Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeHOCKEYHistoric first win is recorded at Hollybush Lane

Historic first win is recorded at Hollybush Lane

Sevenoaks recorded an historic first win in the National Premier League on Saturday with a 3-1 victory over visitors Brooklands MU. Having had a tough start to life in the top division, losing their opening four games, it was a relief for the Kent side to finally get off the mark.

Oaks made an excellent start to the game, pressing Brooklands well, and when Duncan Parnis, Tim Warrington and David Smith combined, they won a penalty corner in the 10th minute. Andrew Ross converted with aplomb to put the side in purple 1-0 up. Sevenoaks continued to put pressure on the visitors, preventing them from putting any sustained pressure on Richard Potton’s goal, until they won a penalty corner in the 26th minute. After the initial effort was blocked the Brooklands forward reacted quickest and fired the ball into the back of the net to draw the sides level at 1-1. That was how it remained until half-time.

Oaks started the 2nd half on the front foot and were unfortunate not to re-take the lead, after a couple of penalty corners were well defended by Brooklands. Midway through the half, Oaks were forced to play with 10 men when captain Warrington was sin-binned for 5 minutes, but fortunately Brooklands were unable to capitalise on this, and in fact were reduced to 10 men for 2 minutes also. Once back to 11 vs 11, with 12 minutes remaining, Oaks really stepped the intensity up, and a penalty corner with just over 10 minutes to go was converted by Ross for his and Oaks’s 2nd of the game, making it 2-1. 3 minutes later Oaks put the game to bed with another penalty corner, again put away by Ross for his hat-trick to make it 3-1. Despite taking off their keeper, to chase the game, Brooklands were unable to find a way back into the game and Oaks took the well-deserved 3 points.

Next week they face another vital game against Canterbury, who currently sit below them in the table, looking for their first points of the season.

RELATED ARTICLES

WEEKLY STATS REPORT

Most Popular