Newcastle Vikings’ women’s and men’s teams both suffered frustratingly close defeats to Troon and Edinburgh respectively in Saturday’s Scottish league matches up at Oriam in Edinburgh.
The afternoon’s ladies’ match saw the lead constantly change, with never more than two goals between the two sides as the Vikings managed to edge the upper hand with a 14-12 advantage at half-time. Left winger Mathilde Bergestad led the scoring with 4 goals on her league debut, having joined Newcastle for their recent 8-5 friendly match win over Durham University. Captain Sandra Christke-Lamb added three, with Alina Inta, Marlen Slinning Goulty, and right winger Blessing Ogbee each finding the net twice, and Alex Inta scoring a penalty.
Bergestad doubled her tally to eight in the second half, including a hattrick of penalties, Christke-Lamb and Slinning Goulty each took their tallies to four, while Alex Inta also fired in another penalty. But despite some really good team play in parts and a couple of penalty saves from goalkeeper Andrea King, the Vikings were ultimately to rue missed opportunities and lacking their usual tightness in defence as Troon managed to find the gaps as well as score a few on the fast-break, and it was the Scots who managed to hold on to a late lead to take the game by the narrowest of margins 22-23.
In the evening men’s match the Vikings started really strongly, racing into an early 1-7 lead through debutant Diogo Goncalo Malaco Caeiro’s treble, two from Marian Machel and one apiece from Adam Mobberley and Adam Batley. However, Edinburgh gradually regathered themselves and took advantage of a couple of two-minute suspensions for Newcastle players to claw their way back into it, and despite further strikes from Machel, Caeiro, Shawn Anuptra Martin, Aaron Edmundson and Batley, it was the home side who opened out a 19-15 half-time lead.
Newcastle continued to play solidly in a more evenly balanced second half in which there was only a few goals in it, with goalkeeper Daniel Walsh pulling off several good saves to keep the Vikings in the game. Machel struck the back of the net a further seven times to take his personal tally to 10, with Batley, Edmundson, Mobberley and Martin all adding to their tallies, but they were unable to close the gap enough as Edinburgh hung on for a 33-30 win.
It was Newcastle’s men’s closest match of the season and captain Mobberley agreed it was by far his team’s best performance of the season so far and the lads had all grafted really hard, so were really happy with how they had played, and are now looking to push on for next week’s match against Glasgow. Our Vikings ladies’ next match is against Edinburgh in a fortnight’s time.
Newcastle Vikings women: Andrea King (GK), Marlen Slinning Goulty (4), Mathilde Bergestad (8), Maria Gonzalez Pascual, Alexandra Inta (2), Blessing Ogbee (2), Alina Inta (2), Sandra Christke-Lamb (4).
Newcastle Vikings men: Daniel Walsh (GK), Adam Batley (5), Shawn Anuptra Martin (2), Adam Mobberley (4), Diogo Goncalo Malaco Caeiro (5), Aaron Edmundson (4), Charlie Emmett, Marian Machel (10).