Petersfield Veterans 8 Winchester Veterans 0: PETERSFIELD Veterans put eight goals past Winchester to put them in a good position for next week’s league decider against Chichester.

The early exchanges were even, with Liddell and Hulme, at the heart of the Petersfield midfield dominating, but uncharacteristic errors from Thompson, Parker and a host of others meant the ball was regularly turned over. When the Petersfield forwards did penetrate, they found the Winchester keeper in fine form. After ten minutes, Thompson’s well struck penalty corner was bundled in by Parker. Petersfield then upped their game and scored four more at five minute intervals. First, Liddell showed no subtlety, running into the D and slamming the ball home; Dryden-Brownlee added the third with a precise shot from an acute angle and then the fourth came after good approach play from Cleife. The first half scoring was completed by White, finishing a well-worked penalty corner from the left.

Winchester changed their formation at the beginning of the second half, giving the home side less space in midfield. This worked well, and Winchester dominated play at the beginning of the half, requiring fine tackling from Rowland, Cornelius and Wilson to keep the Winchester forwards at bay. Gradually, Petersfield put some fine passing moves together. Although the rearranged Winchester defence, some fine goalkeeping and profligate finishing kept the score down, three further goals were added by Dryden-Brownlee to complete his hat-trick, Budden and Parker. At the final whistle, Petersfield were well worth an 8-0 win and, arguably, should have scored many more. The result gives Petersfield a three point and two goal difference over their rivals, Chichester, for next week’s decider.