Colchester put in the performance of their season to beat Pelicans 8-4 in the NE14Hockey East League Premier B.

Colchester added Craig Warriner and Duncan Scott to the squad which beat Long Sutton, having gained that win they were keen to follow that up by putting in a good performance against a side sitting second in the table.

Pelicans opened the scoring in the ninth minute from a penalty corner, converted off the stick of Colchester keeper Ross Stannard.

Within a minute Colchester equalised through Matt Brown, who hit the ball first time reverse stick into the goal.

They then took lead for the first time when Joe Rich was fouled in the 25 for a penalty corner.

The ball was slipped to Warriner whose effort was saved on the line only for Tom Philp to slap the rebound home.

Colchester’s lead did not last long.

A free hit was awarded to Pelicans, when Colchester skipper Rohan Khaira questioned the decision the umpire upgraded the award to a penalty corner from which the visitors converted.

With 28 minutes gone Colchester regained the lead.

They were fouled a couple of times in the 25.

From the free-hit Tim Wright looked to deflect the ball past the Pelicans goalkeeper; his effort was saved but it fell to Duncan Scott, who passed the ball back to Wright who flicked it reverse stick into the goal.

Colchester extended their lead when Mark Kennedy made a tackle in the Pelicans half before finding Matt Brown at the top of the D, who made no mistake with his finish.

Within a minute of the restart Pelicans had pulled a goal back.

Colchester restored their two-goal advantage after a good team move saw Khaira score.

The home team were rampant and quickly added their sixth.

Richard Sexton turned his man before firing in a cross which Warriner coolly lifted over the advancing keeper.

Midway through the second half Pelicans had pulled a goal back through a penalty corner.

On 57 minutes Khaira was given a spell in the sin-bin after foolishly trying to take the ball down with his stick over head height.

However, Colchester counter attacked from the free-hit and won a penalty corner which saw Matt Brown score.

With just five minutes remaining both sides were reduced to ten men as two yellow cards were issued. Mark Kennedy was fouled in the Colchester D to give Pelicans their second yellow and Kennedy’s retaliation saw him join the Pelicans player in the bin.

With time running out Colchester were awarded a penalty corner and for the second week running Matt Brown had the final touch as he flicked the ball into the back of the net.

The win took Colchester off the bottom and out of the bottom two.

The Hills residential man-of-the-match was Joe Rich.