COLCHESTER 9

BRENTWOOD II 3

East Men's League division three

COLCHESTER Hockey Club's men trounced Brentwood to continue their superb season in style.

The Garrison-based side have already achieved promotion back to division two.

But they showed their opponents no mercy, hitting nine goals past them including six in the second half.

Colchester captain Simon Pearson-Burton said: "It was fantastic to see the team still hungry for success.

"As the pressure has dropped off now that promotion is sealed, we have been in the enviable position of giving some of the youngsters in the squad more pitch time.

"I was really pleased with the way they went about their business in particular debutant Will d’Angibau, showing real flair in attack and growing in confidence as the game progressed."

Colchester went ahead after after five minutes thanks to Hugh Pearce's absolute scorcher from the top of the D, after some patient build-up play.

And it was 2-0 when Ben Parker converted after being cynically fouled in the Brentwood D.

Brentwood responded well and converted a short corner to halve the deficit.

But this only served to open the game up and Pearce scored his second of the game with five minutes remaining, follow Parker's meandering run.

Brentwood converted from another short corner to ensure a one-goal margin, heading into the break.

And although Colchester enjoyed plenty of possession just after half-time, the visitors made it 3-3.

That appeared to be the catalyst the hosts needed though and they responded almost immediately.

Charlie Speck restored Colchester's lead to polish off a great move involving Parker and player of the match, Lloyd Dennis.

Parker and Speck linked up again soon after to make it 5-3 before Parker completed his hat-trick after catching the Brentwood defence by surprise and scoring a sublime goal.

Dennis stalked into the D to score a seventh and quickly struck again after combining with the increasingly confident d’Angibau, before Parker's reverse strike completed Colchester's big win.

Pearson-Burton added: "The scoreline is maybe a little flattering to us but we were absolutely rampant in the first ten minutes.

"It could have been into double figures if only a fraction of the attempts had gone in, as it was we only scored once in the first 20 minutes.

"At half-time it was 3-2 and then shortly after the restart 3-3 but a magnificent ten minutes saw us utterly dominate and score four goals with very little resistance."