Depleted Chesterfield Hockey Club slip to narrow loss to Durham

Missing several key players, the hosts put up a brave fight against a strong Durham City side - but that wasn’t enough to get something out of the game.

There were few clear cut chances in the first half, but when the opportunity arose it was the visitors that struck first from a penalty corner.

Chesterfield emerged for the second half the brighter of the two sides, only to concede a second goal against the run of play.

Luke Nash then converted from close range to make it 2-1 and thereafter the game opened up, with both sides unable to add to their tally.A frustrating afternoon for Chesterfield who now slip to fourth place in the table.

Despite the loss, coach Christian Battye praised the effort of the team.

He said: “Our attitude today was excellent, our work rate was good and we kept going. You can’t fault anyone out there today, we just didn’t have that extra bit of composure when it really mattered.”

On the stretched squad he said: “Even big clubs would struggle to cope with the situation we’re in at the moment. It’s not just one or two players missing - it’s five or six.

"A club our size will always be up against it if we have that many players unavailable to us. All we can do is roll our sleeves up and get on with it.”

The Men's 2s chalked up their 11th win of the season, beating Doncaster's 4th team by 3-1. Against the odds, Doncaster took an early lead and were ahead at half time.

A second half fight back from Chesterfield turned the game around - scorers were James Scattergood, Adam Bointon and Charlie Nixon.

It was an unsuccessful4 hour round trip to the Lincolnshire wolds for the Men's 3s as they faced Louth 1s. Despite the long journey the 3s started at a blistering pace, and led 3-1 at half time, with goals coming from Alex Kentfield, and a brace from 3's top scorer Rob Anderson.

However, a different Louth team emerged in the second half, blitzing 4 goals in 20 mins to put the game beyond Chesterfield's reach.

Dave McCormick, scored a late consolation but it was not enough for the away team, who are without points since the start of November.

A battling performance for the Men's 4s saw them lose narrowly to Doncaster''s 5th team, by 1-0.

The first half saw Doncaster with the majority of possession and the Chesterfield defence faced wave after wave of attack. Despite numerous penalty corners, Doncaster couldn't find a way through.

The second half became more open and Chesterfield brought themselves back into the game, creating opportunities, without being able to find the final touch in the D need to get that vital goal.

Eventually the Doncaster pressure led to a scrappy goal, and they held on to secure the win. Man of the match was youngster Will Hallam.

The Women's 1s continued their good form with a 4-1 away win against Slazenger 2s.

It was harder work for the Women's 2s as they came up against a promotion-chasing Leopold (Sheffield) team and they were beaten 2-0.