Southern one

Tavistock 6

Sidmouth and Ottery 2

TAVISTOCK hosted Sidmouth and Ottery for their final game before Christmas and were looking to maintain their 100% record this season.

On paper it should have been a routine victory in this top versus bottom clash but things did not go as easily for the home side.

The hosts took an early lead in the first five minutes when Dom Stanbury swept past a number of defenders and slid the ball past the keeper.

Tavistock enjoyed the majority of possession and territory and scored a deserved second goal when Ollie Richards found himself unmarked and finished well, following good link up play from Stanbury and Simon Fenwick.

The visitors continued to play some good hockey and were rewarded with two goals in the space of ten minutes to level the game, This proved to be just the motivation the Reds needed and they regained the lead shortly before half time, when Mark Forshaw continued his fine goal scoring form and he converted a well worked penalty corner.

Tavistock applied the pressure in an attempt to re-establish their two goal advantage; they were rewarded when Fenwick flicked low from a penalty corner and Barney Megicks scored with a well taken reverse stick effort, after being forced wide of the goal by the visiting defenders.

A number of the attacks in the second half were started by the Reds’ back line where Carr, Stanbury, Marchant and Berry were passing the ball at pace and playing a number of defence — splitting passes to create scoring opportunities for the forwards.

The final Tavistock goal was scored by Ollie Richards, his second of the game, which capped another top performance for the Reds’ midfielder.

Skipper Tom Honey, who again controlled the game from his central midfield role, said: ‘I am looking forward to the challenge in the second half of the season, as we want  to maintain our current form as we compete for not just promotion but also in the Devon Trophy and the HA Vase Cup competitions.’