West Herts 1, Dereham Ladies 7The first hockey game back after the mid-season break was expected to be tough, and for the first 20 minutes Dereham continued to hand the ball to the opposition, making the game hard for themselves.

West Herts 1, Dereham Ladies 7

The first hockey game back after the mid-season break was expected to be tough, and for the first 20 minutes Dereham continued to hand the ball to the opposition, making the game hard for themselves.

Passing tended to be inaccurate and with the team continually flying the balls down the pitch.

Evie van Poortvliet made a break from the centre field and entered the shooting circle towards the key spot. West Herts keeper reacted to this dangerous position badly by sweeping the ball from the Dereham forward and brought her down for a penalty flick which was converted.

A good pass from defence then gave Evie the room to beat the keeper again after 32 minutes.

Herts made a break minutes before the end of the first half and were awarded a short corner which they converted for 2-1.

The Herts goal and words from Dereham's manager Karen Cleaver fired the team into overdrive and it took just 16 seconds for Hannah Palmer to beat two players and switch the ball over to van Poortvliet who deflected the ball wide for Eve Settle to run in and convert.

Five minutes into the second half, Hannah Palmers slotted another past the abandoned goal keeper for 4-1 and van Poortvliet then completed her hat-trick.

Dereham were awarded a series of short corners, one of which Donna cracked into the bottom corner: 6-1.

Herts then finally managed to get the ball out of their half to win a fruitless short corner. Finally van Poortvliet scored her fourth goal to settle the score at 7-1.

Next, Dereham entertain Holcombe. The teams are two points apart in the Premier Division. Dereham are top with a goal difference of +53, but positions could change.