HUDDERSFIELD Dragons Ladies are keeping the pressure on the leaders in the North Hockey Women’s League Division II East with a 3-0 home win over Hull.

With last week’s defeat at Alnwick still fresh in their minds, Huddersfield went out in determined fashion and worked hard for each other, leading to Sarah Blackburn scoring the opener from a short corner.

They continued to defend from the front in the second half and extended their lead with a strong strike from skipper Kelly Fillingham.

Dragons kept their focus with player-of-the-match Laura Thomas pushing the team forwards from the back, and they finally shut out Hull with a third strike, this time coming from Rachael Hemsley.

The victory sees them move into third place, two points behind leaders Newcastle University and a point behind second-placed Chapeltown.

Dragons II 1City of York 3

The Dragons seconds were raring to go against the team third in the table and gave them a battle to remember.

Unfortunately, early pressure failed to yield a goal, and when York broke away, confusion in Huddersfield’s defence allowed the home side to open the scoring.

The Dragons continued to have the majority of the play and enjoyed moments of excellent hockey without reward, and when York were awarded a penalty corner the home side extended their lead with a deflection.

Huddersfield were finally rewarded when Nikki Turner fired the ball towards the goal and a fantastic run by Becky Pinder ended with her getting a touch on the ball to slip it in between the keeper’s legs.

The visitors were fired up and came out fighting in the second half, but once again they were unable to capitalise on their domination, even when York had a player sin-binned.

Once the home side were restored to full strength they added a third goal, despite the best efforts of player-of-the-match Siobhan Martin.

Team: Martin, Dobson, Young, Eade, Durrans, Ramsden, Hargreaves, Turner, Fielding, McColl, Pinder, Peyman.