East Hockey Men’s League

Premier A

A Simon Taylor double helped Chelmsford to a second successive victory to consolidate their position in the top half of the table.

Chelmsford made much the brighter start to the game and soon took the lead. A Will Hales pass pierced the defence and Adam Hunter found the gap between the keeper’s legs to creep over the line.

Despite falling behind, Wapping showed no urgency to pull a goal back, and Chelmsford were happy to let their back line play the ball uncontested. When Wapping did move forward, they were regularly forced into mistakes and consequently rarely applied any pressure on the Chelmsford goal.

It was therefore a surprise when Wapping netted an equaliser after a broken down short corner fell to the injector. Although, his shot lacked any real power, a crowd of players in front of keeper Jason Evans meant the ball looped unsighted into the far corner.

After the goal, the game continued in the same manner, with the majority of the period played out in the Wapping half. Chelmsford deservedly retook the lead with the interval approaching when Hunter diverted Tom Fanger’s free hit across the face of goal for Taylor to lift over the despairing dive of the home keeper.

The second half continued in much the same pattern as the first, and the score line became a more accurate reflection of the balance of play with 20 minutes to go when Taylor deflected Hales’ cross home at the near post.

Wapping finally took this as a prompt to play more positively and played the ball around with more purpose, but they still failed to penetrate the Chelmsford defence and succeeded only in allowing Chelmsford chances on the break. However, the visitors couldn’t extend their lead and had to settle for a two goal victory.

The victory sees Chelmsford remain in sixth place with two games to go. Next week Chelmsford travel to Havering, the game starting at 12.30pm at Campion School.