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Ipswich

Sevenoaks returned from Ipswich empty handed after the eagerly awaited clash between the top two sides in the EHL East conference. IPswich ran out 3-0 winners when the teams met at the start of the season  , but Oaks had made much progress as a team since then.
With adrenalin pumping , Oaks started positively , and probably edged a terrotorial advantage in the early stages.
Incidents in each goal mouth probably left both sides feeling hard done by not to have taken the lead in the half. Sevenoaks thought they might have been awarded a stroke when a shot from Jet Van Zalen appeared to have been deflected away from goal by a defender's body. Not long after, Ipswich  looked as though they had scored with a fantastic effort that went in a the underside of the cross bar, but the umpire adjudged otherwise .
The stalemate continued into the second half. It was nip and tuck throughout, neither side giving much away. In attack, Van Zalen and Gilliat Smith worked hard to try create problems for Ipswich. Sophie Crossley and  Nikki Lloyd looked to break from midfiedl with their pace. Whilst  Liz Key provided a dependable outlet in he middle. At the back Fiona Harland was quick on the interception and man of the match, Sharon Davy was cool under pressure and made some important block tackles.
However, Ipswich finally broke the resistance when an individual pieceof skill from Ipswich took their striker through into the D and slotted home. Oaks reacted quickly and drew the scores level when Gilliat Smith's strike was tapped in a the far post by Sarah Pinkstone.
A tense battle continued and with ten minutes remaining , Oaks looked good enough to earn  at least a point. but in just a couple of minutes play , Ipswich swung the result in their favour. Their second goal was a mixture of luck and skill. Luck came when a long ball played from the back took a deflection from an Ipswich stick and flew past the head of Oaks' last defender. However, the Ipswich striker took her one on one chance well with a neat finish into the top corner. Not long after resumption of play , a shell shocked Oaks conceded another goal and the match ended 3-1. Ipswich have now opened a 4 point gap at the top of the table, but with many games still to come , Oaks will be looking to keep the pressure on by building a winning , starting with another tough opponent - third placed Chelmsford.