WARRINGTON Hockey Club’s Men’s 1st Team bounced back from recent disappointing results with a 3-2 victory at South
Manchester.
Warrington immediately took control of the game, playing their best hockey so far this year, and were soon rewarded with the lead. Richard Cook’s drag flick was saved by the Manchester goalkeeper only for Carl Fairhurst to drill the rebound into the goal from the top of the dee.
Manchester struck back, a loose ball out of defence was capitalised on and they managed to slip an equaliser past goalkeeper Tom Lloyd. Warrington soon regained the lead when Harvey Mason dribbled the ball down the right and picked out Alan Livingstone who swept the ball home.
The hosts squandered a golden opportunity to equalise before halftime, missing a controversially awarded penalty stroke.
Warrington continued to dominate in the second half but found a Manchester goalkeeper in top form, denying Cook, Nick Bottomley, Sam Pinion, and Livingstone on multiple occasions. The hosts equalised for the second time, against the run of play. In a carbon copy of their first goal, Warrington lost the ball sloppily and Manchester were able to counter against the exposed Lloyd.
Warrington deservedly snatched a winner with seconds remaining on the clock. Pinion showed great skill to draw multiple challenges before feeding Livingstone who placed a composed finish into the bottom corner, past the despairing Manchester goalkeeper.
Warrington Men’s 2nd Team picked up a much-needed 1-0 home win when they took to the field against Triton, played some great hockey and were unlucky to not win by more goals. The first half was dominated by Warrington but they were unable to break the deadlock. Sam Geary was unlucky to not get on the scoresheet and goalkeeper-come-forward
Tom Lloyd forced the Triton goalkeeper into action.
Warrington took the lead early in the second half. Lloyd played in Harvey Mason who jinked through the Triton defence before rounding the goalkeeper and sliding the ball into the open goal. Rob Powell and Ben Brown were unlucky not to extend the lead while Nick Parry was imperious in the Warrington goal when Triton did foray forwards.
Warrington Women’s 1st team suffered a 3-0 away defeat at unbeaten league leaders Cheshire Blues.
Warrington set their stall out in an attacking manner with a high press and a determination to give their hosts a thorough examination. Chances came and went for Warrington with Louise Unsworth and Lauren Hayes dominating the midfield and Helen Fairhurst and Emma Thelwell probing in advanced positions. Cheshire made them pay on the brink of halftime, taking the lead following some great saves from Tracy Jackson in goal.
Cheshire doubled their lead just after the break with a well-worked goal and found a third not long after to secure a result which flattered them and was harsh on a Warrington defence which had performed admirably.
Warrington Women’s Development fixture was postponed due to the weather.
