England Hockey League

Men’s Conference League

THE game opened up with both teams playing attacking hockey leading to play flowing from end to end. Magpies penetrated first as Andy Hipwell forced the Wimbledon defender into an error. Hipwell then calmly lifted the ball over the advancing goalie putting the home side into a 1-0 lead.

Magpies were now brimming with confidence, applying pressure onto the back line of Wimbledon but they could not make their chances pay. Wimbledon still carried a threat going forward and managed to get one back making it 1-1 with a well worked move. The two sides continued to compete hard through midfield with each side still showing attaching threat. Scores were even at half time.

The second half was full of incident. Like the first half there was an early goal. Wimbledon worked the ball down the Magpies left before entering the Dee and scoring from close range making it 1-2. This was a big blow for magpies so early in the half but they continued to fight hard to retain a foot hold in the game.

As the half went on Harleston came back into it. It was Duncan Graves who found space at the top of the Dee to shot low into the bottom corner bringing Magpies back onto the level terms. Harleston raised their game again and were rewarded when Simon Hipwell found James Fanger free at the back post to score making it 3-2 with 15 minutes remaining.

Wimbledon came again and quickly levelled at 3-3. Harleston then straight away responded as they won a short corner. This was bravely blocked by a Wimbledon defender on the line resulting in penalty stroke to Magpies. The Wimbledon goalkeeper pulled off a good save keeping the scores at 3-3. With only minutes left this enthralling game had a final twist which saw the away side cut the Harleston defence open before scoring from close range to win the game 3-4 denying magpies of any points.