Hockey: New captain misses out on winning start

Oct 9 2008 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THE new hockey season kicked off last week with Livingston Ladies first XI playing newly promoted Inverleath.

David Young continues at the helm as coach but he has appointed Fiona Lynch as skipper for the new campaign.

Lynch revelled in her additional responsibility of leading the team, and she pulled the strings as the youngsters attacked from the front.

Livi’s traditionally solid defence held firm against a series of Inverleath forward forays and Fiona Hamilton cleared two balls off the goal line.

Last year’s player-of-the-year, Lynn Young, caught a nasty high ball in the neck to prevent a short corner going in while keeper Fiona Oliver also earned her keep with a handful of timely stops.

A final last-minute short corner for the home team produced a tantalising glimmer of all three points for Livingston, but Lisa Patterson rolled her effort the wrong side of the post.

The goalless scoreline was probably a fair result, although the new Livi captain would no doubt disagree.