AFTER suffering a 6-2 defeat to Keswick second team in the first game of the season, Horwich's men's first team got their revenge with a 4-1 victory at the weekend to go into the Christmas break on a high.

Horwich started positively and pressed from the start, playing a fluent passing game that pushed the visitors back into their own half.

But a sucker-punch goal saw the visitors take the lead from a well-worked move.

This fired up the Horwich outfit, who replied with great hockey that found Tony Sanderson in the clear, and his neat pass set up Paul Buckland to fire past the Keswick keeper and bring the scores level.

Not content with getting back into the game, Horwich continued to dominate and it was not long before the pressure paid off with an excellent finish from Dan Woodman from a short corner routine to give Horwich a 2-1 lead.

Just before the break Tim Hayward extended the lead and Horwich were 3-1 ahead at half time.

The second half saw the Keswick team come out trying to press high and put pressure on Horwich. However, each attack was repelled by a resilient and determined defence.

And in an end-to-end second half it was Horwich who came up trumps with an excellent finish from David Whiteside to make the final score 4-1, setting the standard to take into the second half of the season.

Horwich second team lost their match away to Wigan second team 3-2, paying the price for failing to capitalise on their attacks.

The hosts took the lead with a fine finish to beat Graeme Kilshaw, but a short corner led to Andy Barr levelling to see the teams turn around at 1-1.

Although Kilshaw made some excellent saves after the break, Wigan took a 3-1 lead before the visitors pulled one back through Dave Cheetham, who broke from midfield and slotted home after good work from Barr and Matt Tuppen.

Tuppen and Mo Rashid had chances to snatch a draw but they could not make the most of them and Horwich fell to a 3-2 defeat.

A lacklustre performance saw Horwich ladies' first team suffer a 1-0 loss at Manchester University seconds.

Horwich never really got into the game and were grateful to keeper Zoe Dudley for a string of saves to keep them in contention.

The students finally made the breakthrough five minutes before half time and, though Horwich created more in the second half, they were unable to find an equaliser.

An excellent derby between Horwich seconds and Bolton's third team ended in a 5-4 victory for Bolton.

After falling behind to an eighth-minute goal, Horwich equalised through Sarah McDonald, after Abby Crompton's pass from the wing.

McDonald scored her second goal just before half time from Rosie Swarbrick's perfectly-executed set piece.

Bolton came back fighting in the second half, soon equalising to make it 2-2, but after Horwich's Zara Kour made the score 3-2 McDonald completed her hat-trick.

But Horwich were unable to see out the game and three late Bolton goals turned the tables and they ran out 5-4 winners.