ended, as a close affair with play going from end-to-end. Vipers took the lead in the first; Julia Coughill putting away a close range effort. Telford weren’t going to go down without a fight, and kept the pressure on, and equalised nearing the end of the first. However, line 1 (Emma French, Kate Edmonds and Julia Coughill) hit back immediately to restore the 1 goal lead. This was followed by a crucial, good reaction save by goalie extraordinaire, Alison Clarke, which allowed Vipers to take the 1-goal advantage into the break.

Vipers were playing better hockey than in their previous meeting with Telford. Good performances from each of the defensive players, created a solid base from which Vipers could push forward. In general, more calm and disciplined hockey allowed some good passes and team plays to be made. Again, the opening of the second was well contested between the two sides. However, as the period continued, the Vipers seemed to increasingly pressurise Telford’s ‘D’ and some good individual skills and team play mean that the Line 1 combo started to find their stride, and put in a couple of goals to take the Vipers into a 4-1 healthy lead into the second break.

Not wanting to throw away the lead, Vipers continued to play with the same disciplined approach through the third period. Some tiredness began to set in, and Telford managed to score 2 goals during the final period. However, Vipers by then really had the game under control. Kate Edmonds seemed to be ‘inspired’ in the 3rd period. The highlight was a great break away, and hard low shot that rebounded off the keeper; guess who was there to tuck in the rebound? Julia ended up with an amazing 5 goals for the game, and a well-deserved man of the match award. Emma French had a ‘what-would-have-been-if-only’ spectacular goal disallowed in the last few minutes of the game, which left the result as a 3-7 victory for the Vipers. Good team performance!