East Hockey League South West Division Five Harpenden III 2 Vauxhall 1 TOM Preest scored twice as Harpenden III hit back from a goal down to beat Vauxhall II on Saturday. Geoff Gould and Martin Pugh defended well for Harpenden

East Hockey League South West Division Five

Harpenden III 2 Vauxhall 1

TOM Preest scored twice as Harpenden III hit back from a goal down to beat Vauxhall II on Saturday.

Geoff Gould and Martin Pugh defended well for Harpenden along with vice captain Andy Lunn but Vauxhall eventually broke through to lead 1-0.

The game changed at the beginning of the second period, when Harpenden tried a different attacking combination of newcomer Alf Rehman and club starlet Alex Radgman. The duo worked well as Rehman used his experience to create the space for young Radgman to demonstrate his array of skills.

With 15 minutes to go Harpenden won their first and as it transpired only short corner of the game. Skipper Pete Evans slipped the ball left, where Preest was given enough time to get a clean strike away for the equaliser.

Harpenden then chased the winner and excellent skill from Evans saw him set the impressive Adam Cole free on the right and his superb cross picked out Preest who managed to control before getting a shot away for the winning goal.

Vauxhall did most of the attacking in what time remained but with Neil Smyth continuing his fine form in goal, they were not able to force a point from a game that on another day they might well have won.