A STIRRING fight-back saw Brooklands Manchester University back to winning ways in the First Division of the Slazenger England Hockey League.
Although they went two goals down in the first 25 minutes and then missed a penalty flick, the Cheshire team eventually hit back to beat Bournville 4-3.
It looked like being a grim day right from the beginning with John Bell injured in the warm-up when he was hit in the face by a ball coming back off the goalkeeper.
Although he started the match he was still slightly concussed and had to come off, and with the team still in some disarray, Simon McCollum and Chris Thomson scored from penalty corners to give Bournville a 2-0 interval lead.
Mark Richardson scored with a penalty stroke in the 46th minute to raise Brooklands hopes but Rick McCollum quickly put Borunville back on top with a 3-1 lead.
Brooklands finally got their game going and in the last 20 minutes Andy Magro scored twice and Peter Flanagan converted a penalty corner to lift their team away from the bottom of the table.
"To win away at Bournville was a good result," said a pleased manager Jeff Gazzard.
"We have slightly changed the way we play which with better communication and improved fitness is seeing things come together for us.
"We will still need to work our socks off against Old Loughtonians at Georges Road on Sunday (1pm) but if we do we can still go into the second half of the season after Christmas feeling confident about our chances of staying in the First Division," he added.
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