Sidmouth and Ottery Hockey Club (SOHC) men’s 2nd XI could only field 10 players for their meeting with one of the two teams who could, albeit only mathematically, deny the SOHC men’s first team the Southern Two title, and went down to a 3-1 defeat.

Playing the high-flying visitors was always a tough task, and certainly one made harder without a full complement of players.

SOHC shipped a goal as early as the fifth minute, at which stage both home players and supporters could have been forgiven for thinking they might be in for a big hiding against a team that had already scored 73 goals in 16 outings and had beaten SOHC 5-1 when the teams met in East Devon in November.

However, and to their eternal credit, SOHC refused to buckle and the remainder of the first half saw even-steven play with action in both goal mouths, with just one more goal conceded, and half-time arrived with PGSOB A just two goals to the good.

A high point in the second half of the contest for SOHC came with some neat interplay between James Broad and Dan Hart that ended with the latter applying a clinical finish.

At 2-1 down, SOHC continued to cause the visitors problems and it was not until late on that PGSOB A sealed the points with their third goal in the final quarter of the contest.

SOHC share second from bottom place with West Dorset – the two teams are two points clear of basement side Tavistock A.

This Saturday (February 17), SOHC travel to Bude, who beat them 11-0 when the sides met in East Devon on November 11.

After the Bude game, SOHC 2nds will have four to play: Caradon (H), SOHC 1st XI (A), Camborne SoM (H) and Plymouth Marjon C (A), and they probably need to win two of the five games to ensure they do not end in a bottom two slot.