Ipswich 2 Canterbury 9

Slazenger East Men's

Conference League

Ipswich 2 Canterbury 9

THE Slazenger East Conference game started badly again for Ipswich conceding after two minutes from some sloppy defending and some slick counter attacking play from Canterbury when Matt Harper opened the scoring.

Ipswich rallied and drew back level after some fantastic hockey to open up the Canterbury team to allow Kier Dixon to score an open play goal. Canterbury were soon back on top after a penalty corner from Farrer which should have been dealt with better by the Ipswich defence.

Another mistake from a penalty corner gave Canterbury a 3-1 lead after 14 minutes. The Ipswich heads dropped and so did the work rate of some of the players and at half time they were 5-1 down. Coach Iain Gall tried to rally the team into playing the hockey that they are capable of for the second half.

Ipswich came out in the second half and competed with the opposition who lie second in the league for the opening eight minutes and created some very good chance only to de denied by Canterbury goalkeeper and some wayward finishing. Canterbury then took control in patches and scored another three goals without reply before Ipswich were awarded a penalty stroke for a scything stick tackle by a Canterbury defender on captain Ivan Smith as he drove into the 'D'.

The penalty stroke was converted calmly by Ed Driver before Canterbury scored for the final time and made the final score 9-2. Ipswich have two more games left to rescue there season and it could come down to a massive local derby against Chelmsford on March 29.