ALDERLEY Edge Hockey Club men's team kicked off the second half of their 2017-18 season with a 2-0 victory over Bowdon's seconds on Saturday, keeping their aspirations of promotion to the National League alive.

Edge began the game with good possession and carved out several opportunities in the early stages.

However, a combination of rustiness from Edge’s forwards and smart saves from the Bowdon keeper kept the score at 0-0 for some time.

A well-worked short corner routine was finished off by James Warburton to break the deadlock in the intense affair.

Edge continued to create chances in the second half and eventually doubled their lead when Warburton this time found the roof of the net from five yards out following some great team play.

The men will be hoping to sustain the pressure on the teams above them on Saturday by taking all three points from their game against bottom of the league Sheffield Bankers.

The men's seconds managed a valuable 2-0 away win over Lytham St Anne's in their North League Division Two mid-table clash thanks to a strong display in goal from Anthony Birchall and goals from Greg Johnson and Simon Swatland.

The thirds didn’t enjoy such a good day at the office, going down 5-1 at home to Wrexham.

The men's fourths notched up their 10th game without loss when then dispatched Sale's firsts 4-2 to retain equal second place in North West Division Four.

Edge started strongly with two quick goals from James Parkin and Ali Smith and continued to hold off countless attacks for the rest of the half.

Sale found an extra gear in the second half, converting two short corners in quick succession.

From there the game was at a stalemate, with both teams defending strongly, until man-of-the-match Louis Godfrey scored with 10 minutes left to play.

Captain Rob Marks then sealed the win with another goal minutes from the whistle.

All bodes well for the team’s crunch game against league leaders Liverpool Sefton's seconds on Saturday.

Elsewhere, the men's fifths lost 5-1 to Sandbach in Division Five, while the young sixths fought hard to beat Triton's fourths 3-2 in Division Seven.

Richard Williams scored twice with Max Howarth also finding the back of the net. The sevenths' derby against Wilmslow's fifths in Division Eight ended 2-2.

A couple of the club’s age-group teams were also in action this weekend.

The under 16s boys had an EH Cup pool game and unfortunately went down 1-3 against a very physical Neston team on Sunday.

Adam Robertson scored for Edge which took them into the break with the advantage.

Neston’s early goal in the second half seemed to give them a wake-up call though, and they then went on to put two further goals past Edge despite some valiant goal keeping from man-of-the-match Ben Jagger.