PORTADOWN got the Legacy Wealth Management Ulster hockey weekend underway in style with a 6-1 away win over Mossley to go top of the table on goal difference from midweek leaders Queen’s.
Mossley fought to make a match of it but had no answer to the Portadown firepower.
Portadown got off the mark when Rebekah Lennon’s drive from a penalty corner was neatly diverted into the goal by Lara Wilson. And soon after when it seemed that neither team could get hold of the ball at the edge of the circle, the league’s top scorer Evie Girvan took control and lashed a ball to the keeper’s right to double the lead.
A penalty corner in the second quarter resulted in another goal, courtesy of a driven shot from Rebekah Lennon despite the best efforts of the Mossley defenders. Portadown were irresistible at this point and Alyssa Somerville, who was unfortunate not to get on the scoresheet, found Emily Adamson who worked the ball onto her reverse and fired a powerful reverse to make it four.
Mossley pulled one back in the third quarter from a penalty corner but the Ports stepped it up after this and Serena Barr picked up a ball in the circle to get a goal which her performance deserved.
Young goalkeeper Makyla Stevenson made her Ports Premier league debut in quarter four and while the Portadown goal was rarely threatened, the standard of the Ports’ play understandably dipped a little as the players tired.
But they were still dangerous and Bethany Harper added a sixth at the finish.
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