Bury St Edmunds 2 Colchester 2

NE14 Hockey East League

Premier B

Bury St Edmunds 2 Colchester 2

Colchester made in two draws in a row with another hard performance away at Nowton Park.

However, Colchester will see this as two points dropped as they threw away a two goal lead.

In a fairly even first half Colchester had the slightly better chances and it was no surprise that Colchester took a lead into the half time break.

Colchester won a free-hit just inside the 25, which was taken quickly to Rohan Khaira who showed some good skill as he beat three men before passing to Lloyd Dennis on the baseline. Dennis swept the ball first time past the Bury keeper and into the net.

Colchester did have early chances but couldn't quite get on the final pass to get a meaningful shot off.

Soon after half-time Colchester had extended their advantage. Some good work down the right by Mark Kennedy lead to a penalty corner for the visitors. The resulting set piece was charged down but lead to another.

The second corner broke down but Matt Brown had the presence of mind to put the ball on a defender's foot for a third penalty corner in succession.

This time Colchester got it right with Brown letting fly with a low drag flick into the bottom right corner.

This should have been enough for Colchester as their hosts had rarely looked dangerous, however a controversial penalty corner award brought Bury back into the game. A low ball to the right hand post was deflected in by a Bury forward to give them a foothold in the match.

This spurred Bury on and they were soon on level terms. A free hit to Bury was delayed as the umpire told the Bury captain to control his players with all the back chat they were giving.

This delay caused the Colchester defence to fall asleep as they left a man unmarked on the penalty spot and he swept the ball past Phillips in the Colchester goal.

The game then continued to ebb and flow as both sides had chances to get the goal that would win the match and take the points.

Colchester will be disappointed to have let a two goal lead slip but must take the positives forward to next week.

Hills Residential man-of-the-match for the third week running was Matt Foakes, as once again he put in an assured performance in the heart of the defence.