Neston slump to defeat while Oxton draw

Oct 29 2008 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

NESTON South Wirral slumped to a second successive league defeat when they were routed 5-0 at home to Brooklands.

Neston actually started the brighter, playing some fluent attacking hockey, but lacked composure in front of goal.

They found themselves two goals down within 10 minutes after Brooklands capitalised on basic errors.

Pete Glasman, again worked tirelessly in the Neston midfield, but Brooklands gained in confidence and always threatened as they attacked at pace.

A third Brooklands goal arrived when a drag flick somehow found its way past Paul Shepherd.

Neston battled to get back into the game in the second period, but were again wasteful with their opportunities.

They were punished late on as the visitors scored a fourth from the penalty spot after Dan Khedun had blocked a shot with his head.

A further goal just added to Neston’s woes and they will look to bounce back this Saturday, when they make the short trip to Oxton.

Elsewhere, the second team continued their improved form as they picked up a point from a 2-2 draw at high flying Morecambe.

Oxton resumed their Northern Premier League campaign when they entertained Durham University on Saturday.

The Wirral side were looking to build on last week’s win over Timperley and got off to a great start racing into a 2-0 lead through Trevor Merrick and Ali McKenzie.

Durham grabbed a lifeline just before half time, scrambling the ball home from close range to make the score 2-1.

After the restart, Durham put pressure on the home defence which led to an equaliser.

With 10 minutes to go, Durham took the lead for the first time in the match but Oxton still had some time to save the game.

They duly started to apply pressure to the visitor’s goal and were rewarded when Trevor Merrick fired home to equaliser to end the game 3-3.

Oxton will hope for an improved performance when they travel to Yorkshire next week to take on Wakefield.

The second team were unlucky to come away from top of the table Knutsford with a 2-1 defeat, while the fifth team had a resounding 9-0 victory over Sale II.

Oxton’s sixth team went back to the top of the league with a 5-1 win against Chester, while ladies teams were not in league action but the first team defeated Runcorn 9-0 in a friendly, Jules Armstrong with five goals.