Two out of three ain't bad. Just ask St Matthew's Collegiate skipper Amanda Pottinger who was playing in her third successive Wellington secondary schoolgirls premier division hockey grand final on Friday night . Her team's thrilling 1-0 victory over Wairarapa College at the National Hockey Stadiium at Newtown Park made it titlenumber two for Pottinger and she was understandably delighted with what she labelled an "awesome" result.. Two seasons back Pottinger was part of a St Matthew's squad which also defeated Wairarapa College in a final which was all tied up at the end of ordinary time and was won by St Matthews in "golden goal" extra time. Then last year St Matthew's had their party spoiled at the very last hurdle when they were beaten by one of the many Wellington-based colleges in the premier division,Samuel Marsden.. Pottinger put the latest St Matthew's title win down to good teamwork in a match which she agrees could well have gone either way.Both teams created a number of prime scoring chances but the goal scored by Jade Foreman for St Matthew's about 10 minutes into the second half was enough to give them victory. "I would say we had the better of the first half and they came back quite strongly in the second, "Pottinger said. "There wasn't a lot in it". What pleased Pottinger most about the St Matthew's effort was the positive manner in which they answered the call from coach Abby Hill to lift their performance levels after they had struggled to defeat Samuel Marsden in the semis seven days beforehand. "We knew we could play better and everybody did, it was an awesome win," she said. Adding further to the pleasure for Pottinger was that two Wairarapa teams were playing off the Wellington title, a "big buzz" for hockey in this region She said many good friendships had already been forged between the St Matthew's and Wairarapa College players and it was nice to know that whoever won the final the championship would be coming to the Wairarapa. That Friday night's encounter went right to the wire was no surprise as St Matthew's Collegiate and Wairarapa College had met twice in preliminary round play and on each occasion a 2-2 draw was the result.
