Petersfield Veterans 7 Salisbury Striders 2: PETERSFIELD Veterans saw off the challenge from Salisbury Striders in style.

The home side started in confident mood. Parker, Cleife and Cunliffe combined well and it didn’t take long for a penalty corner to be awarded. Cunliffe passed the ball to Cleife on the penalty spot, who made no mistake.

It didn’t take long for the lead to be doubled through Parker finishing Davis’ precise pass at the far post. A couple of smart one-twos with White gave Cleife his second, slamming the ball past the Salisbury keeper.

Salisbury pulled one back in their first foray into the Petersfield D through an early shot wrong-footing the advancing keeper.

In the second half, Salisbury played much higher up the pitch, putting Petersfield under more pressure.

Petersfield broke the Salisbury stranglehold, and White’s through ball to Parker gave Petersfield their fourth. This was followed by a trademark run and shot from Hulme to make it 5-1.

Salisbury continued to tackle resolutely and pose a threat up front. Although the Petersfield defence kept a number of penalty corners out, poor marking allowed Salisbury to pull the score back to 5-2 with a tap-in at the far post from open play.

Petersfield killed the game off through Cleife and Cunliffe’s majestically simple one-two, as Cleife completed his hat-trick to make it 6-2.

The scoring was completed by Davis’ dribbler from Budden’s cross, which evaded the Salisbury keeper.