Havant 8 Chelmsford 5

Slazenger EHL

Division One

Havant 8 Chelmsford 5

Chelmsford were on the wrong end of a 13 goal game as they lost 8-5 to Havant in a thrilling game.

Chelmsford started by far the brighter of the two teams and for the first ten minutes it was all one way traffic. The fact that Chelmsford ended this period only one goal up was arguably the difference between the two sides. The solitary goal from this period came from Olly Cooper following an excellent pullback by Adam Hunter.

Havant started to force their way back into the game and equalised after 17 minutes. A broken down corner ended up with Calum Giles, whose backhand shot beat Dean Armstrong. After a further six minutes Egyptian Ahmed Ezz Mohamed gave the south coast side the lead.

Despite Chelmsford feeling hard done by to be a goal down after 23 minutes, they hit back impressively with Luke Mepham firing the ball into the rigging of the goal just two minutes later.

Havant, currently second in the league, then had a spell of four minutes just prior to half time during which they scored three times. Firstly, Andrew Pett, then Warren Gilmour and finally penalty corner specialist Giles completed a miserable spell for Chelmsford, to give the home side a 5-2 lead.

Chelmsford needed to score the first goal after half time. However, it was Havant who did, scoring twice in two minutes. Firstly, Giles grabbed his hat trick after 43 minutes and then Mohamed got his second straight after. At 7-2, the game was effectively safe.

To their credit Chelmsford continued fighting to the last. Olly Cooper hit his second of the game after 46 minutes, but Mohamed grabbed his hat trick with 17 minutes to go. Mepham grabbed the third hat trick of the match when he converted a penalty stroke after he, himself, was fouled. His third was a powerful flick from open play.

As Chelmsford continued to push forward, Havant received three yellow cards in the last five minutes for continual breaking up of play. Despite it being eleven on eight, Chelmsford couldn't quite find any further goals in them.

Manager Peter Woodward was philosophical after the game. He said: “While this is our second consecutive good performance against the top two teams in the league, we haven't got anything out of either match. Some of the hockey we played was outstanding, but we need to play that hockey for longer periods.”

The result leaves Chelmsford in seventh place in the league and a solitary point above the relegation play-off position with three games left. But with only six points separating the teams in third to eighth, there is a lot of hockey left for all teams to play.

Next Saturday Chelmsford face fifth placed Bournville.