HOCKEY: KHALSA travelled to Nottinghamshire-based West Bridgford on Saturday, hoping to wrap up three league points.
The visiting side started well with an early chance for Sav Lall, whose shot went just wide of the post.
West Bridgford responded immediately with a penalty corner, however keeper Elliot Rider confidently booted the ball to safety.
Alex Idoine opened Khalsa’s scoring from a well worked short corner when finding the bottom corner of the goal.
Some patient build up from Sean Robinson, Chris Darling, Scott Angliss and Stuart Colegate allowed Ben Stephenson to play a powered ball into the circle for Idoine to deflect cleverly through his legs into the bottom corner of the goal, doubling Khalsa’s lead.
West Bridgford continued to press the Khalsa midfield. But Jack Wells, Joe Colantonio and Anit Chudasama negated any threat the hosts had to offer.
At the interval, Khalsa reshuffled the midfield and front line.
Gurminder Ghattaura and Amritpal Atwal worked tirelessly in the attacking line to press the ball high, forcing errors from the Bridgford defence.
The hosts were awarded a free hit outside the circle and resulted in a fortunate ricochet off the defenders stick to an unmarked defender at the back post, allowing Bridgford to pull one back with 15 minutes remaining.
Unphased by this, Khalsa, spread the ball well across the midfield and back line.
A superbly weighted through ball from Amritpal Atwal found Idoine through on goal, allowing him to complete his hat-trick with a superb strike on his reverse.
Khalsa wrapped up the three points and will travel to Bournville next week.
2nd XI
Elsewhere Khalsa 2s played at home to a strong Birmingham University side.
Khalsa were put on the back foot from the off and were soon a goal behind following strong work in the midfield.
The early goal failed to intimidate Khalsa though, who were soon level when Aide Betts levelled the score after linking up with Joe Bostock.
Jas Singh then put Khalsa ahead following a short corner, but that was to be the only joy the visiting side would taste.
Birmingham changed their style of play in the second half and were rewarded with three goals to eventually win 4-2.
