East Premier A Saffron Walden 4 Harleston 7 Harleston Magpies finished the first half of the season by taking flight to Saffron Walden Hockey Club and hitting seven goals in a thrilling match.
With Harleston in the early ascendancy, a misplaced pass let Saffron Walden start a counter attack which they finished emphatically to take the lead.
Magpies recovered well though, and man-of-the-match Archie Winter scored two high quality goals – the first a rocket on the back-hand from the top left corner of the circle into the bottom right corner of the goal and the second a two-touch finish past the keeper’s left foot.
Harleston then faced a mini-collapse with individual defending errors letting Saffron Walden score two quick goals to take the lead 3-2.
Again Magpies however responded well and went into the break 5-3 up, with two deflected goals. The first came from Stuart Leate, who converted a deflection with the natural finishing ability he is famed for after a superb delivery.
The second came from Pete Bale, who again deflected a hammer blow of a ball in from fellow full back Andrew Bedwell.
Both goals came with celebrations befitting their superb finishes.
The third goal was a sharp finish from Jack Hobbs from close range after good work on the right from Sam Patterson.
Understandably, Harleston were disappointed with the defensive naivety shown in the first half and came out with a much improved and controlled performance that saw them score two more goals.
The first was arguably their best of the season. It started deep in their own half with Bedwell playing the ball into Hipwell, who then became the pivotal figure in a six-person move of minimal touches that resulted in the returning Will Martin finishing from six yards out.
A runaway goal from Saffron Walden once again reduced the arrears but it was to be Harleston’s day when they scored from a short corner with Tim Whiteman latching onto a bullet delivery from Archie Winter.
Winter said afterwards: “Overall it’s been a great first half of the season and despite the odd result, we have played some expansive, attacking hockey that has been enjoyable to play in.”
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