St. Albans Ladies First XI beat Bedford 4-2 at home, despite their visitors having leapfrogged them in the Investec Women’s Hockey League Conference East the previous weekend.

St. Albans broke the deadlock on 25 minutes after a period of patient build up play resulted in captain, Natasha Humphries picking out Amie Stephenson in the circle to deflect a shot past the keeper.

Bedford levelled six minutes later after a lapse in concentration from St. Albans on a long corner allowed the visitors to drive into the circle and the resulting strike drew the scores level.

St. Albans would have to wait until midway through the second half to regain their lead when a ball played into the Bedford circle pinballed its way to Caitlin Wales on the baseline who finished emphatically from a few yards out.

That goal saw momentum swing in St Albans' favour and a minute later, Wales struck the ball towards the back post to find Samantha Archer-Overall free for an easy deflection past a stranded keeper.

Bedford showed determination as they tried to get something from the game and on 65 minutes they pulled another back from a penalty corner to set up a tense last five minutes for the home fans.

However a penalty corner the other way saw St Albans re-establish their lead through Adele Sammons and secure all three points.

The result moved St. Albans back to sixth in the table, which, come the end of the season, would guarantee them a spot in division one next season.

Elsewhere, St Albans Mens First XI fell to only their third defeat of the season on Saturday, as top of the league Wapping beat them 2-0.

After the match captain Matt Davey was pragmatic about how the game went and said he was happy with how his side had played.

He said: "It was a very close fought defensive battle, which could have gone either way in the early stages.

"Wapping were fortunate to sneak a goal from nowhere, allowing them the luxury of sitting back and defending. I was happy with the team’s performance, sticking to our game plan and improving throughout the match.”

Meanwhile, in the youth teams, the U16 Girls made it through to the regional finals of the England Hockey Tier 1 Cup Competition, which will be played on Sunday, March 10.

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