Alderley Edge Men's 1s suffered defeat in North Hockey's Premier division away at Brooklands this week.
Alderley looked the brighter of the two sides in the early exchanges and were coping with the hosts long ball tactics, whilst not being to create too many chances.
Good forward play from Sam Gregory gave James Warburton the chance to finish from close range and give Alderley the lead. However, the game stagnated with Brooklands sitting deeper and flooding the middle of the pitch and neither
'keeper had much to do.
Alderley were awarded a free hit in their own half and it was taken quickly with the Brookland's player appearing not to have retreated 5 metres, but the tackle was made and Brooklands sprang a quick attack and cleverly won a penalty corner, which was duly converted for the equaliser.
The rest of the half continued in the same vein with Alderley maintaining possession but not able to get in behind the Brooklands defence and Brooklands happy to isolate their forwards and hope a speculative pass paid off.
The second half started badly for Alderley Edge as the Brooklands forward showed good strength and then experience beating a couple of challenges before drawing a rash challenge from Cook on the edge of the D. The penalty corner was awarded and Cook sin-binned. To make matters worse Brooklands scored from the corner and with Alderley down to 10 men Brooklands launched more attacks and won and scored another penalty corner.
Alderley still forced the Brooklands keeper into a good block and an interception as the game opened out a little.
Alderley were not at full strength for long as Joe Gregory was next in the sin-bin for not retreating after Brooklands took a quick free hit. Very soon after Kay was also sent to the sidelines after harshly having a foul given against him and as he took the free hit quickly to a team mate he was adjudged to have deliberately broken up play.
Brooklands then scored a scrappy fourth goal as a melee in the D resulted in the loose ball being dug out by the forward and he scooped the ball into the net.
Alderley were not finished and pulled one back when the returning Kay put the ball into the open net after good forward play again from Warburton and Gregory pulled the defence out of position.
Alderley squandered a late penalty corner and could not redress the balance. A disappointing result but Alderley were never quite on top form throughout. Final score 4-2.
The second team got back to winning ways and leapfrogged their opponents Winnington Park 1s in the process. An own goal and strike from James Warburton and an Andrew Wood penalty corner gave them a 3-1 victory.
The 3rd team are 5 points clear at the top of the table after a 4-0 away win at Chester with Karim Ghazanfar, Will Hughes, Sam Gardner and Andrew Walker the scorers.
The fourth team hit the goals trail against Wrexham 2s, goals from Fin Allenby, James Ireland, Robin Laughton, Chris Taylor and Richard Williams gave them a 5-1 win and moves them up to third.
The 5s are also third despite losing 3-1 to Crewe 3rd team. The 6th string had a good 1-1 draw with Sale 3s and the 7th team had a very good 3-2 away win at Triton 4s.
Photo: James Warburton threatens goal.
Match report by James Riley.
