Oxton Hockey Club make history against Durham

Oct 13 2010 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

OXTON Hockey club men’s first team made the long journey to Durham on Saturday to play the University in the North Hockey Premier League.

The visitors were second best in the opening stages with Durham forcing the early pressure with two short corners.

Oxton soon found their feet and with 10 minutes gone took the lead. Jonathan Hodgkinson’s marauding run down the channel resulted in a cross to Dave Bailey who from a foot out deflected into the roof of the Durham net.

From this point Oxton took control. Dave Given, Sam Cooke and Hodgkinson stamped their authority on the midfield not allowing the students any time to settle on the ball. This dominance was rewarded just before the interval when Given seized on a defensive error to set up Ali McKenzie who finished in emphatic style.

In the second-half, Oxton continued to control the game. Full-back Nik Heyes was a constant threat down the right flank with his strong running and link-up play.

Both McKenzie and Cooke fired over when in good positions and the Durham keeper made several fine saves.

In contrast, the Oxton keeper Green enjoyed a quiet afternoon until the last five minutes when he made a crucial stop from a Durham breakout.

Durham had the last say of the afternoon when they rifled home a short corner on the final whistle. This was an excellent result for Oxton who hadn’t won away at Durham before and look forward to taking on Crewe at home this coming Saturday.

OTHER notable results saw the second team stay top of the league with a 5-1 win over GSK South Lakes firsts, Chris Lovell, Joe Hillyer, Pete Cole, Tom Hughes and Tim Lomas with the goals. The fourth team defeated Colwyn Bay seconds 6-0 thanks to goals from Ed Moody (2), Ben Simpson (2), Jamie Devine and Dave Young to keep them joint top of the table.

RARELY a happy hunting ground, Neston South Wirral suffered their first league defeat as they went down 2-0 against South Cheshire at Sandbach. After a tentative opening from both sides, the home side took a rather fortuitous lead when their centre-forward miss-controlled a pass but saw the ball roll under the advancing Rich Lowry in the Neston goal.

The hosts wrapped the game up 10 minutes after the restart as when a penalty corner was deflected into his own goal by Steve Elsmoor.

This Saturday, Neston will hope to return to winning ways when they entertain Northop Hall at Parkgate.

Elsewhere the ladies’ first team top Cheshire Division 2 following a thrilling 4-3 success at Northop Hall.