Witham Hockey Club’s men made a flying start to life back in division two of the East league with a convincing win over Letchworth seconds.

A successful pre-season clearly paid dividends and, with debutants Dan Metcalfe and Kieran Lowe along with Michael Roberts and Mike Taylor rejoining from a few seasons ago, Witham had a well-balanced squad that will clearly be a force for most teams this season.

Man-of-the-match Matt Parsons said: “The movement of our front three and the way in which the defence and midfield ran the play throughout was awesome.

“Every player has the ability to open up the opposition and if we continue with this type of hockey this team will go deep into the season.”

The game started slowly, with Letchworth happy to play on the counter-attack as they created a number of dangerous opportunities and it was the hosts who broke the deadlock when a weak clearance found the opposing forward at the top of the area to give a 1-0 lead.

But the game turned completely on its head from that moment.

Rather than Letchworth building on their good start, Witham upped the gears and dominated for the remainder of the game.

Captain Richard Marshall and Andy Holm started to enjoy more time on the ball in centre and the movement of Metcalfe, James Suett and Taylor up front along with Roberts and Parsons on the wing caused Letchworth headaches.

Suett pulled the game level when he latched on to a rebound and minutes later Metcalfe drilled home a beauty of a reverse strike to make it 2-1 at half-time.

And it could have been worse for the hosts as Marshall was twice denied by deflections, Taylor had two strikes saved and Suett hit the post.

The second half started much like the first ended, with Witham pushing hard to make sure that they killed off the game.

Letchworth still had the odd break, but Suett grabbed his second of the game after Parsons had broken down the right and placed a pinpoint cross for Suett to lash home from close range.

Suett completed his hat-trick soon after with a trademark drag flick to really put the game to bed and it was now a case of how many could Witham score.

Another short corner routine was successfully executed when Marshall scored and then Suett put an unstoppable shot past the keeper, before Letchworth added a late consolation to make the final score 6-2.

Witham are due to entertain Potters Bar at Bramston Sports Centre on Saturday (2pm push back).