HARD WORK: Maitland Blacks’ Scott Brennan controls the ball in atrocious conditions.
The Maitland Rams continued their undefeated start to the 2012 Hunter Coast Premier Hockey League season with a gritty 5-2 win over Wests at the Maitland Hockey Complex on Sunday.
In atrocious conditions the Rams battled hard to overcome a tricky Wests side and maintain their position at the top of the table.
After heading into the half-time break with a fortunate 2-1 lead, the Rams consolidated in the second half and were able to grind out their fourth win of the season.
Maitland player-coach Nathan Baker was happy with the hard fought victory.
“Given the conditions it was a really good result, the pitch was slow because of the massive downpour,” Baker said.
“There were a couple of puddles, its an all-weather pitch but there’s only so much it can take I suppose but it wasn’t too bad.”
Baker was pleased with his sides ability to grind out the result in trying conditions.
“In the first half they had us at sixes and sevens, they play a slightly different system with duel centre halves and they just kept catching us out with numbers early on,” Baker said.
“They probably had the better of the play in the first half but we came off 2-1 up, made a few adjustments to counter it and went from there.”
Goals from captain Peter Urquhart, representative player Ben Urquhart, Matthew Brown and a double from Baker was enough to seal the points for the high flying Rams.
The improvement in the second half was another pleasing aspect for Baker.
“It was definitely a better second half from us,” Baker said.
“The way we controlled the ball and our fitness especially was really good which is a positive sign.”
The Rams will look to continue their fine start to the season in a fortnights time when they travel to take on the fourth placed Entrance.