Harleston Magpies 7 Dereham 0

NE14 Hockey East League

Premier A

Harleston Magpies 7 Dereham 0

Harleston Magpies beat Dereham to extend their lead over St Albans at the top of Premier A.

Magpies' win takes them to a perfect ten straight wins, while St Albans could only draw away at Blueharts.

The opening exchanges saw an evenly contested derby game, with Dereham pressing hard, trying to fashion early chances.

Harleston were always dangerous on the break but just failed to connect the passes together.

Dereham were close to opening the scoring on a couple of occasions, the second of which forced Ian Martin into a full length dive on his nose to deny the Dereham forward.

Undeterred Harleston carried on playing their hockey, with reward coming midway through the first half.

Sumner worked well down the right before delivering to Baynes who stroked the ball home.

Soon after, Tristan Baynes scored again, directing the ball powerfully from a short corner.

This put Magpies into a two goal lead as they dominated going into the break.

After half time the home side continued to play the better hockey while being repeatedly fouled.

Another rash foul by the Dereham goalie on Chris Barber, resulted in a penalty stroke, duly despatched by Hipwell.

Andy Hipwell then followed that up by converting well from another short corner. Magpie domination was now apparent, and it was only a matter of time before more goals would come.

Neil Toulson scored next from a broken down corner making it 5-0.

Dereham's plight deepened further when they were then reduced to ten men after more industrious tackling.

Toulson then took a big hit from behind inside the D, resulting in a harshly awarded penalty stroke.

Hipwell professionally scored his second penalty stroke of the game, thus completing his hat-trick.

Magpies were also then reduced to ten men after an innocuous incident, but with the game won Harleston continued to dominate in defence through Sitch and Ling.

Finally the game was finished off in style with the best goal of the half coming with a flowing move which climaxed with Wheeler combining with Toulson before Wheeler celebrated as he slotted home.