Hockey: Alderley dig in to retain top spot

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Alderley Edge Men's Hockey section go into the Christmas break with three teams topping their respective divisions.

The first team head North Division One following their 5-2 victory away at Didsbury Northern, the second team have a six point gap at the summit of North West 2 and eight ahead of their promotion rivals, as well as a vastly superior goal difference following their 4-4 draw with Bangor Uni who equalised with the last touch of the game. Goals came from Sam Baker, Rob Hughes, Andy Jackson and Ed Johnson.

The men's 6th team have a six point lead over the others in their division and the 3rd team are in the hunt for promotion sitting in second place following their draw with top of the table Runcorn.

On Saturday lunchtime the Men's first team made the short trip to a wet and slippy Fallowfield to take on Didsbury Northern who started the game just two points off top spot.

Alderley started off brightly and pressurised the Didsbury back line into mistakes, but no clear cut open play chances arose. Against the run of play Didsbury were awarded a penalty corner and the drag flick was expertly fired into the top corner.

The game evened out and Joe Gregory and Andy Williams battled hard in the middle to break up any Didsbury possession and counter for Alderley, this resulted in Ben Gregory going clear but his effort was blocked by the 'keeper who also saved well from Warburton from a penalty corner.

Neat interplay in the D from won a further corner for Alderley, the initial shot was blocked but possession was retained and the ball was worked out to Danny Butterworth, who showed excellent composure waiting for the defence to commit to the tackle before picking out Warburton to equalise.

Alderley took the lead not long after in similar fashion, from the next corner the ball hit a piece of patched up turf and ran out of the D to Taylor, he found Butterworth who again found the unmarked player, this time Adam Wildig who neatly finished.

Both teams continued to try to pass the ball quickly and the game was fast paced, mixed with the pitch and weather conditions lead to difficulties for the officials and some of the attacking players - making open play opportunities rare and set pieces more important.

From the next penalty corner Alderley won a penalty stroke, Sawas' goal bound effort striking a defender on the line. Warburton took the stroke, but saw his effort coming back off the upright. This lifted Didsbury's spirits and before half time they were level.

Alderley continued to show attacking intent and won a further penalty corner when Warburton was illegally blocked, the shot from the penalty corner appeared to hit a Didsbury defender, but the umpires played on. Alderley were caught short numbered in defence and the home side broke free and created a well worked goal at the back post.

The second half was much more rugged as both teams increased the intensity. Didsbury mounted more attacking intent without actually creating any scoring chances, Alderley looked impressive on the counter attack and again the 'keeper thwarted Gregory.

Didsbury saw a player sin-binned for repeatedly breaking up play, and Alderley retained good possession, making the Didsbury defence work hard to keep the score level.

Badger and Kay were now creating more space and giving Alderley more attacking options. Even when back to full strength Didsbury struggled to keep parity and when Barnes, playing in a more attacking role, was played in high in the D he fired in a cross shot which was deflected over his own 'keeper by a luckless defender.

With five minutes remaining Didsbury hit the self-destruct button, arguing with a decision lead to another sin-binning and the player then abused the umpire and found himself the recipient of a red card.

With Didsbury pushing on for an equaliser, with a player down and tiring legs this gave Alderley the opportunity to break almost at will and Adam Wildig was the beneficiary, first scoring from close range, when Alderley outnumbered Didsbury in the D, and then putting the finest of touches on a driven pass to grab his hat-trick and secure the points to keep Alderley in top spot.

Every single Alderley Edge team came away from this weekend undefeated; Men's 4s drew 1-1 with league leaders Lymm. The Ladies 1s improved their position in North Div 2 with a 1-0 win against Kirkby Stephen. The Boys U-11 won 3 and drew 2 in their mid-season tournament.

This is a member post by James Riley.

Photo: Adam Wildig (Digger) number16, scores a hat-trick for AEHC this weekend.

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Hockey
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