Three Isle of Man junior representative teams competed in the England Hockey Championships on Sunday.

The island under-14s girls recorded a very hard-fought victory against a good Leek side. Every player contributed to the win, with their teamwork and clinical finishing proving decisive.

The match started with Leek gaining early momentum, but the Isle of Man took the lead following a fast counter-attack - which was a feature of the match - with Gracie Evans slotting home a fine cross from Eve Martin in the third minute.

The match was fairly even as the first half progressed, with Leek putting together some nice passages of play which eventually led to them scoring an equaliser.

The islanders asserted themselves at the start of the second half, using the ball more effectively while retaining their counter attacking threat.

This was in evidence in the 42nd minute when Evans made a fine run from the right and crossed the ball for Bonnie Ellison to finish decisively in front of goal.

The Manx team increased their advantage in the 48th minute when Sienna Curphey finished smartly after the ball fell to her in front of goal following a short corner.

The 58th minute saw the attacking move of the match when Curphey received the ball from her own 23-yard line and made a very quick, penetrating run on the right-hand touchline before crossing to Evans who struck a well-timed shot into the corner of Leek's goal.

The last 20 minutes saw the Isle of Man battling extremely hard to retain their lead. Although Leek managed to score a consolation goal, it made no difference to the final outcome, with the islanders finishing as deserved 4-2 winners.

Player of the match was shared between Evans who scored twice and was a constant attacking threat and Darcy Killey who was rock solid at the back, showing great positional awareness to snuff out many of Leek's attacks and distributing the ball intelligently.

- Reports on the other junior island squads appear elsewhere in this edition.

RACHEL ANDREW