Neston South Wirral pull clear of drop zone with two wins

Jan 12 2011 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

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Neston South Wirral3

NESTON South Wirral had a great start to the new year, as they came out of the weekend with two fine wins to pull themselves clear of the relegation zone in North Division 2.

Neston came away from Saturday’s six-pointer at fellow strugglers Winnington Park, with an excellent 3-0 win, although the visitors required a huge slice of luck to take the lead, as Rogier Van Der Ouderaa’s shot was heading well wide before being deflected in by a home defender.

After the interval, Neston continued to put in a battling display, not giving Winnington any time on the ball, but it wasn’t until McNeight drilled in from Aled Jarvis’ pass that they really started to take control and the third goal only arrived late on, when Andy Knight converted from the penalty spot.

On Sunday, Neston put in their best performance of the season as they overcame promotion chasing Bramhall 5-2 at Parkgate. In an end-to-end encounter, Knight gave Neston the lead after 20 minutes as he flicked into the net, but James Duke responded within two minutes to equalise. However, just before the break, Jason Long put the finishing touch to a superb length of the field move to put Neston back in front.

Immediately after the re-start, the Parkgate men were caught napping, and Simon Livingstone fired in from a tight angle to make it 2-2. Neston dug deep though, and Van Der Ouderaa’s set piece saw them regain the lead and the skipper punished them further when he smashed in his second with ten minutes left. Neston again, should have added to their lead, but had to wait until McNeight flicked in from the penalty spot.

This weekend, Neston will look to maintain their bright start to the year when they travel to Sefton.

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Oxton hockey club men’s first team got the second half of their season underway with a Cheshire Cup semi-final away against Deeside Ramblers, a fixture that was going to test Oxton as Deeside play a league above in the national conference north.

The home side started well, with some prolonged periods of pressure on the Oxton defence, which was rewarded with a series of short corners at regular intervals throughout the half. Although Olly Green made some fine saves, Deeside’s short corner specialist found his range, and by half time the home team were 3-0 up, with all the goals coming from very effective short corner routines. Oxton looked a little off the pace following the recent break but the second half saw a much better performance from the visitors.

But Deeside continued to cause problems and it was only a matter of time until they extended their lead to 4-0. Oxton pulled two goals back through Ali McKenzie and Joe Hillyer, but Deeside added two more on the break to make it 6-2.

Oxton resume the league programme this weekend with a vital away game against league leaders Preston followed by a rearranged home fixture versus Hull on Sunday.