Carlisle Ladies 2nd’s hockey team were at home to second in the table South Lakes and suffered a 5-0 defeat.
After promotion last year, the Carlisle Ladies have found it tough going this season, losing narrowly or by the odd goal in several games.
In this latest clash both teams had 11 starting players, and no replacements on the bench.
The visitors started strongly with the spine of their team showing their experience quickly through good passing and lots of movement.
This created space for them to exploit and led to a short corner on seven minutes which was slotted home from just inside the D by Pam Robertson.
Carlisle then started putting some good passages of play together with strong runs from Bella Kerr and Lucy Brown. However, the visitors defence – particularly Cat Wallbank and Holly Nuttall – stayed resolute, defusing the Carlisle attacks quickly and efficiently, before turning defence quickly into attack.
The visitors went 2-0 up after 23 minutes through Rebecca Cook after several short corners had produced good saves from Carlisle’s Jenny Kirton.
Carlisle then had a chance to get a goal back on 27 minutes after the South Lakes keeper upended Blythe Jackson as she ran into the D. The umpire awarded a penalty stroke, but the keeper was equal to the task and saved the shot from Grace Heaney.
The second half saw more and more pressure from the South Lakes side with Isla Robertson making life difficult for the Carlisle defence. Her good diagonal running created chances for her team-mates to try and exploit.
The Visitors extended their lead after four minutes of the half through Jen Clayton, then made it 4-0 after nine minutes with Robertson scoring her second of the afternoon.
Carlisle kept going forward and created several good chances, only to see their shots go wide or be saved by the keeper.
It was South Lakes who had the final say when Nuttall scored the visitors fifth goal after 32 minutes.
