Sidmouth and Ottery Hockey Club (SOHC) men’s 1st XI suffered only their second defeat of the league campaign and surrendered top spot in the Southern One table as they went down to the side that sat second at the start of the game, Taunton Vale, losing 4-1 at the Somerset side.

The SOHC cause was not helped by the fact they travelled to Taunton for the fixture missing a number of regular players. That said, they did not help themselves and there were a number of errors involved as the home side took a two-goal lead inside the first 10 minutes with both goals from penalty flicks.

The general malaise in the performance continued through to half-time at which point they had shipped a third goal. The second half saw little improvement in the SOHC performance and they conceded a fourth before getting a late consolation when Jack Ellison rifled home a penalty flick. Josh Miller was named the SOHC Man of the Match.

That’s the final game of the year for the team in terms of their league campaign and they will resume action on January 12 when they travel to Weston-super-Mare II.