League:Preston 1st XI 2 vs. Alderley Edge 1st XI 2On Saturday, Preston put in a gutsy second-half display as they came back from 2-1 down to earn a point against Alderley Edge as England Youth International, Martin Scanlon, scrambled in an equaliser with six minutes left. Alderley Edge were the first league visitors to West Cliff for the 2006/07 North Premier season but it was the home side who were out of the traps the quickest as they launched into their Cheshire opponents in the opening ten minutes. Concerted attacking pressure from Don Cok, Owen Fletcher and Sam Sinclair won Preston a penalty corner. Cok unleashed a drag flick which was saved but the 26-year-old University lecturer responded by volleying in the re-bound. The visitors fought back as Preston’s tackling and defensive patterns went awry with a string of penalty corners being conceded. Alderley got their equaliser on the third attempt as a shot struck the post before landing on the stick of an attacker who converted an easy open goal chance. Preston then went behind as they lost control of the game in the midfield with lax defending allowing another brace of penalty corners to be awarded. This time Simon Eccleston made a smart safe which struck the stick of defender, Richard Sullivan, before falling invitingly for another open goal tap in. Disaster. Preston played out the remainder of the first half without their early fluency as Alderley retreated into their half, breaking intermittently to test the home defence. Stirred by some wise words from Dave Scanlon, Preston resurfaced in the second half showing more desire and higher work rate to hunt down and use the ball more intelligently. Sinclair, Cok and Martin Scanlon all went close before Duncan Scott weaved two patterns of magic to wriggle his way past three defenders, only to see his shots go narrowly wide of either post. With six minutes to play, Scott broke free across the D before the ball fell to Scanlon, who made no mistake in slapping it past the onrushing goal keeper. The result left us frustrated as we didn't feel we did ourselves justice. In the end, a point was a fair reflection of the game, though. The league isn’t decided in September. Bowdon will be tough encounter in our next fixture, but I’ve no doubt we have the capability to come away with our first win against them in six fixtures. HA Cup 2nd Round:Rotherham 1st XI 0 v Preston 1st XI 3The following day, a slightly re-shaped Preston side put in their performance of the season to date with a comprehensive 3-0 win over North Premier side, Rotherham. We raised our performance significantly against Rotherham and recorded a good 3-0 win which puts us in the hat for the next round of the HA Cup. With Scanlon, Tom Galloway and Duncan Scott unavailable on Sunday, Scanlon, also away on North West U17 coaching duties, drafted David Sullivan, Rob Blackburn and Luke Watson into the squad. Preston proceeded to play their best hockey of the season, with rock solid defence, varied and intelligent passing and penetrative forward play all coming to the fore as they largely controlled the game from start to finish. David Sullivan put in a storming performance at right half, biting into tackles and mixing his distribution well. Elsewhere, the defence of John Platt, Ian Ward and Richard Sullivan laid the foundation for the team to work from as players covered every inch of the Rotherham pitch in search of victory. Eccleston produced a superb double save in the first ten minutes but after that he was rarely troubled as a tenacious team performance kept the home team at bay. Cok finally got an end product for Preston’s perspiration as he slotted a low drag flick through the legs of former UCLan goal keeper, Paul Hatton. Watson and Rob Blackburn rotated on and off, with Watson displaying his assured touch and savvy positional sense to dominate the right midfield channel. With 11 minutes remaining, 18-year-old forward, Owen Fletcher, sealed the contest by completing a slick passing move involving Cok and Watson by sweeping home at the far post. With the clock counting down, Sinclair guided in a powerful strike from Tony Metcalf to give Preston a deserved 3-0 score line. ------The views expressed on this page are those of the contributor and the opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the BBC. | 
