HOCKEY: Alderley Edge travelled to Deeside with a Cheshire Cup semi-final spot at stake following an impressive 9-1 victory over Chester.
Alderley were wary of Deeside’s threat from penalty corners but, despite the clear instructions, they could not have got off to a worse start. Within the first minute they conceded a cheap penalty corner and found themselves one down.
This was compounded minutes later when Deeside made the most of disharmony in the back line to go two goals up.
Alderley fought back with some incisive attacking play that led to their first penalty corner, and a deflection into his own body by a defender allowed James Warburton to convert the resulting penalty stroke.
Alderley drew level when Tim Pont’s accurate pass found the run of Joe Coxon to score. Edge then took the lead as Coxon drew in the defence and found Warburton, who finished from a tight angle.
Deeside equalised before half -time when they were first to react following James Riley’s initial save.
The second half followed a similar pattern with Andrew Jackson playing well in defence alongside Scarsbrook and Badger. Andy Williams providing stability in the middle and with the attacking runs of Sam Gregory and Andrew Drummond Alderley were creating plenty of opportunities.
It was a jinking run from Drummond that led to Alderley making it 4-3, the determined Coxon rifling the loose ball in through a crowd of players.
As the game became ragged Deeside had a man sin-binned and Edge given a team warning for untidy tackling.
Deeside’s obsession for winning corners was highlighted when they turned down shooting opportunities in favour of a corner and they started to come regularly, Riley pulling off several saves at varied routines.
Eventually Deeside did grab an equaliser, inevitably from another penalty corner.
This seemed to fire up Alderley while Deeside played more on the counter-attack.
After keeping them at bay it was ironic that Alderley then won a corner of their own and Pont stepped up to fire Alderley back into the lead.
With two minutes remaining Deeside won their 11th corner of the game but Riley pulled off another save and Alderley successfully held out to progress to the semi-final, 4-3 the final score.
