Lewes Men's 1s finally get a win

as Lewes went up against the young students of Oxford. It is to the credit of the team and their coach, Stuart Goodman, that they played their best hockey of the season so far to secure this long awaited victory. They were without three of their most experienced players and this gave three youngsters the chance of good pitch time in first eleven hockey as James Heaton, Ed Firth and Will Wycherley joined the other two young regulars in the side, James Fuller and Jonny Rea. They all contributed well.

Oxford quickly showed that they were fast and well coached as they launched a series of attacks which earned them three penalty corners in short order. However the defence and in particular the goalkeeper, Rory Jervis, showed them that goals would not be easy to come by. It was a counter following one of these attacks that the Oxford defence opened up and swift passing between skipper Matt Needle and Matt Clark allowed them to put Jonny Rea through to take on the Oxford keeper. He brought down Rea as he was about to shoot, received a yellow card for his pains and Alex Baxter made no mistake with the shot from the penalty spot. Oxford did their best to equalise but good defence and some superb keeping by Jervis kept them at bay despite three further short corners and yellow cards reducing Lewes to nine men for the last few minutes of the half.

Lewes showed their new found confidence early in the second half when they won their first penalty corner of the game and Needle flicked the ball into the back of the net. The Oxford defence became disjointed but Lewes were unable to take advantage of a series of attacks that went to the line. Mid-way through the half Oxford managed to score from one of six penalty corners that went their way but within five minutes Needle bagged the third for Lewes with a well taken penalty corner. Oxford got one back in the dying moments but it was a consolation goal and Lewes emerged from the contest as worthy victors.

Hopefully the target of six points from the last three games of this half is now realistic and the next chance to add to the tally is away at Old Cranleighans on Saturday.