MINEHEAD Hockey Club’s men’s first team visited Taunton Vale last weekend with their sights still set on promotion - and they snapped up a last-gasp winner to gain a thrilling victory.

Fielding a bare eleven and with their fifth centre back partnership of the season, Minehead started well with sustained pressure and many balls flashing across the face of the Vale goal. After 35 minutes of unrelenting attack, the teams went into the break still on level terms at 0-0.

Chasing for a result the back line crept ever higher up the pitch looking to overload the Vale defence. However this proved to be a mistake as an unnoticed Vale forward escaped everyone’s notice a slotted a long clearance ball home to take the lead.

This spurred Minehead to show why they are title hopefuls and skipper James Weetch tweaked the formation to free up goal machine Rob Speed to head up the pitch where he promptly scored to level the match with just seven minutes of the match to go. With a back and forth final quarter it took Josh Hooper to slot home the winner in the dying minutes to secure a crucial and exciting win.

The 2nd XI hosted Bridgwater 2’s who are currently sitting in third place, just two points off the promotion spot - and the game ended in a narrow defeat for the home outfit.

Expecting a tough day at the office, the 2’s fronted up to their combative opponents and matched them in all areas of the contest. Front three of Cole, Cobb and Vickery were nuisances all match, and with Joe Bolton bossing his midfield and Clegg as always proving to be a menace all over the pitch it was a close contest.

Bridgwater slotted two penalty corners late in the first half to settle their nerves and it looked like more was to come. Minehead rallied in the second period, and a goal from Sam Cobb was a just reward for the superb effort that the entire team put it, especially Luke Orpin and Ben Druitt working hard on the flanks. More Bridgwater short corners were brilliantly fended by both Paul Jones with two deflections off the post, and keeper Steve Clapp also with two great saves. An equaliser never appeared, but a surprisingly good natured match ended at 2-1 for the visitors.

The 3’ds hosted South Gloucestershire with hopes of a much needed win so late in the campaign. The visitors struck first early on, and were quickly responded to with a Ben Moody goal, poaching off an Andrew Speed effort as he made a welcome return to competitive action. This proved to be the only score for Minehead as the second half saw the visitors run in three more goals to add to their second of the first half to run out easy 5-1 winners in yet another competitive but enjoyable match.

This weekend (Saturday 5th April) sees the last action of the season for the Minehead club; the firsts need to win against Sidmouth at home with a 2p.m. start and their closest rivals need to lose; the 2’s are safe lower down the league and travel to Chard, the 3’s travel to North Somerset to close their campaign.