Friars cooking on gas as Chichester hockey players return to action

Connor McLaughlin in possession for Chi seconds / Picture by Derek Martin

There were mixed fortunes for Chichester's hockey teams as they got back on the pitch after the festive break - while the under-eights and under-tens had a home festival to enjoy.

Chichester Friars 6 Guildford 2

Wessex Masters Cup

This was a great start to 2019 for the Friars.

For the first ten minutes, the Friars were under constant pressure, unable to put any form of attack together. Rob Torrance in goal made an excellent double save to keep Guildford out.

In the first Friars attack, a short corner was awarded and Martin Hughes smashed in the shot to make it 1-0 – against the run of play.

Guildford enjoyed most of the ball but were unable to score thanks to a great performance from Torrance and some solid defending.

Guildford got a breakthrough after 28 minutes with a superb reaction shot from the top of the D. Almost immediately, the Friars found themselves ahead again with Alex Langhein finishing off a sweeping move with a great finish.

Five minutes later, the lead was increased to 3-1 when Tracey Boyce went on one of his weaving runs into the D, slotting the ball past the keeper with a reverse-stick shot.

From the second-half pushback it was clear the Friars would be more dominant. Andrew Savory fired in a shot with 50 minutes gone to increase the lead to 4-1, but it took only two minutes for Guildford to hit back from a close-range effort.

The game became very competitive and the Friars had to work hard in defence and midfield.

Nick Laurence increased the lead after 57 minutes, stealing the ball from the defender to tap home after a great pass into the D from Langhein.

The win was sealed in the last minute when Hughes fired in another short corner shot which dipped over the keeper.

It was another great team performance, but special credit goes to Torrance in goal and Dave Walters, who covered a huge amount of ground and completed countless tackles in midfield.

Friars: Torrance, Walters, Hughes, Savory, Jaeger, Boyce, Osborne, Strange, Wharton, Smith, Langhein, Laurence.

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Chichester 2nds 2 Andover 7

Chichester entertained league leaders Andover in their first game of 2019 hoping to build on a run of three pre-Christmas wins - but it didn’t work out that way.

The first real opportunity fell to Chichester with a well-worked attack down the left by Oscar Pacey, who slipped the ball to Connor McLaughlin – but he saw his shot parried away by the Andover keeper.

Andover started to gain confidence and looked to attack on the break and with a period of increased pressure, they gained a penalty corner which was converted with a well-struck shot past Jasper Marshall, the Chichester keeper.