Saxons were confident going into the game, but Crawley’s mixed results in recent weeks made this game a difficult one to predict.

Saxons struggled to find their rhythm early in the match and were second best for much of the first 10 minutes of the game, struggling to clear their lines and being penned in by Crawley’s high intensity pressing. However, once they had settled into the game Saxons started to play some of the hockey that has led to their second-placed position. Whatever was thrown at the defence of Tim Pilbeam, Matt Stevens & Dom Ford didn’t really trouble them and whenever Nathaniel Webster was called upon in goal, he was more than up to the challenge.

Pressure was building from the away side, and while the Crawley keeper made some good saves to keep his side in the game, and Saxons flashed some promising chances wide of the mark, the pressure eventually told though when a slick Saxons short corner was finished by Tom Gregory – rounding the keeper and slotting home.

Saxons continued to edge what was a competitive first half, but failed to capitalise on their upper hand, Ed Hooton contriving to miss from 2 yards out summed up Saxons profligate shooting and while they were pleased to be in front at half time, the narrow 1-0 lead was cause for concern – never more so than when Webster was forced into a sharp save at his near post just before the interval.

In the second half Saxons played much better hockey from the word go, the rallying cry from coach Rob Whitehouse to improve the ball pace was taken on board and Saxons started to dominate the game both in terms of ball and territory.

However, it was a similarly frustrating story for much of the second half, Nick Taylor struck the post from a short corner, Tom James forced two good saves from the keeper and skipper James Bunday had a short corner in the net but ruled out for being too high and then squandered a great opportunity, the keeper making another good save when he really should have scored.

It was another short corner routine that eventually brought a second goal for the Hastings side with 20 minutes to go, the ball was slipped to Taylor who fired across goal where Phil Carrington was on hand to get the telling touch and grab his first goal for the 2nd XI.

A delay for poor light followed the goal, but the welcome rest allowed Saxons to catch their breath and reset in a more defensive formation. Saxons continued to be in control but were prepared to stick with their 2-0 lead and this was how the game finished.

Skipper Bunday said after the game; “It was an important win for us today, Crawley away is always a tricky proposition and despite looking good for much of the game we need to get better at taking our chances – their keeper was good today but we shouldn’t have let him make some of the saves.

“Another important 3 points is really pleasing though, and with Brighton Rocks slipping up at Eastbourne we know that we are in the mix now. If we keep playing like this then we could be in for a really exciting season, but we need to take each game as it comes and keep performing as well as we have – our slip against Lewes showed us that.”

Saxons travel to Worthing 3s tomorrow (Saturday), before hosting Brighton Rocks the following week in a game that could well decide who will be top of the table over the Christmas break.”