Old Loughts Oliver Didham

Didham grabs late, vital equaliser for Loughton

Indian Gymkhana 3

Old Loughtonians 3

Oliver Didham grabbed a vital, late equaliser for Old Loughts on Saturday as they strengthened their case for survival in the Men’s Conference East Division.

It is so tight from mid-table to the bottom of the division, so this game was a vital one with Indian Gymkhana just below them in the table.

And it was the home side who started the stronger in this match as Hanspal pounced on an uncleared ball from a short corner to take an early lead.

Worse was to follow when Jimenez managed to carve his way through most of the Loughts defence unchecked to add a second and it took a rocket from coach Mike Williamson at the break to suddenly bring his side to life and play some stylish hockey.

A goal from Stuart Hardy five minutes after the restart rattled the home side, but Old Loughts were checked when Alistair Bray was yellow-carded for what looked like an innocuous interception that then rolled on to the back of his stick.

Fortunately, they managed to keep the score at 2-1 while they were a man down, but then against the run of play, Gymkhana grabbed a third goal and looked like they had wrapped up the match and the precious points.

Loughts weren’t giving up though and stepped up a gear, creating plenty of nerves in the home team, who were then temporarily reduced to 10-men with a yellow-card of their own.

Old Loughts took advantage as a ball into the D was touched sweetly past the keeper by Conor Caplan to make it 3-2 and then with just a minute to go, a short corner was fed to Didham and he did the rest.

The draw keeps the team in fifth place, but they face a tricky clash with leaders Holcombe on Sunday at their Luxborough Lane headquarters. Kick off is at 2pm.