After a hard fought point away in York the week prior, Chesterfield Hockey Club Men's 1st XI were excited to be back at home to host Leeds Adel, with Chesterfield eager to impose themselves onto the game and put in another solid performance to continue their fine start to the season.

Chesterfield were zealous to start the game quickly and bring their game to Leeds, although they had to wait a while to open the scoring, and initially were reliant on their defensive structure to gain them a foothold in the match and allow them to play forwards and attack Leeds.
It was thanks to some fine work down the right baseline from the returning Oliver Addy which resulted in a penalty corner, and Alex Mycroft was then able to dispatch his first goal of the day from the top of the circle with a sharp drag flick.

With confidence building, Chesterfield piled on the pressure for long spells of the game. This benefitted the greens massively, whom eventually finished the half 3-0 up, thanks to midfielder Zach Scothern getting off the mark for the season with an intricate deflection from a penalty corner, and then also his midfield partner Ben Truby - finishing off a nice move with a delicate flick into the side netting.

At the interval, Chesterfield collectively reiterated that their focus was primarily to continue to play in a way that reflected how they had been training, and not to get carried away with the idea of more goals and individual performances.

With that being said, Chesterfield commenced the second half in a similar fashion to how they finished it; a backhand shot from Ben Truby found the stick of amazing young talent Ted Murray, who skillfully deflected into the net for his first goal in the Chesterfield 1st XI.

The game then finally started to calm down, but only for about 15 minutes, with more goals coming from Jack Hartley finishing nicely, and Alex Mycroft sending a rocket in from another penalty corner.

Leeds Adel continued to persevere and fought back with an opportunity that brought about a consolation goal. However, this didn’t subdue Chesterfield, and they continued with their onslaught through a late brace from midfielder Cameron Taylor, the second of which was a fine solo effort. The game concluded Chesterfield 8-1 Leeds Adel.

Man of the match was awarded to Ted Murray for a massive effort leading the forward line, capped off with his first goal for the Chesterfield 1st XI.

Next week Chesterfield travel to Rotherham for what will undoubtably be a much tougher assignment, but Chesterfield will look to continue to work hard and put another good performance in.

Match report by Zach Scothern