On a cool January day, Yateley 4s travelled to the south coast to face bottom of the league Portsmouth & Southsea. With only 11 players, and Jacob Sealey making his 4s debut, Yateley were expecting a hard game.

After a fairly even 10 minutes the deadlock was finally broken by Jacob Sealey who slotted a lovely backhand strike past the keeper into the bottom corner. This sparked Yateley into playing some free-flowing hockey and Shaun Barnes doubling the lead. More pressure from the Yateley midfield duo of Darren and Josh Skinner resulted in a short corner for Yateley with Jacob Sealey coolly beating the keeper with a well-placed strike.

With a 3-0 lead at half time, Ben Martin’s team talk was an easy one and the team came out for the second half full of confidence. More pressure gave Yateley another short corner which was duly dispatched into the left netting by drag flick from Louis Farrell. With a 4-0 lead, Yateley slipped into some casual hockey and the opposition pulled a goal back.

This served to reinspire the Red Army and further pressure by Derek Craston, Lucas Cripps and Andrew Swinyard gave another short corner that was well worked and saw Willy Russell slot the ball into the back of the net. The team came under more pressure from the Portsmouth & Southsea attack, but the defence of Willy Russell, Jon Floyd and keeper Ben Martin held firm. Not satisfied with the 5-1 score-line, Yateley mounted further attacks which saw debutant Jacob Sealey fire the ball on the half volley through the keeper’s legs to seal his hat-trick and well-deserved man-of-the match.