PETERSFIELD WIN AT HOME

Petersfield hosted 11th placed Salisbury on a brisk Saturday afternoon and were hoping to use the home advantage to their strength and steal the 3 points on offer and extend the unbeaten run at home. New boy Verney was given his debut with the Petersfield 1st XI as forward Harris remains out of action due to injury.
After the game plan was set and words provided by Captain Grinstead and Vice-Captain Clay, the battle cry of 1, 2, 3, FIELD chanted by the side thundered through Petersfield Town.

Petersfield started with the ball and immediately began to pile the pressure on the Salisbury defence with an all-out attack strategy. This worked well as the Salisbury side started slow, allowing gaping holes across the field to be exploited by the Petersfield side. Pressing runs from wing-backs Rye & Marlow allowed the press set to advance further up the field to hassle the Salisbury defence and force errors. The midfield of Hind, Grinstead, Alder, Edney and Terry controlled the midfield and released forwards Hall, Verney, Hughes-Stanton and J. Atkinson repeatedly which heaped great success. Within 15 minutes, Petersfield found themselves 4-0 up after goals from Hughes-Stanton (2) & J. Atkinson (2). Petersfield centre backs were enjoying the pivoting role with a reduced amount of pressure. This allowed, calm and collected hockey to be displayed and started by the defenseman. All plays were switched, recycled and held causing much frustration for the opposition. A well worked penalty corner goal from J. Atkinson to secure his hatrick and extend the lead after his lightning bolt strike flew passed the line, thumped the backboard with an almighty echo surrounding the grounds and flew back out to the penalty spot before the defenders had advanced two yards. Salisbury continued to press on and build on their attacks towards the Petersfield goal, yet Hawkins, W. Atkinson, Clay, Marlow and Rye created a brick wall around the circle, preventing the Salisbury attacks coming in. Salisbury were then caught on a counter play which saw a well worked baseline move, pulled back across goal to be swept in by Hall before the half was drawn to a close.

The second half was much different to the first. Despite Petersfield continuing to create chances, the final shot at goal was not hitting the mark. Salisbury obtained their own share of chances after Petersfield were reduced to 10 men after Hughes-Stanton was sinbinned for a late tackle. With the extra man advantage, Salisbury pressed high, created routes into the circle, but came to no avail as keeper Smith bounced all back out. Salisbury’s first clear cut chance came from a penalty stroke which went wide of the target before a handful of penalty corners were obtained. Despite the pressure, Petersfield held their nerve and battled it out of the circle. Hughes-Stanton soon revisited the same area sinbin area after saying a no no word after colliding with a player off the ball. On this occasion, despite being a man down, Petersfield extended the lead further with a goal from Grinstead after chipping the ball into the net after picking up the rebound from an initial penalty corner strike. Back to full strength, Petersfield began to become complacent with the lead and soon found themselves reeling when Salisbury scored twice on the bounce, narrowing the lead and reigniting their style of play. The Petersfield side held strong and denied Salisbury chances after a string of long corner plays and turned the last into a full out attack. The Petersfield forwards, sprinted to the far end and Hughes-Stanton made up for his previous mistakes by scoring his 3rd goal goal of the game, slipping the ball passed the oncoming keeper. At the restart, both sides played the remainder of the fixture out until the whistle.

The victory against Salisbury allows Petersfield remain in 3rd place within Hampshire Division 2 and face Gosport in the upcoming fixture where a further 3 points will be the objective.

Team; Smith, Marlow, Hawkins, Rye, W. Atkinson, Terry, Grinstead ©, Hind, Hughes-Stanton, Hall, J. Atkinson, Alder, Edney, Clay and Verney.