HOCKEY: A FIRST double-header of the season saw Khalsa claim back-to-back wins to move up to second in the Midland League Premier Division.
The weekend began with a home clash against Birmingham-based Harborne who were hot on the heels of Khalsa in the league standings.
Two early chances fell to Alex Idoine but he wasted both one-on-one opportunities with the visiting keeper squandering both efforts.
It was an opening period where both sides produced some scintillating end-to-end hockey and Khalsa had keeper Elliot Rider to thank for saving several short corner opportunities.
At the interval, the game was evenly matched at a stalemate but Khalsa stuck to their game plan and a pin-point ball from Ben Stephenson found its way into the goal, however it lacked a touch from a Khalsa player in the circle.
Khalsa continued to press for an opener and were awarded a penalty corner with Aaron Nagra’s strike rebounding for Harris to strike into the goal to put the hosts in front.
Harborne became stretched as they pressed in search of an equaliser and Khalsa were able to expose more gaps in defence.
Gurminder Ghattaura unmarked in the centre of the pitch was quick to recognise the opportunity to find Idoine again in a one-on-one situation and this time the Khalsa man came out on top to double the home side’s lead.
Ghattaura then turned from provider to scorer with an excellent move down the left. Some intelligent running from Sav Lall on the base line exposed the circle for a weighted pass back to Ghattaura to strike the ball home to seal a 3-0 victory.
Khalsa were back in action on Sunday as they made the trip to Worcester for a re-arranged fixture against the relegation threatened outfit.
Khalsa took an early lead as a result of patient build up with Nagra finding Ghattaura who passed the ball first time to Idoine to despatch the ball into the top corner of the net.
The patient build up approach continued for the hosts and they were rewarded again, this time a fantastic run and pass between Amritpal Atwal and Stuart Gooderham found Sav Lall unmarked for an easy tap in.
At the other end an in-form Elliot Rider kept the visitors at bay but after the re-start Worcester got themselves back into the match thanks to a penalty stroke.
The goal spurred Khalsa on and soon enough the two-goal cushion was restored when Aaron Nagra converted a short corner after some neat build up play by Anit Chudasama and Jack Wells.
David Harris was successful with his own drag flick into the side netting before Joe Colantonio was brought to ground dangerously resulting in the Worcester player being sin binned for five minutes, followed by another sin bin for a similar offence against Stuart Gooderham.
From the resulting penalty corner, Nagra dispatched another goal into the bottom corner and in the final minutes Nagra completed his hat-trick with another flick into the top corner to seal six points from the weekend.
Elsewhere, the second team continued their poor run of form about losing 11-0 away at Loughborough Town but there was better new for the third team who beat Leicester Westleigh 7-2, with Alex Murdoch bagging a hat-trick and the fourth team draw 1-1 against neighbours Hampton-in-Arden.
