That finishing spark wasn’t quite there but Flames coach Barrie Pritchard was still pretty happy with his sides work against Olympians on Saturday night.
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The premiers scored a 4-nil win, although on the weight of opportunities they probably should have won by more.
“Our finishing hasn’t been the best of late,” Pritchard said.
Either from the field or off corners. At one stage on Saturday they had five penalty corners in a row.
“Our penalty corners aren’t functioning too well at the moment,” he said.
“(On Saturday) We weren’t getting a quick enough push out and weren’t stopping the ball.”
He is confident that will come with time.
“We just need a bit of continuity of hockey,” he said.
It has been a bit of a stop, start start to the season after receiving two forfeits in the first round.
“We just need to fire a bit,” Pritchard said.
“Structurally we’re not quite there and not making the passes early.”
They led 2-nil at half-time courtesy of Kim Resch and Julie Rodda. Marley Pitt made it 3-nil before Sophie Littlejohns sealed the win with a good first-time hit.
“Defensively we went pretty well. Brydie (Wellham) was back. That was her first game of the year” Pritchard said.
“And Mel (Allen) and Helena (Williamson) played really well.”
Resch was also “quite dynamic” and created a lot of opportunities but was uncharacteristically off target.
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Stand-in Olympians coach Garry Littlejohns thought they competed well and was pleased with their performance – a few tired legs towards the back end of the half hurting them.
“There was no score in either half for the first 20 minutes. It was only the back end of the half they got on top of us,” he said.
“We scrambled really well and the effort was right up there.”
He thought generally they didn’t give the Flames strikers a lot of space.
“It was only their genuine speed in the midfield that caused us trouble,” Littlejohns said.
Filling in in goals Rebecca Davidson had a very good game he said. Not usually a goalkeeper she strapped the pads on and made some good saves.
Dana Constable was also strong.
“She’s a very dynamic tackler and ball carrier and created a lot of opportunities,” Littlejohns said.