Newcastle Vikings Handball Club’s ladies bounced back from last month’s loss to Scottish league leaders Edinburgh, with a stunning 17-24 victory over Troon-Kelvinside on Saturday.
Remarkably, it was the second time this season that Newcastle had had to take a depleted team of just six players up to the Oriam Sports Performance Centre in Edinburgh to take on the merged Troon-Kelvinside team, due to a combination of injuries and unavailability of several players. They’d stunned them with a totally unexpected 28-21 win back in October, but this time were without that day’s 14-goal top scorer Oliwia Szymkowiak. But the Vikings lasses did not let that put them off the challenge, keeping their heads high as they proudly sported their new Pro-Em team kit to put in a brilliant all-round team performance and score another amazing seven-goal victory!
This time it was player-coach Marlen Slinning Goulty who put in a superb player-of-the-match display with 10 goals. Five of those came in a tight first half that saw her share the bulk of the scoring from the back-court with captain Sandra Christke-Lamb who struck three. Christke-Lamb had opened the scoring and Newcastle continued to create and take their chances and never rescinded the lead throughout, keeping solid in defence at the other end, despite being a player down, and supported by a string of good saves from Great Britain goalkeeper Sophie O’Sullivan between the posts.
Right-winger Andrea King got on the scoresheet to give the Vikings a 7-9 half-time advantage, and quickly added to that in a second-half that saw her net a further six goals, interspersed with another five from Goulty. Fellow goalkeeper-turned-winger Caroline Bergum picked up her first hat-trick from the left-wing, capped by a delicious lob over the Scottish side’s keeper, and Christke-Lamb added her fourth. Back-court players Goulty, Christke-Lamb and Fliss Lawrence kept pressing to break through and create the attacking chances as they and Newcastle’s wingers consistently found spaces in behind Troon-Kelvinside’s attacking 5-1 defensive formation to gradually extend their lead. Goulty fittingly rounded off the final 17-24 scoreline firing in her tenth of the match.
At the final whistle, the Vikings players were once again stunned and elated to have pulled off an unlikely double over Troon-Kelvinside. The result firms up Newcastle’s third place in the league as they prepare to take on second-placed Tryst in their next game.
Newcastle Vikings: Sophie O’Sullivan (GK), Felicity Lawrence, Caroline Bergum (3 goals) Marlen Slinning Goulty (10), Sandra Christke-Lamb (4), Andrea King (7).
