Oxton Hockey Club faced Crewe last weekend

Oct 20 2010 by Terry Owen, Birkenhead News

OXTON Hockey club mens first team played host to Crewe Vagrants on Saturday in the Northern Premier League.

Oxton started well and created numerous chances but they carried on where they left off the previous week, missing chances.

The visitors grew in confidence and proceeded to test the Oxton defence.

Despite chances at both ends the game remained goalless at half time.

The game turned on its head after half time and Crewe took a surprise lead.

Ten minutes later Oxton drew level when Dave Given prodded the ball home after a goal mouth scramble, the following 10 minutes Oxton dominated but couldn’t find the breakthrough. Oxton were again punished by Crewe who struck home from the edge of the circle.

For several minutes Crewe threatened to extend their lead but were denied by an excellent save by keeper Olly Green and a last ditch tackle from Sam Cooke.

With ten minutes remaining skipper Gordon Moore finally showed his team-mates how to finish. Picking up on halfway he shrugged off several challenges, charged into the area and smashed the ball home into the roof of the net past a hapless Crewe keeper.

Into the last five minutes Oxton pushed for the winner and Moore won a short corner with another surging run and though Huw Collins’ effort was blocked Anton Rawlinson reacted quickly to score the winner.

This was Oxton’s third consecutive win and they’ll look to build on this when they travel to newly promoted Chester.

The second and the fourth teams kept up their excellent start to the season with 4-0 and 4-2 wins over Bebington and Crewe seconds respectively. Both sides stay top of their tables.

NICK FLYNN