Sixy Horsham told promotion is theirs to lose

The win put Horsham into the second promotion slot, three points clear with a game in hand.

Meaning that one point from their remaining two games will guarantee they play their hockey in South Premiership Division 1 next season.

March has seen a seismic shift in hockey in the south of England. Once proud and powerful teams like East Grinstead, Chichester and Guildford have struggled for survival, face relegation play-offs or, in Guildford’s case, been relegated.

But as somebody comes down, somebody goes up and last Saturday saw dramatic improvement in Horsham’s fortunes as they demolished bottom club Oxford Hawks 6-0, whilst fellow promotion contenders Tulse Hill slipped up against lowly Eastbourne.

Facing an unruly Oxford side, Horsham scored three goals in each half. It was nowhere near the best hockey they have played this season but the simple fact is that Duncan Howarth’s men have become very difficult to score against and attack with such pressure that goals have become inevitable.

Campbell said: “Life just got much easier. Consistency is everything at this level and the boys have worked hard for each other. We remain unbeaten in 2016, it’s now ours to lose.”

Cirdec Atkinson netted a brace, Matt Hough deflected a Jack Dean shot and Chas Richardson continued his fine scoring run.

Joey Humphreys has threatened to score for weeks and duly obliged, while the goal of the game came from a wonderful passing move between two of the younger players – Noah Chinn picking up the ball on the halfway line, finding Jack Dean with a great pass, then sprinting the length of the pitch to get onto the end of Dean’s cross to score from behind his back.

On April 2, Horsham travel to Purley, who look to have avoided the drop, then the following week they host Woking who have already been relegated.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!