Fish Hoek and Central share spoils in an exciting draw at Hartleyvale

FISH HOEK and Central could not be separated for the second time this season and drew 3-3 yesterday at Hartleyvale.

The Hoekers deserved to win this encounter and were the better side on the day.

They were far more direct than Central and played a highpress structure to put Central’s defenders and midfielders under constant pressure.

The Fish Hoek midfield quartet of Warren Grobbelaar, Callan Heynes, Craig Haley and Josh van Blerk were outstanding and set a good platform for their attackers.

Grobbelaar opened the scoring in the third minute, via a well-taken field goal, with Central responding with a Lance de Kock field goal in the ninth minute.

The pressure exerted on Central’s defenders led to them making several errors and the defenders were trying to run out of defensive positions continually.

This resulted in numerous turnovers and Fish Hoek duly went ahead in the 25th minute via a superb reverse stick shot by Ben Wiley. (2-1).

The third chukka produced some great action with Fish Hoek possibly playing their best hockey of the year. They extended their lead after another defensive blunder with Vaughan Erasmus tapping in at the far post (3-1).

Central, to their credit, fought back and pulled a goal back with an exhilarating penalty-corner goal by De Kock. (3-2).

The game was seemingly heading for a Fish Hoek victory with Francois du Toit, the Hoekers keeper, not called upon for most of the third and fourth chukkas.

With two minutes left in the game, Central striker Zubayr Hamza, broke the opposition’s hearts with a great reversestick goal after he had pounced on an error (3-3).

Fish Hoek will be bitterly disappointed with the result and Central will be glad to have come away with a draw.

In today’s men’s Grand Challenge games Langa will host UCT at Langa and WPCC will play Somerset West in Somerset. There is only one women’s Grand Challenge game with Bellville hosting UCT at Bellville.