Colchester 1 West Herts 4

Premier B

Colchester 1 West Herts 4

Colchester suffered their heaviest defeat at home to West Herts on Saturday.

Colchester struggled from the outset as West Herts controlled the game with one of their forwards having a huge influence on the result.

Despite West Herts' good early play it was Colchester that had the first chance of the match. A good one-two between Craig Warriner and Matt Brown lead to Warriner being fouled.

However, the resultant penalty corner didn't quite go to plan, with Matt Low unable to get his shot off. The ball though did fall back to Low, whose reverse stick shot was miss-hit.

West Herts reasserted their efforts with a reverse stick shot by their influential forward going narrowly wide. He didn't have to wait long before his first goal of the afternoon. From their first penalty corner he fired a low drag flick into the bottom corner.

Colchester had no answer to this player as he continued to run the show. Another reverse stick shot was saved by Liam Phillips and he also had a drag flick from open play rattle against the post.

He did have a second goal before half time. He picked up the ball just outside the Colchester 'D' on the right hand side and drove into the 'D', riding three tackles before releasing his shot past Phillips.

Colchester's best chance of the half fell to Rohan Khaira. A wonderful slide rule pass by Michael Pearce found Mark Kennedy on the right hand side.

Kennedy dribbled the ball along the baseline before cutting the ball back to Khaira, however, Brown just got in the way as Khaira was about to fire the trigger.

Colchester came into the game more in the second half and had chances to get on the score sheet, Matt Low having a penalty corner strike deflected over the bar and Warriner failing to find the target with a speculative reverse stick shot after good work by Ed Long-Price.

However, West Herts were still creating chances at the other end. A foul by Kennedy lead to another penalty corner for the visitors. With the strike being deflected past Phillips in the Colchester goal.

Colchester continued to press forward looking for a way back into the game, however it was often the final pass that let the hosts down.

Long-Price was unable to get onto a Wayne Masters pass from a penalty corner and Warriner's final ball going just behind Khaira after the two of them had worked an opening.

Colchester were indebted to Philips after the Colchester made some good save to keep the score at three nil.

However, the West Herts forward was not to be denied his hat-trick. He managed to pop up unmarked at the back post where his first shot was saved by Phillips. However the ball rebounded straight back to him where he made no mistake with the second effort to kill off the game.

Colchester though continued to press forward in the hope of a consolation goal, Masters forcing a good diving stick save by the keeper and Rob Mann firing just wide from a tight angle.

Colchester did have their reward late on as Khaira won Colchester a penalty corner. Matt Low's strike was saved by the West Herts keeper, but Khaira was the first to react as he pushed the ball home.

Hills Residential Man of the Match was Rohan Khaira.