A frost-free Dame Alice Owen's pitch was about as good as it got for the men's first team of Potters Bar Hockey Club.

After back-to-back games against East League Division One South leaders Bishop's Stortford, they felt confident about the clash with Waltham Forest.

A win could have lifted them out of the danger zone at the bottom of the table but they ended up suffering a 5-2 defeat.

The start to each half proved their undoing with the visitors storming into the lead.

Bar keeper Ben Balmforth had to be alert to keep out a shot from close range after six minutes but was unable to do anything about the next chance, three minutes later.

A long pass found a Waltham Forest forward completely unmarked four yards from goal and he made no mistake with a neat low finish.

The surprise was it took another 15 minutes for the second to arrive.

Balmforth had made another save, this one from a short corner, and it was Ben White with an excellent goal-line clearance that prevented another set-piece from finding the net.

But Forest took advantage when James McCormick was dispossessed deep in the Bar half and after the goal was scored, the Bar man was yellow carded for trying to foul the scorer.

Going down to 10 men though gave Bar a shot in the arm and after keeping Forest out when short-handed, they sprung forward to halve the deficit.

A short corner led to a penalty stroke after Simon Tenwick was fouled by the goalkeeper.

Mark Turpin made no mistake and they suddenly turned round just 2-1 down.

However, any positivity they gained from that was instantly forgotten when Forest took just 27 seconds of the second period to restore their two-goal lead with another defensive turnover proving costly.

Bar did have a period playing against nine men but they were unable to create any chances and as soon as the numerical balance was restored, Waltham made it 4-1.

Miles Tomkins and Ed Whybrow were denied at two short corners but they did manage to get the next goal, Turpin deflecting home a pass from the latter at a short corner.

And there were other chances that were only stopped by superb saves from the away keeper. Had they gone in, it might have been a different story.

But as it was, Waltham finished the game off with a fifth from a breakaway, leaving Bar to turn their attention to a key game on Saturday at Brentwood, the side two places and one point above them in the table.

Neither of the two women's teams played but all three of the other men's sides were in action.

 

The seconds actually played the thirds in Division Four South West and it resulted in a 3-1 success for the table-topping threes.

Warren Edmondson got all three for them with Jake Howard netting the second's consolation.

The fourths secured a much needed 5-2 victory over Bedford in Division Seven.

Josh Becker was their hat-trick hero with Simon Kelly and Dave Smith getting the others.