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WHU News Room >
06 September 2005 (PR15/05)
WALES 1 AZERBAIJAN 3
In their European Nations Trophy event in Baku, Azerbaijan,
Wales played the hosts in their opening game.
After a nervous start, conceding goals in the 3rd & 10th minutes
Wales changed their formation and came back strongly, putting
together some good hockey. They were duly rewarded when, with
the best move of the game so far, Beth Fisher pulled an open
play goal back after 22 mins. Sarah Thomas proved to be a thorn
in the side of the home defence and after taking on and beating
3 players her shot to the far post went narrowly wide with
no-one available to get the all important touch.
Turning round 1-2 behind, Wales started the second half very
strongly with the Azerbaijan defenders happy to hit long balls
out purely to relieve the pressure. Wales again had to change
formations when Sarah Ashworth, who had been one of the best
players on show, sustained an ankle injury that may keep her out
of the rest of the tournament. Despite being the better team,
Wales could not capitalise on their superiority and conceded a
third goal after 55 minutes. Although Wales forced a number of
penalty corners they could not force the ball home through the
determined defence, despite Nia Fowler coming close.
Manager Andy Ible said “The team played well and deserved to get
something from the game but with a partisan crowd of 2000
against them the first 10 minutes proved to be crucial. On
another day their performance was good enough to have earned a
far better result”.
Wales’s next match is against Italy on Wednesday.
[ends]
For information regarding the Welsh Hockey Union, please contact
Chris Brewer on 029 2057 3945 or 07976 982092
Please note: Information published in news
stories was correct at the time of publication. Information,
circumstances and data may have chance since.
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