Hailsham Hockey Club |
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Affiliated to: Sussex Hockey Association |
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A blood and guts display by Hailsham saw them take all three points from a tempestuous encounter with St Francis at the Falmer Sports Complex.
In the early exchanges there was little to choose between the two sides with both defences dealing competently with attacks before forwards could make the decisive pass into the D and neither goalkeeper was unduly troubled.
When the deadlock was broken it was with one of the Hailsham goals of the season.
Mike Dixon intercepted a right wing cross on the edge of the Hailsham D and fed Ian Johnson who came off his marker and sprinted forward with his brother Steve racing down the right wing in support. Two perfectly executed one twos between the brothers Johnson sliced open the St Francis midfield and defence and allowed Steve Johnson to smash the ball home ensuring that Hailsham went into the half time break full of confidence.
Inevitably St Francis threw men forward at the restart and defenders Richard Bishop and Laurens Dyer were called upon to make decisive tackles whilst between them Martin Headey brought a cool head and immaculate positioning to the sweeper role.
The last fifteen minutes were packed with incident. First Sam Rham was hit above the eye by a deflected ball. With blood pouring from the wound Rham left the pitch for a quick piece of first aid and then heroically returned to the fray. Minutes later tempers boiled over after some wild tackles in midfield and when the St Francis right winger became involved in someone else's battle the umpire had no option but to send him on his way. It was not long before Hailsham were also down to ten men when Ben Stiles pulled a hamstring as he burst into the D trying to get on to a diagonal through ball from Phillips and it was lung busting stuff in all areas of the pitch.
There was still time for James Dyer to squeeze the ball against the St Francis goal post from close range and both sides forced short corners but in the end the 100% effort of the Hailsham team saw them through to an immensely satisfying win.
Next week Hailsham travel to Crawley keen to do the double over a keen and skilful side that brought the best out of Hailsham before Christmas.
Hailsham seconds spent almost the entire game defending against a very good Crawley side and, to be honest, did well to limit the score to 5-0.
Crawley haven't lost since the opening game of the season and their win over Hailsham was their 11th straight league victory.
The game was only three minutes old when Crawley took the lead but to Hailsham's credit, they didn't crumble under the avalanche of attacks from the skilful and youthful home side.
Although Crawley added more goals to the total throughout the game, there were no periods of collapse from Hailsham. Instead they defended en masse and put up a brave backs-to-the-wall stance against easily the best side they've played against all season.
It was 3-0 at half time but that was not to say the defence couldn't take any credit from their performance. Craig Tasane had another storming game in goal, making one fantastic save above his head to tip a deflected shot over the bar. And late in the game he saved yet another penalty flick - making it five out of five for the season.
The defence of Damian Martin, Danny Willis and captain Henry Drake coped reasonably well faced with a very quick skilful and mobile attack, and in the second half they were bolstered by John Martin, who dropped back from his position up front and James Clarke, who from wide in midfield, played practically as another defender.
There was unfortunately little for the attack to do, but late in the game Simon Barden made a good quick break but shot wide across the face of the goal.
Hailsham have played the top two teams away in their last two games but will be hoping for better things this Saturday when they take on Penguins at home.
This match was memorable for a superb debut performance from Gail Porter who scored both goals for Hailsham. In the end it was not quite enough against a talented Crawley side but Porter is clearly a name to remember for the rest of the season.
It may be surprising to take heart from a 5 - 0 thumping but skipper Mary Major was delighted with the spirit and endeavour shown by her under strength side. Injuries and unavailability meant that Hailsham could only muster nine players and they found themselves up against a frighteningly fit young University side who passed the ball around with some composure.
Hailsham kept the defeat to a respectable margin thanks in a large part to the goal keeping heroics of Pam Winter who was in inspired form.