Cannock exposed themselves to a character building lesson when they visited Surbiton in the Men’s Slazenger EHL Premier Division this afternoon. Their fourteen league goals to date soon became seventeen as Hardeep Jawanda, Richard Lane and Gareth Andrew took the Midlanders into the second half with a 3-1 advantage, Surbiton’s only goal coming from Tim Pinnock. Pinnock pulled the score back to 3-2 soon after the restart and suddenly it was Cannock who were weathering the storm. Some superb goalkeeping by James Fair managed to keep the Surbiton hordes at bay until the 57th minute, when Ben Tibble scored the equaliser from a penalty corner. The pressure sometimes seemed too much for Cannock, and although this could never been described as a dirty game, first Richard Lane, and then Garreth Andrew and Russ Hayward, spent spells in the sin-bin. It was Andrew, not long back on the pitch, managed to find the net when the ball fell loose for him close to the left post. His goal, with three minutes of play left, proved to be the winner in this closely contended match. Cannock still lead the division on a generous goal difference, followed by East Grinstead, who beat Southgate 3-1 yesterday.
Bowdon managed to recover from their ordeal against Cannock last weekend to win their match against Hamptead & Westminster by a single goal. The scorer, Stephen Brogdon. Beeston at last showed us what they are made of, with their first win of the season. Going 1-0 down against Loughborough Students, they managed to find the net four times in the second half, courtesy of Chris Seddon, Mohammed Nadeem (2) and Adam Dixon. Final score 4-2. The other Premier Division match this weekend was between Havant and Reading and was played yesterday. Reading were the 2-0 winners, leaving Havant propping up the table on zero points.
Our picture shows the post goal celebrations after Gareth Andrew (centre) scored Cannock’s winner.
In Round Two of the women’s cup, the Premier Division sides emerged unscathed with some impressive scores. Bowdon Hightown put twelve passed Didsbury Northern for no reply, with Olton & West Warwicks adding to a successful weekend with a 10-1 win over Worcester. Slough found the net eleven times against Salisbury for no reply, Clifton won 9-1 at Teddington, Trojans won 12-0 when visited by Westberries, whilst comparatively speaking, Leicester had a modest 3-0 win over Whitley Bay and Tynemouth. Poynton beat Spingfields UCLAN 5-0.
