SOHC 3, Plymouth Marjon 3 The final game before the festive break saw Sidmouth and Ottery first team share six goals with the visitors who had beaten them 4-1 earlier in the seaso

A clean bill of health and full availability meant a strong home side took to the Sidmouth Sports Centre pitch.

The first home goal was struck by the in-form Mikey Bell. The second was a well-crafted goal. Scott Rowson hit a cross field pass to the forwards with pin-point accuracy. The ball fell to Bell who got an early shot in that the Marjons keeper parried to Matthew Ogbourne who did not hit it cleanly, but with sufficient pace to go past the keeper..

The third and final goal was probably one of the most clinical pieces of hockey that the side has played all season!

The ball was worked out of defence to Peter Baker who had created space on the left side of the midfield and advanced quickly to release a pass to Andrew Welch, who was able to pass the ball Mikey Bell in the D to finish clinically and secure the draw.

It appears that the back five of keeper Jonty Hoare, skipper Ian Brown, Windy Miller, Ade Brooker and Scott Rowson have now settled down and are creating a great platform for the rest of the team to work off of. In addition, the work rate of Matthew Ogbourne and James Harris in the middle of the pitch has played a huge part in delivering success over the last three fixtures.

Probably the highlight of the first half of the season is the emergence of both Sam King and Mikey Bell as a strike pair. The intelligence of movement and their work rate has been great to see and suggests the future of SOHC is looking very bright.

This brings to an end the first half of the inaugural season for SOHC first team that has required a lot of soul searching as the two clubs have attempted to effectively blend the strongest players from two former clubs.

The last three results suggest that much progress has been made and second half of the season is eagerly awaited.