Men's 1's well beaten at Saffron Walden

Havering traveled to top of the table Saffron Walden knowing they needed to get a result in order to keep their slim hope of promotion alive. This was never going to be an easy task as the home side had won ten games on the bounce since a 4-1 defeat at Campion in the reverse fixture. Havering were without Brothers Ollie and Josh Cipa, Paul Dover and Mike Hinton and to make matters worse Alastair lewis was a late withdrawal on the morning of the match.

The team were sent out with the plan to sit deep and frustrate their opponents and look to hit them on the break a plan which in the early stages of the match showed some signs of promise when Stuart Garnell was sent through in the D, unfortunately for Havering he failed to find the finish in front of the keeper. Walden had the ball for long periods and created to good chances but were thwarted by Joe Cole who made a double save and then a fine stick save sending the ball past the post.

Despite the pressure from the home side Havering had two promising attacks where they created overload situations on the Walden defense but on both occasions lost possession when passing into the D. Walden made Havering pay when a good attack down the right of the pitch found the dangerous Walden captain on the far post, again Cole made the initial save but was helpless to stop him finishing the rebound. It got worse for Havering minutes later when an attack and cross down the left into the D deflected off of Adam lumbers stick to give the home side a 2-0 lead. Walden continued to dominate posession for the rest of the half but where unable to add to their tally.

At the start of the second half Havering pushed forward in order to get back into the match but were guilty of giving away cheap possession on numerous occasions. Walden won their first penalty corner of the game and a drag flick looked on course to nestle in the roof of the net only for Cole to pull off another stunning stick save to deflect the ball wide. Another penalty corner came soon after and this time a more tame effort down the middle of the goal wrong footed the unfortunate Cole.

Sensing the opportunity to kill the game Walden continued to press forward and another gift of possession and missed interception in the Havering back line allowed a forward through on Cole who hit a reverse stick shot through the keepers legs. At this point the game was all but over but Havering showed some character and had a spell of decent hockey resulting in their only penalty corner of the match, Gaz Ingram's strike was saved by the home shot stopper. The final fifteen minutes resulted was an even affair with both teams sharing possession and exchanging attacks but the game came to an end with Havering knowing they were well beaten.

Havering were slightly boosted that Old Southendians had failed to capitalize on events and drew with IES meaning a four point advantage with four games to play. Still a slim bit of hope but a bit of hope all the same.

MOTM- Joe Cole DOTD- Joe Cole