FELIXSTOWE 3

COLCHESTER 2

East Men's Hockey League division two south

COLCHESTER Hockey Club men's first team skipper Rob Askam insists there is still plenty of time for them to move up the table despite their lowly position.

The Garrison-based side are still looking for their first win of the season, following a 3-2 defeat at Felixstowe.

Colchester had depleted numbers for the match and had to play most of the game with ten men, after a first-half injury.

And Askam believes that spirits are still high within their squad, despite their winless start to the new campaign.

Askam said: "We're not concerned yet about our position in the table.

"It's very early in the season and with how the games have gone the second half of the season we should be winning them.

"We hope our first win is just around the corner.

"We always seem to be missing players so when we have our full team we should resolve this issue - most games have not felt that hard."

"We definitely deserved more from the game at Felixstowe.

"We went with a bare 11 due to player loss during the week and within the first half we went down to ten due to injury.

"It was a very hot day to play with ten men and we could see the issues at the end of the second half."

Ben Parker grabbed both of Colchester's goals at Felixstowe, with both strikes high in quality.

The first was a great run with a reverse hit that went over the keeper, while his second goal was a pin-point shot from a short corner.

Keeper James Mortimer was Colchester's man of the match against Felixstowe, after making some incredible saves.

Colchester play host to Harpenden on Saturday - and skipper Askam is hoping it will be their first win of the season.

He added: "It's already looking like a strong squad - team spirits are still high and hopefully it will follow through to Saturday.

"We again have some key players missing but we have gained two youngsters who show a lot of promise."