Injuries and unavailability hit Spalding 3rd hard on Saturday – but they still had enough to smash Cambs Nomads 2nd 5-0 in East Men’s League Division 4NW.
Skipper Steve Rogers led his patched-up team from the front with a couple of goals – and he was helped by strikes either side of half time from Peter Gray and one further effort from Tom Shinkins.
Against the odds, the Spalding side managed to put together an excellent team performance that has moved them up to third place in the table.
Up in Premier B, Long Sutton 1st grabbed their first win of the campaign by seeing off Cambs Uni 2nd 2-0.
Josh Fyson’s thunderbolt fired them ahead from a penalty corner in the first period, with Will Cook sealing the win when he received the ball at the top of the D and crashed the ball into the bottom corner on his reverse.
In Division One, Spalding 1st made it back-to-back victories with a hard-fought 2-1 triumph at Pelicans 1st.
They went ahead when Russ Watts managed to deflect a Stuart Cunnington shot over the stranded keeper inside ten minutes.
Pelicans did deservedly hit back to level before half time, but Cunnington’s second-half drag flick from a short corner was too powerful for the keeper and sealed the points for his side.
At the other end, man-of-the-match Ash Barker kept Pelicans at bay.
In Division 3NW, Long Sutton 2nd battled out a 3-3 draw with St Ives 2nd – but that felt like a loss after they’d led 3-0.
Sutton went 2-0 up as a pair of short corners both resulted in goals. The first was a well-struck strike from Ash Taylor, with the second a slap from Alex Canham.
Player-of-the-match Canham then scored his second after good work from Taylor and Adam Wiles. Sutton failed to defend as a unit after the break though, with three unanswered goal forcing them to settle for a point.
In the same division, Spalding 2nd slipped to a 2-1 home defeat against leaders Cambs Nomads 1st.
Having fallen 2-0 down, Chris McKenna deflected in a short corner strike to reduce the arrears. Spalding did push for a leveller late on, but couldn’t quite find.
Long Sutton 3rd put in a much-improved showing in Division 5NW, but still ended up going down 4-3 against St Ives 4th.
Goals from open play by Harry Synnott and Jack Smith ensured that it was 2-2 at half time, but St Ives went further ahead at 4-2 after the break. Synnott did grab a late one, but it proved a consolation.
In the same division, Spalding 4th lost their unbeaten record as they were beaten 4-1 by March 2nd.
Andy Barlow struck home a short corner to give Spalding the lead, but it was all downhill from there.
Elsewhere, Division 6NW (N) offered slim pickings for Spalding 5th and Long Sutton 4th. Spalding 5th went down 4-1 at Bourne/Deeping 5th despite a goal from Dave Burrell. Sutton 4th were dispatched 3-0 by Grantham 1st.
