Aldershot & Farnham V 1 Petersfield III 3: PETERSFIELD Hockey Club’s men’s third team started the new season with a convincing 3-1 victory against Aldershot and Farnham’s fifth team.

Petersfield started strongly and controlled the opening 20 minutes. The high intensity paid off when Ankers scored the first goal.

Formations then became a little ragged, and Aldershot and Farnham started getting the better of the midfield. Petersfield’s defensive line of Thompson, Wood, Vickers and H Plewes remained solid, enabling Petersfield to stay ahead at the break.

A couple of positional changes saw Petersfield take back control of the midfield and dominate possession for most of the second half.

It was only a matter of time before Street pierced through the defence and clinically shot past the keeper to make it 2-0.

The tempo remained fast with both teams competing hard. With ten minutes remaining Aldershot and Farnham pulled a goal back, and for a few minutes it looked like they had the initiative.

However, Petersfield took back control, putting their tired opposition on the back foot. Bott, R Plewes, Maugham-Taylor, Street and Cooke-Priest linked well down both flanks in attack, and the pressure earned a short corner from which Thompson clinically buried a rebound to put Petersfield 3-1 up and out of reach.

Strong debuts from Hoe and Scott-Plumber summed up a very promising opening match of the season for Petersfield’s third team.