On Saturday, January 7, Okehampton played the first game of 2023; their Devon Cup game against Devonport Services II.

Heading off to Plymouth they had their fingers crossed the weather forecast was wrong. On arrival it was dry, which was a great start to the game.

The game started and within the first five minutes, Okehampton scored their first goal.

Molly Bushin playing as left forward passed the ball accurately to the Catherine Vaughan-Johncey on the P spot who hit the ball into the left corner of the goal.

Devonport were quick on the counter-attack, putting the Okehampton defence under a lot of pressure. They were then very lucky to get a rebound from an Okehampton player, making the score level.

Devonport continued to put Okehampton under pressure with some breaks through their defence, but their goalkeeper Carol Newman did an excellent job directing her defence Jane Jones, Sarah Bazeley, Nicky Pedrick, Rachael Luxton and Ruby Bushin to mark players and put in several excellent saves keeping the score level.

Okehampton kept up their intensity with their mid field players Isobel Watt, Abi Cleave and Zara Priday working hard then passing the ball up to Christine Wolmarans who was playing centre forward. She passed to Molly Bushin on the left who crossed to Abi Cleave who was perfectly placed on the right post to deflect the ball into the goal.

Just before half time Devonport were given a short corner and despite them hitting the ball above the back board of the goal, they were given their 2nd goal as a rebound.

The score was 2-2 at half-time.

Both teams came out fighting for the second half with everything to play for.

Okehampton were next to score with Isobel Watt crossing the ball to Christine Wolmarans on the left post who pulled it across in front of the goalie popping it into the right corner.

The Okehampton defence worked hard to keep the score at 3-2 but sadly Devonport where awarded a short corner which they converted making it 3-3 at full-time.

As it was a cup game the winner would be decided on penalty flicks.

Both teams picked their first five players to take on this task.

Zara Priday, Jane Jones, Christine Wolmarans, Emma Wiseman and Catherine Vaughan-Johncey all scored their penalty flicks.

Sadly, so did Devonport so each team had five more flicks. These were taken by Nicky Pedrick, Isobel Watt, Abbie Cleave, Ruby Bushin and Freya Mendova-Sharp. After five more penalty flicks the scores were still level so it was now to be decided on sudden death flicks.

Zara Priday stepped up and very calmly took her position and placed the ball firmly into the left corner.

The pressure proved to be too great for Devonport and they missed so the win went to Okehampton.

A great start to 2023.

Okehampton II have their first league game of the year this Saturday against Plymouth Marjons.