Magpies Mens 1s made their return to national league action after an extended winter break due to adverse weather conditions. Magpies wish Ali Haslam all the best in his hockey career, with the skilful player having returned to his home city of Sheffield.
The first quarter was the highlight for the travelling team. Thomas Ridley connecting well with the evergreen Ben Gowing who deflected high into the net to score the goal of the day. Gowing found himself in the circle again a few minutes later, this time scoring with a powerful blast from the top of the circle.
Stourport stuck to their game plan of overloading their right hand side and their fast players managed to create multiple short corners and open play opportunities, two of which they converted, taking the score to 2-2 after one quarter of play.
Magpies had short corner abilities of their own. Myles King scored a typically accurate and powerful effort to give the visitors a 3-2 lead. From here the game stayed fairly even going into the half time break.
The home side upped the intensity of their press in the second half. This proved to be effective for them, despite the hard working play of Oakley Elsom and Lawrence Williams battling to win the ball back and win free hits of their own all over the pitch. The pressure from Stourport though proved too much in the end, albeit not helped by some Magpies rash tackling and pieces of ill discipline towards the umpires- Stourport pulled away to lead 5-3. It would have been more were it not for some excellent goal line saves from Chris Leek and Will Donsworth and some intelligent last ditch tackles by Richard Larkin.
Magpies have lost their first game after the Christmas break for the first time in 7 seasons. Next week they aim to bounce back when they host local side Norwich City.
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