St Francis XI played host to Mid Sussex 2XI this Saturday in an eagerly awaited local derby with both teams pushing for the top spot in the league. The local derby had pulled in a sizable crowd and the opening exchanges of the game promised them an afternoon of faced paced competitive hockey with both team looking to spring the counter attack and punish the opposition. Throughout the first half both teams played well but were unable to unlock their oppositions defence, with Richard Ward for the Saints covering a lot of ground to keep Mid Sussex’s centre forward effectively marked out of the game. Mid Sussex came closest to opening the scoring on the first half with a fine short corner routine that saw the shot drilled to the bottom corner but sterling defensive work from Nigel Nuttall on the line ensured it was all square at half time.

The start of the second half almost caught Saints napping when Mid Sussex broke with speed and called on Saints keeper Ron Martin to pull off a fine save and allow Saints to regroup and wake up. As with the first half both side pushed hard to find the opening and saints survived yet another goal line clearance scare from a short corner thanks again to Nigel Nuttall. This seemed to spur Saints on and they increasing started to take control with some fine possession play and with ten minutes to go they broke quickly from within their own 22 and worked the ball up to Chris Batchelor who let in Oli Keating to open the scoring. Saints continued to push hard after the goal but as happened all to regularly in tightly fought matches Mid Sussex were able to bounce back within minutes and pulled the scores level. A tense final period of the game remained with both sides having further attempts on goal but it was Saints who were able to take the lead with just two minutes when Chris Batchelor powered home a great strike from a well worked short corner routine.

St Francis were able to see out the last two minutes to record a superb win in the local derby and keep them in contention at the top of league where there are currently five teams vying for the top spot. Saints skipper Peter Mowforth praised the solid team performance and with nine different contenders for the man of match vote it was no surprise that the honour was shared this week between Oli Keating and Mike Marchant.

Next week St Francis XI travel to Littlehampton for what promises to be another hard fought top of the table clash.