England Hockey National League Conference West.
Ashmoor Men's 1st XI. 2
Fareham Men's 1st XI. 0
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ASHMOOR men's 1st team were aiming to get back to winning ways after a creditable draw with second-placed Clifton Robinsons in their last home match. Ashmoor welcomed back midfielders Ben Andrew and Lewie Jones, but were without Ben Tancock, England U16 player Theo Bennett and player-coach Jack Dinnie.
The team started well with really effective high pressing which caused the Fareham team a lot of problems. An early chance fell to Rich Fisher from a pinpoint Ben Barnett aerial pass, but his rifled shot was saved by the Fareham keeper.
Three minutes later Ashmoor thought they had the lead, when good team play opened up the opposition defence. Captain Jamie Bishop found Fletch Naisbett-Jones and the ball ended up in the back of the net, however it was ruled out for an unknown incursion. Fareham then won a penalty corner at the other end, but the defencing pressure was enough to force the hit from Davey wide of the post.
Ashmoor were again almost ahead when Sol Bloomfield stole the ball off a Fareham defender and his cross was met first time by Pallex player of the match Rich Ashworth (photographed by Mark Lockett). His deflection was saved, and Fisher fired wide from the rebound.
Into the second quarter and Ashmoor continued to open the away side up with some quality passing. From one spell of pressure, the ball fell to Bishop who looked like burying his drag push, the goal-bound shot struck a Fareham leg but the offence was overturned with the defender claiming danger.
Fareham had few chances but almost took the lead when Ashmoor went momentarily to sleep in deep defence and allowed a first-time sweep shot which fortunately came back off the post.
It was a wake-up call for Ashmoor and they got back on their A-game.
The Fareham defence could do nothing to prevent Ashmoor from taking a deserved lead just five minutes before half-time. In a beautiful team move Lewis Hammett played an aerial pass to Sam Wakeham, he in turn found Barnett marauding forward on the right-hand side. The England youngster picked out workhorse Ben Andrew who drove the byline before picking out Cathan Wherry at the back post who made no mistake with his first Ashmoor National League goal.
After the interval, Fareham were determined to equalise and had a goal disallowed, but then early in the first quarter, Ashmoor struck another great team goal.
Cullen Turner fed the ball in stride to Naisbett-Jones, who had support in the shape of Lewie Jones breaking forward. However, the Ashmoor forward used Jones as a decoy and instead slipped the ball perfectly for Wherry in the opposition shooting circle on the left-hand side. The goalscorer picked out Charles Walker in the zone just in front of the keeper, and Walker controlled, turned and buried from close range to make it 2-0 to the home side.
A yellow card for a needless stick tackle by Charlie Brownlow made for a harder conclusion but Ashmoor were still able to maintain their 2-0 advantage for a fifth home win in seven.
The team are now within three points of third place in the league and will be aiming to do the double over Hawks when they travel to Oxford for this Sunday's EHL West Conference fixture.