HOCKEY: ONE of the shocks of the season in the Midland League Division Two came on Saturday as Coventry & North Warwickshire beat unbeaten leaders Hampton-in-Arden 3-2.
Coventry recorded a sixth win of the season as Hampton wasted no fewer than 11 short corners and came up against an inspired Aidan Johnson in the Coventry goal, who defied the best efforts of the home side’s sharp-shooters.
Dom Bell was once again on target and scored a fine open play goal closely followed by a successful short corner to make it 2-0.
Thirty minutes into the game Hampton were fortunate with a short corner and a resulting penalty stroke to pull back to 2-1 which remained the score at half-time.
Waqas Akbar was pulling the strings in the middle and mixed this with a series of aerial balls which were fumbled by a stretched Hampton defence.
It was Akbar who laid on a gilt edged pass to Bradley Briggs to smash home 15 minutes into the second half for 3-1.
Although Hampton pulled a goal back a few minutes later, a great save by Johnson denied them the equaliser.
As the final time ran out there was pressure on the Coventry defence but they held out and had a few chances at the other end to achieve a famous win.
Coventry will be looking to continue their impressive run of late when they host Finchfield this Saturday (2pm kick off).
