Saxons slump to away loss

All the goals came in the second half as Saxons lost 3-0 against ninth-placed Crawley II, leaving them with just one Sussex Open Hockey League Division One victory on their travels all season.

The away side dominated the first half with the attacking players seeing a lot of the ball. Despite the possession, Saxons failed to create chances with the half dictated by winning fouls rather than making the much-needed early pass.

The half time chat demanded that Saxons release the ball earlier and look to play passing hockey. There were moments of this in the second half as Jon Meredith and Gavin Cload looked to push forward, but this led to a breakaway goal for Crawley, who outnumbered the Saxons defence.

Saxons created a number of short corner opportunities with Alex Coombs going close after beating the first defender and Jamie Busbridge having two efforts cleared off the line.

Crawley broke for their second and third goals, however, before Toby Reed rightly had a goal disallowed from yet another short corner. George Deaves was man of the match for some fine saves having come out of retirement to help out.

Saxons: Deaves, C. Meredith, Cornish, Reed, Riley, Cload, J. Meredith, Coombs, Reece, Stainsby, Busbridge.

Saxons will finish their league campaign with back-to-back home games, the first of which is against Brighton & Hove III this coming Saturday, push-back 1.30pm. Mike Sutton and Andrew Orr are set to come in, with Deaves making way.