Southern one

DART 4

OKEHAMPTON MEN’S FIRST 3

OKEHAMPTON travelled away to Dart on the back of two straight defeats.

They started out in a positive manner, but a momentary lapse of concentration lead to an easy ball being played into their D and an early goal was conceded.

The visitors quickly bounced back and began to dominate possession and territory. Soon a well needed break came from the travelling side and an equaliser from Josh Speak levelled the game. The intensity of the game drastically increased with both sides fighting for the three points. However, Oke’s Ed Howard, Andy Patterson and Rob Hall were unfazed and held strong in the midfield creating a period of constant possession for the visitors.

Their luck changed and the home side forced a penalty corner, which they converted to set the score at half time to Dart 2-1. 

Okehampton were determined to score early on in the second half, but unfortunately this did not go quite to plan. As Oke set to defend outside the D, they were wrong footed by a quickly taken free-hit and as the Dart player forced his way into the D, he hammered the ball into the back of the goal before keeper Hayden Bond could react.

Okehampton though kept their heads and began to rebuild from defence, but once again the home side scored, taking the score to 4-1.

Okehampton then found a new burst of energy, which was initiated from the defence of Neil Rowlands, Rod Gers, Will Cooper and Simon Bourne, who put in a flawless shift to stop any Dart attackers breaking through into the D. This egged on the rest of the side and forwards Reuben Bourne and Jacob Jones worked hard on the counter attack to win a short corner. Skipper Luke Liversidge was gifted the ball from an initial rebound off the keeper and beat the Dart defenders to score.

The visitors, spurred on by this goal and the potential to get back some points, began to attack again with Ed Howard slotting the ball in the home side’s goal, bringing the score line back to 4-3.

With only minutes to go, Okehampton ran out of time to find another goal but can take several positives.