Marjons of Plymouth B . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0
Tavistock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
TAVISTOCK Men's Hockey team retained their position as league leaders on Saturday with a hard-fought away victory over Marjons of Plymouth 'B'.
This was Tavy's sixth successive victory, which has seen them rise from mid-table to top division South West 1 by a single point, with two matches left to play. Tavy battled hard against a quick and skilful Marjons side on a bitterly cold day.
Marjons would have been out of the game by half time if Tavy had taken all their chances but a single Nick Andrews strike was all that separated the two teams at the interval.
The game swung in Marjons favour when influential midfielder Matt Way was shown a yellow card and sin-binned for ten minutes. Captain Kev Lethbridge marshalled his defence well to keep Marjons at bay while a man short.
The home side grew in confidence after this and Tavy were fortunate that the only shot to beat Neil Bradley in goal was spotted by the umpire as being hit from outside the D.
Centre forward Damian Heard should have doubled Tavy's lead in the last five minutes with his trademark one-on-one with the keeper, after good work by John Barratt and Tom Honey.
An excellent save gave Marjons something to cheer late in the game. Tavy have another tough away game this Saturday, (12:00 Liskeard) though, fortunately, so do the two teams immediately below them.