Witham Hockey Club's men’s first team has enjoyed a recent resurgence in form and on Saturday put away local rivals Brentwood with a convincing 3-0 victory. Witham are pushing for a promotion place and it was important to build on the previous week’s victory and exert some pressure on the top teams.

The game didn't start how Witham would have liked as Brentwood came out of the blocks the quicker and put together a string of chances, unfortunately they soon realised that they were coming up against a goalkeeper who put in the performance of the season. Witham were giving Brentwood too much space, allowing them to spray the ball around with accuracy. Witham’s first shot came after 20 minutes, when a slick move down the right gave Newland a great opportunity to break the deadlock, but inexplicably he put wide from a matter of yards. Fortunately it didn't matter as minutes later Marshall broke down the right to the byline, picked out Bellehewe at the back post who calmly slotted home. It could have been two almost immediately when a replica of the move that brought the goal Bellehewe through again, only for him to miscue his shot. Half time came and Witham were very happy with their single goal lead.

The second half was a much more even affair, with Witham happy to sit back and hit Brentwood on the break. This tactic was rewarded when a rare Taylor aerial ball found Bellehewe in space in the area before being fouled. The short corner followed and Witham found themselves 2-0 up when a bizarre goal came about. The shot from Pidgeon hit the opposition goalie, who managed to kick it straight onto Marshalls stick and, before he knew anything about it, the ball had crept over the line. Brentwood continued to attack and Neal Hadcraft made a number of outstanding saves to keep a clean sheet. With only 10 minutes left there was another Witham break, Wilsher fed threw Bellehewe who squared back for Karl Khan who hammered the ball home.

Man of the match Hadcraft said: "This was a massive game, we are now 3rd in the league and we are back on track. We now play bottom of the league next Saturday and we are fully focused on another three points".

Witham entertain bottom of the league Crostyx next Saturday and are only four points off top of the table.