PETERSFIELD Hockey Club’s men’s third team fell to a narrow defeat at Fareham’s eighth team on Saturday.

The game started at a fast pace, with the young Fareham midfield tearing into tackles and breaking at speed.

Danny Rowland in the centre of the Field defence was the busiest player on the pitch but swept up everything the home team could throw at him and was able to launch a number of counter attacks by releasing Dave Morley and Alexander Young down the right. A couple of short corners came to nothing for Petersfield and other chances from open play were few and far between.

Fareham opened the scoring with a short corner of their own, a clean strike beating Morley on the left post.

The half ended with Nick Budden sin-binned for dissent, having appealed against one too many decisions.

When he returned to the play, N Budden moved up into midfield, alongside skipper Ben White and Josh Bardoe.

This change made the visitors a far more potent threat and many more balls were threaded through to Max White, Elliot White and John Budden in the front line.

The pressure eventually told with a short corner leading to B White’s goalbound shot being stopped on the line by a Fareham foot. N Budden coolly slotted the resulting penalty stroke to make it 1-1.

The rest of the game was dominated by Petersfield and some reckless tackling from the home side.

The visitors pushed hard for a winner. However, Fareham broke and won a short corner just before the final whistle blew. The corner was retaken after keeper Charlie Weller had saved the initial shot and Morley had cleared, the umpire deciding Rowland had broken from the line early.

Fareham then worked the angle from the retaken corner, with the ball deflected in at the right-hand post to win the game and leave the Petersfield team with their heads down and three consecutive defeats.

In their previous match, Petersfield’s third team fell to a 2-1 defeat at Alton’s fifth team.

Having dominated the opening 15 minutes, with Josh Bardoe, Eddy Giles and Ian Brockwell particularly to the fore, Field conceded to the first attack sprung by Alton.

The home side were able to work the ball through the centre of the pitch far too easily, leaving their centre forward one-on-one with Charlie Weller in goal.

Having rounded the keeper the attacker’s goalbound shot struck the covering Nick Budden on the foot and a penalty stroke was awarded and duly converted.

Petersfield lost some of their early fluency but were still the stronger side. John Budden, in particular, stood out with his constant harrying of the Alton defence, chasing down through passes, blocking clearances and generally making a nuisance of himself.

The weather turned before half time, with driving sleet and hail and a ferocious wind making for tough conditions.

Field got themselves back in the game in the second half when J Budden chased another seemingly lost cause. An Alton defender let the ball run to the baseline but J Budden pulled it back just before it went out of play and Roberto Casabianca slotted home.

The low late afternoon sun was soon shining in Alton, making it very hard to see, particularly with N Budden hitting long passes towards his midfielders and forwards.

Field succumbed to another rare Alton attack, once again leaving Weller exposed and unable to keep out a shot at his near post.