In what was a tremendous advertisement for English hockey, East Grinstead and Reading fought out an eight goal thriller in their Round 2 match in the EuroHockey League this morning.
Without injured Ashley Jackson and Darren Cheesman, the early minutes of the match looked as if it might turn into a rout for East Grinstead, with Richard Mantell scoring for Reading in the opening minutes from a penalty corner. Jonty Clarke followed this up with a 21 minute goal in open play, but the modest 2-0 score belied the amount of pressure that Reading were applying to the East Grinstead defence.
Reading increased their lead early in the second half when Chris Cargo scored their third, but suddenly the pressure switched, with Danny Hall finding the net twice for EG in less than two minutes.
From this point the match became more evenly matched and there was an audible sigh of relief from the Reading supporters when Chris Cargo scored again to give his side a two goal lead.
East Grinstead kept fighting to the end, with Gareth Carr scoring with 13 minutes left, unusually for him from open play. But it was Reading who had the last word by sealing their dominance of this match with a 65th minute goal from Richard Springham. The final score, 5-3 to Reading.
A sad end to a season which has seen some high moments for East Grinstead, somewhat spoilt by a flaky finish to the England Hockey League season and their recent defeat in the Championship finals. But the Sussex club must share much of the credit with Reading for putting on a thoroughly entertaining match this morning.
On Monday Reading will face the winners of the match between KHC Dragons and Rot Weiss Koln, which will be played later today. The prize will be a place in the semi-finals.
Images from this morning’s match will appear on our site at www.HockeyImages.co.uk later today.
