Ben Hoggan reports: "Brighton & Hove were unfortunate to take no points with them into the Christmas break after a closely fought loss to Surbiton 2s at Blatchington on Sunday afternoon.

Building upon a two-game unbeaten run, Brighton started strongly. Extended bouts of high
pressing led to the home side winning the ball in promising positions multiple times within the first quarter. Luke Owen’s ball carrying down the right hand side was a valuable outlet too, most notably when the ball was fed through the Surbiton defence to Sam Rose in the first quarter.

All watching were expecting a hit to rifle past the keeper, especially Nathan Tyler who was heading to goal for a deflection, but Rose opted for a ball cut back across the face
of goal in search of an open net for a teammate. The ball trickled away from Brighton sticks
and the opportunity was over. The home side’s dominance produced a number of other
circle entries and penalty corners throughout the first half, but the chances were left
unfinished and the scoresheet remained unblemished.

Into the third quarter, it was Surbiton’s turn to build momentum. Some stuttered play from
Brighton, irritated by misplaced passes and loose first touches, meant that the visitors
enjoyed far more comfortable possession than they had done previously. Where Brighton
struggled to find rhythm, Surbiton began to throw some punches of their own, attacking the circle with greater numbers than they had in the first half and producing far more convincing chances to score.

Despite spending most of the quarter in scrambled defence, some incredible saves from Chris Borsoi and resolute man-marking meant that Brighton managed to scrape through to the final break of the game still level.

With the game swinging back and forth between the two teams, the fourth quarter was an
open chance for one side to seize it and take the three points. Five minutes into the period, Surbiton won the ball again from the Brighton outlet and played it forward quickly. The Brighton defence was stretched again and the ball across the goal found Jack Hobkirk with an open goal to go 1-0 up.

Surbiton continued to attack straight after the restart, winning a penalty corner from Adam Flett’s foul, which was then punished by a yellow card and added to the home side’s problems. However, just two minutes into Flett’s suspension, Sam Rose was fouled on his way into the circle to attack the ball and Brighton were awarded a penalty stroke. Luke Owen took the ball to the spot and decisively found the bottom right corner to draw the scores level with 10 minutes to play.

The game’s back-and-forth swing continued into the final minutes of the game with both
teams attacking dogged defences. With just three minutes to play, Surbiton fired a ball into
the circle, finding the foot of a Brighton defender. The penalty corner was flicked and Will
Heywood was hit on the goalline, giving Surbiton a penalty stroke of their own and a chance to seal the points.

William Haspel pushed the ball just beyond the outstretched toes of Borsoi and Brighton were left with little time to rescue the game. It proved to be too little and Surbiton took three points out of a tightly contested match.

Into the Christmas break, Brighton’s four points in the last three games have proved to be
vital as other teams lower down the table have also earned good results in recent weeks.
Brighton will remain in the relegation zone for the remainder of 2024, but will know that their improvement as a team from first playing Surbiton away at the beginning of the season, to playing them at home on Sunday, has been extremely promising.

They will hope that the second half of the season will see them convert more impressive performances into impressive results and they can begin to win the points needed to climb out of the relegation zone.

Thanks to all who have supported the team in 2024; we hope to see you again next year."

EHL Conference East week 10 results: Spencer 4 Bromley & Beckenham 4, London Wayfarers 0 Old Cranleighan 2, West Herts 2 Wimbledon 1, Brighton & Hove 1 Surbiton 2,Tunbridge Wells 3, Hampstead & Westminster 1.

Other results

Team Surrey Spartans 1s 1 BHHC 2s 4
Middleton 1s 0 BHHC 3s 5
Crowborough 1s 1 BHHC 4s 1
BHHC 5s 1 Worthing 3s 0
Crawley 2s 4 BHHC 6s 3
Southwick 2s 1 BHHC 7s 1
BHHC 8s 3 South Saxons 5s 0
BHHC 9s 5 Middleton 2s 1
BHHC 10s 1 Crawley 3s 5