2-2 draw with Preston

Knutsford Men’s 1s – 2 Preston Men’s 2s – 2
Knutsford faced a tough test on Saturday when they welcomed Preston men’s 2nd team to Westfield drive, the only team unbeaten in their league and expected a tough test.

Preston came with a 16 strong squad and from the outset looked to pressurise Knutsford. A number of attacks were thwarted by the able defensive line, and Man of the match Tom Wright made some outstanding saves to keep the scores at 0-0. Knutsford were attacking well down the right, Tom Howard and Kieran Puetz making the most of the space allowed to them, and some strong forward play from Geimer, Sherwani, Price and Kenners was unrewarded, as the Preston keeper also made some strong saves, to keep the deadlock unbroken.
It was Preston that opened the scoring, following a quick break, they were able to score a well worked goal and given themselves a 1-0 lead to go into the half time break.

At the start of the second half Knutsford were on top, working well together, Wolfenden pushed higher to try and get some impetus, and Joe Wright became more involved in the game, he and Kenyon providing the link between defence and attack. Gary Brown and James Halling were distributing well and Knutsford pressure paid off. After some good work from price in the D, Wolfenden stole a yard of space and flicked the ball into the corner to draw the scores level, buoyed by this Knutsford pushed on, and from a short corner were awarded a stroke, which unfortunately was not converted. Minutes later however, Wolfenden doubled the score and his personal tally firing in a reverse stick shot from close range and giving the black knights the lead for the first time in the day.
Knutsford started to tire at this point, and with 2 injured players off the pitch the 11 were made to work very hard, as Preston rotated and created chances at will. Knutsford remained strong and were breaking freely, but unable to get support to the forwards, with time running out Preston equalized, with time running out both teams looked for victory but it wasn’t to be. 2-2 the final score, and on reflection a fair result after a really good game.

Knutsford travel to West Derby this Saturday, the final game before the mid-season break, and will be enjoying a few beers together in the evening.