A weekend to forget for Leeds Hockey Club’s men’s and women’s teams

With the men travelling across the Pennines to visit Preston, and the ladies hosting Loughborough Students at Sports Park Weetwood, Saturday promised a feast of hockey.

The journey across to Lancashire obviously had a negative effect on the Leeds boys as they found themselves a goal down within the first four minutes, some sharp passing and a determined run saw Steven Masterson slot the ball home for the home side.

The situation went from bad to worse as, on the 30-minute mark, the Leeds defence were caught napping allowing Jonathan Platt to score from close range. A stern talking to was needed at half-time and that’s clearly what happened as Leeds started the second half in a much more positive mind-set, and it took only five minutes for a regular name to show up on the scoresheet.

Harry Lankfer took responsibility at a short corner and scored the first of his two goals for the day.

A lovely strike down into the bottom corner left the keeper stranded as Leeds finally had reason to celebrate. Two minutes later, Lankfer was at it again, this time getting on the end of a lovely pass, showing beautiful skill to evade a final challenge and bring the two teams’ level again at 2-2.

Back in it and with momentum behind them, Leeds pushed forward and began to control the game forcing Preston onto the back foot.