HOCKEY: Old Southendian’s men’s first team dug deep to beat Norwich City 3-2 in their final outing of 2020.

Norwich had the better of the opening exchanges and opened the scoring two minutes before the interval.

But the Old Boys responded strongly with a goal of their own inside the first 10 minutes of the second half with Giles Davies scoring his 10th goal in six matches.

Davies, then went on to turn provider as he assisted Southendian’s second goal of the game just 50 seconds later.

Davies surged through midfield and found Tim Robinson at the back post whose first time finish deftly lifted the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper and into the net to put the away side 2-1 up.

Norwich went on to peg Old Southendian level with another back-hand finish with less than seven minutes to play.

But, with the scores at 2-2, Southendian were not satisfied with a solitary point on their travels and continued to press on before scoring a late winner, courtesy of Alfie Hibbard.

The Southendian skipper pressed on through midfield with defender Sam Lowe progressing through the middle of the pitch with the ball.

Lowe fired a ball into the opposing circle, and Hibbard proved to be the quickest to react as he turned the ball into the goal from close range.

The men’s second team will be heading into the lockdown with six wins from six in Div3SE following the 5-1 victory over Chelmsford at Warners Bridge.

Chelmsford held resolute for much of the running time of this fixture but two goals from Josh Copeland and a goal apiece for Jack Andrews, Connor Andrews and birthday boy Toby Jordan sealed all three points.

Southendian’s third team came up against a physical Rochford first team.

Despite going behind to an early sloppy goal, Southendian controlled the game scoring three well worked and well deserved goals with Miller, Hooper and Ashworth all on target.

The fourth team lost 3-0 at home to Chelmsford fourths while the fifth team lost 1-0 to London Royals first team.

Elsewhere, the ladies first team secured their sixth win of the season against Basildon’s third team, leaving them top of the table.

Southendian went behind in the first half before goals from Sami Da Costa and Anna Cooper saw them fight back to triumph The women’s second team beat Braintree seconds 7-1 with Chloe Foster and Emily McCarthy scoring twice.

Maggie Downing, Freya Cotton and Alice Harman were also on target.

The third string netted their first win of the season against Witham’s third team, 2-1.

Suzie Williams scored both goals.