Despite almost total dominance Brighton Hove were unable to break down the West Herts defence and slumped to a dispiriting defeat in the MHL Conference East on Saturday night.

In front of a lively and supportive crowd Brighton went in front when Tim Upchurch expertly converted a penalty corner but the newly promoted visitors struck back following a scramble in the circle.

The Watford side went in front before half time when their captain Billy Gage converted their first penalty corner and spent the second half sitting deep as Brighton pressed. Goalkeeper Ollie Foot made a succession of fine saves to thwart Brighton’s efforts to give his side their first win at this level.

Brighton welcome fellow strugglers Old Cranleighan to Blatchington this Saturday (6pm) and all support will again be appreciated. The players would like to thank Andrew Bromley and Cameron Heath for their efforts in making the atmosphere at the West Herts game so good.

Week 3 results: Wimbledon 4 Surbiton 1, Tunbridge Wells 3 Bromley & Beckenham 2, Brighton & Hove 1 West Herts 2, London Wayfarers 1 Spencer 2, Old Cranleighan 1 Hampstead & Westminster 2.

Lewes M2s 2
BHHC M3s 5

Andrew Bromley reports: “M3 faced local rivals Lewes where the pre-match facilities seem to be ever improving. After sampling a flat white on the patio furniture next to the pitch, the lads carried out their warm up on the recently resurfaced astroturf tennis court (formerly gravel). We were also lucky enough to have a good 10 minutes of warm up (which isn't afforded for our home slots unfortunately!)

Much like Eastbourne away, we went 1-0 down early doors as their forward wriggled through some baseline challenges and scored with a tidy finish from a tight angle. Perhaps the Eastbourne reference is key here, as the belief of the lads that playing good quality passing hockey gets results seems unshakeable. We were also buoyed by the return of Jon Williams, who slotted in perfectly at centre back and helped with distribution. After about eight minutes, Calvin subbed on for his rotation and was immediately green carded for a bit of a dodgy looking foot-on-ball incident! This was followed (but not with a card) with a telling off for GK Bromley, who was aggrieved with numerous Lewes diving tackles that had a high chance to cause injury. Telling off delivered but more importantly, no more stuka tackles!

We scored three great goals to lead 3-2 at half time, in response to a Lewes backhand goal that may or may not have had a bit of stick head involved, skewing the ball's flight path! Lewes still maintained a threat as they chucked big aerials to high players to release pressure and then defended deep. Luckily we were blessed this week to have the services of Rufus Hodgkinson whose dribble is second to none and created lots of dangerous attacks.

After a shuffle around at half time, the lads went out and knocked in another two goals. Pick of the bunch being a one v one by Stanley Liles. Various pieces of hockey would have impressed our neighbours, including flowing passing hockey and some excellent individual skills.

MoM went to Louis Patel, with DoD awarded to Dan Hatton (hat on).
Goal scorers were Seb Wilkinson, Louis Patel, Jacob Young, Chris Page and Stanley Liles.”

Other results
Mid Sussex M1s 3 BHHC M2s 0
BHHC M4s 5 BHHC M6s 2
Worthing M4s 4 BHHC M5s 3
BHHC M7s 0 East Grinstead M4s 1
BHHC M8s 2 BHHC M9s 3
Lewes M6s 0 BHHC M10s 0