Sevenoaks suffered a 4-0 defeat away to a strong Beeston side on the opening day of the Premier League season on Sunday.
Despite Beeston enjoying much of the early possession, Sevenoaks restricted them to relatively few open play chances and a couple of penalty corners that were well saved by Richard Potton in the Oaks goal. However, in the 15th minute a quickly taken free hit on the edge of the Oaks D ended with the ball flashing across the face of goal where the Beeston forward neatly deflected into the top corner to make it 1-0 to the hosts.
A couple of minutes later Beeston doubled their lead when a turnover in the Oaks half led to a bit of a scramble in the D and the Beeston forward was able to spin on the ball and convert into the bottom corner to make it 2-0. Oaks had some good attacking play up until the Beeston D, at which point the quality of the final pass was lacking. The sides went into the break with Beeston leading 2-0.
Oaks made a much better start to the second half and looked more threatening in attack but the wind was taken out of their sails when Beeston added to their tally to make it 3-0 with a low shot from the top of the D into the corner in the 47th minute.
Oaks continued to press forward in search of a goal to get them back into the game and some neat play between new boys Ed Matts and Andrew Oxburgh ended with the latter firing into the sideboard at the near post, when perhaps the ball across goal would have been a better play.
With gaps opening up across the pitch, a slick passing move from Beeston ended with their forward firing in at the near post to make it 4-0. Oaks refused to give up and went down the other end and won their only penalty corner of the game; Andrew Ross unleashed a trademark dragflick but it was well saved by the Beeston keeper.
Beeston had a couple of penalty corners themselves but the Sevenoaks man of the match Richard Potton saved them well, and the game ended with the final score 4-0 to Beeston.
It was a tough start to the season for Oaks, and they will hope to fare better next weekend against more local opposition Holcombe, whom they travel to on Saturday evening.
