WARRINGTON Hockey Club’s Men’s 1st Team showed their true grit with a hard-fought 3-2 home win over Sale.
Their recent mixed form reared its ugly head through the first half as passes, aerials, and chances were spurned allowing the visitors to take the initiative and ultimately the lead with a well taken volley at the far post. Sale could have scored more in the first half but goalkeeping heroics from Tom Lloyd kept the deficit to one at half-time.
Warrington got their heads together during the interval and approached the second half with more vigour, soon finding an equaliser. Richard Cook found Sam Pinion in the Sale dee who calmly worked himself into a shooting position before drilling a shot into the bottom corner. With momentum in hand Warrington soon took the lead. Movement between Cook and Alan Livingstone made space for Laurence Ankers to crash a pass through Carl Fairhurst to Andrew Gould who calmly applied a finish at the far post.
Against the run of play Sale made it 2-2 with a clinical counter attack to set up a grandstand finish but Warrington deservedly found the winner. Harvey Mason and Richard Bee combined to present Rob Powell with a chance which he happily took with a cool finish past the helpless Sale goalkeeper.
Warrington Men’s 2nd team travelled down the A49 to share the spoils with Winnington Park under the floodlights.
Warrington controlled the first half but were unable to break the deadlock before half-time with the host’s defence standing firm against numerous attacks. Warrington ramped up the pressure in the second half, with gaps beginning to show.
Douglas Samuels forced some great saves from the Winnington keeper but Warrington eventually nudged ahead.
Alastair Smith brought the ball forward before zipping a pass to Iain Richards in midfield. Richards proceeded to dribble through the defence before sliding a shot into the goal.
Warrington thought they’d doubled their lead through a deft deflected finish from Sam Geary but the goal was harshly disallowed for an earlier infringement. With less than 10 minutes to go Winnington finally pushed forward and despite great defensive work from Smith, Luke Skilander, and Andy Powell they managed to scramble an equalizer.
An below-strength Warrington Women’s 1st team suffered a 2-0 home defeat to a strong Sandbach side.
Warrington dug in and put in a stern defensive performance in the first half. Goalkeeper, Tracy Jackson made numerous excellent saves while Steph Quayle and Laura Herst took no prisoners against a young Sandbach attack. The second half saw the visitors take the lead from a short corner, with a well taken strike despite captain Sarah Gregson putting her body on the line.
The hosts pushed forward looking for a winner, Helen Fairhurst, Kellie Kellett, and Jenny Fox caused a lot of issues for Sandbach but the equaliser couldn’t be found. The visitors grabbed a second late on to secure the points from another short corner.
Warrington Women’s Development side didn’t have a fixture.
