A weekend of hockey action saw the Men's 1s draw, the Ladies 1s lose 5-0 and the U16 girls suffer a 2-0 loss in a hard weekend for Salisbury Hockey Club.

The Men’s 1s had a long drive to Petersfield looking to score a win and to put last week’s loss behind them.

The weather was challenging, and the squad numbers were low with no substitutes for the defence. However, a star player from the past returned for his season debut, Chris Pearl.

Push back saw a strong promising start for Salisbury who dominated possession played some great hockey. Then the weather turned worse, and the heavens opened, this affected the fluidity of the 1s and the game.

Halftime came and still no goals had been scored. Coach Mike Gallagher called on his team to take charge of the game.

It seemed to work but two disallowed goals kept Petersfield in the game. Chances came and went but then Mac Stevenson shot a snail’s paced reverse shot into the right corner beating the surprised keeper.

With 15 minutes remaining Petersfield started to press, it was now Salisbury’s turn to defend but could not keep out a ball sent towards the back post and the striker slotted the ball home. Salisbury worked hard, and they held on for a 1-1 draw.

Ladies 1’s, missing 5 key starting players, were always going to struggle against a well drilled Reading team who are currently 2nd in the table and so it proved.

A clinical Reading put 4 on the board by half time. And despite a spirited performance in the second they lost 5-0.

On Sunday the U16 Girls went of a journey. Their second game of the season was an away trip to the Isle of Wight. They had an early meet and the minibus with a large speaker in tow set off for the ferry.

The game started with early IOW pressure the Salisbury girls started getting into the game and had attacks of their own.

Unfortunately, it was IOW who scored with a rather fortuitous goal. Salisbury continued to have well-earned chances, but the half ended 1-0.

The second half saw both sides attacking, and the home side scored from a short corner. After this Salisbury upped their already high work rate and dominated possession for the last 30 minutes continuing to have shots on goal and earning short corners, one of which hit the post. However, it was not to be the girl’s afternoon, and the game ended 2-0 despite a great team performance.

They set off home via MacDonald’s with the speaker blasting out tunes.