Spalding Men 1st 5
Cambridge 0
Spalding gained a precious three points, despite not playing.
Their Men’s East League Division One North was awarded as a home win after Cambridge scratched. It leaves Spalding neck and neck with Wisbech battling to stay out of the bottom two. Spalding have the advantage by three points with two games to play.
City of Peterborough 5th 3
Spalding Men 2nd 3
Spalding surged into a three-goal half-time lead but were unable to hold off a home comeback as Division Three North West honours finished equal.
A short corner low drag flick from Harry Walsh beat the goalkeeper and postman to put Spalding ahead and it was 2-0 when Brendan Atkin swept in a rebound.
The constant chances proved fruitful again when Walsh got his second with only 30 minutes gone.
A half-time team talk reviewed the positives and warned of complacency but that was not heeded as the hosts hit back, albeit with some questionable umpiring decisions.
Two decisions to give light penalty corners resulted in two goals and a third goal levelled matters to set up a last five minutes of back and forth play.
Cambridge Uni 4th 11
Spalding Men 3rd 0
Division Four North West promotion hopes took a hammering as Spalding suffered a heavy defeat against a strong and well drilled team.
They held out for 10 minutes and started brightly but the hosts added our goals by half-time with the Spalding players and umpires struggling to keep up
Spalding had only 12 players but an injury to Simon Goode left them with no substitutes for the second half and the home squad of 15 continued to press, scoring at regular intervals.
Spalding Men 4th 0
St Neots 3rd 2
A battling display was not quite enough to halt Division Five North West title celebrations for St Neots.
Despite missing key players, Spalding were fully involved in a competitive match right up to the final whistle.
Steve Thurlbourne made several crucial saves to keep the game level but just before half-time, St Neots capitalised on a rare lapse in defence to take the lead.
The second half saw Spalding push for an equaliser with Jack Dorsett and Dylan Hind pressing high up the pitch.
However, with Spalding committing more men forward, St Neots took advantage on the counter-attack to score a second goal late on.
Lorenzo Mendoza’s defensive strength and Cheston Palmer’s tireless work on the wing earned them joint man of the match honours.
- Spalding’s Development side chalked up a 1-0 win at Newark Badgers.
