Khalsa back in promotion mix as Singh seals Stafford success

Khalsa started strongly, with Gurminder Ghattaura and Mandeep Sandhar combining to create a short corner from which the Stafford keeper did well to deny Jack Wells and the follow-up from Ben Stephenson.

After a scintillating run down the flank, Scott Angliss and Jo Colantonio produced some classy one-touch hockey to allow Alex Idoine to open the scoring from close range.

Sav Lall came close to doubling the lead, with only the quick reactions of the North Stafford keeper denying him.

North Stafford were not without their chances, however, with keeper Elliot Rider producing several saves, the pick of which saw him superbly tip over a short-corner strike.

Khalsa gave themselves breathing space when Stuart Gooderham unlocked the hosts’ defence with an excellently weighted pass for Ghattaura to power a shot past the keeper.

After the interval, Sean Robinson and Gooderham both came close to extending the lead before Jas Singh made it 3-0, producing some tremendous stick skills to work the space to shoot into the corner of the net.

North Stafford continued to push forward but Darling’s courageous defending on the line denied them even a consolation.

Despite letting slip a three-goal lead, Khalsa 2nds inflicted the first defeat of the season on Birmingham University.

The students, who started the day at the top of the league, made all the early running, but Khalsa looked dangerous on the counter-attack thanks to the talents of Navdeep Hayer and Amarpal Khera.

The duo combined to put Khalsa 3-0 up, with Khera scoring two and Hayer also on the target.

Birmingham University were back on level terms at the break but a first goal of the season from Paul Beckett gave Khalsa the victory.

Khalsa 3rds’ trip to to neighbours Warwick University on Saturday was abandoned because of problems with the lighting, with both teams agreeing to take a 0-0 draw.