Ashford has become a fixture with Sutton Valence that can easily go either way and this game was no different. As normal SV 3's starting the game with most of their regulars, but some new faces as well.
The hockey was competitive from the first whistle, with both teams taking their share of attacking posession and penetrating each others D. Ashford struck first and took a 1 nil lead into half time. There was no reason to panic, but a few structural changes were made to play the regular 3's midfielders in their normal positions. This immediately bought some success and SV responded with some dominant play resulting in a well composed Andy Baar goal. Ashford responded by scoring themselves a few minutes later, leaving SV chasing the game with 15 minutes to go. The game started to hot up, with one of Ashfords players being involved in some off the ball action causing the umpires to ask the captains to talk to their respective teams. The game could have been over had Ashford not missed a P flick, which gave SV the impetus to again break down the Ashford defence once more. Paddy left the keeper rooted with a shot heading in the bottom left corner of the goal. The momentum continued with SV and they nearly scored in the dying seconds with Chris Sheldon's close range shot being stopped on the line by an Ashford defenders foot. A short corner was awarded, but we were unable to convert that to a goal.

The game ended in a draw, which on reflection was a fair result for both teams, but it was a game on a knife edge that could have gone either way.