Keswick Men's first team have slipped to second in hockey’s North West Division One after a 2-2 home draw with Knutsford 1st's.

The hosts had started the day as league leaders with their visitors in fourth place and both teams opened confidently, with lots of quick passes and good running off the ball as they looked for an early breakthrough.

The two defences, however, had other ideas and both stood firm despite the end-to-end hockey.

As the half wore on, the visitors started to slow a bit and began to rely on playing aerial balls in an attempt to catch-out the Keswick defence, with strong runs from their forwards.

However, they hadn't counted on the fact the Keswick defence and midfield are very adept at taking the ball down and turning defence into attack quickly.

The Keswick forwards were making numerous chances but were continually thwarted by the Knutsford goalkeeper, who made several important saves to keep his team on level terms.

By now, Knutsford were mostly on the back foot but, on one of their increasingly rare attacks, they managed to go ahead, courtesy of the opening goal from Kirwan Sherwani and led 1-0 at the break.

The second half started with more of the same as Keswick continued to go forward and press hard with the Knutsford keeper pulling off several vital saves.

But it was Knutsford who scored again, this time from the stick of David Price, to double their lead and raise hopes of an important victory.

Keswick, however, hadn’t got to the top of the league by feeling sorry for themselves and giving up.

Almost immediately they got a goal back through Charlie Jackson and then it was one-way traffic.

Keswick's captain Shaun Wilson shut-out anything coming forward from Knutsford, while Tom Morgan made some telling runs directly at the opposing defenders to draw numerous fouls, which gave his team good chances.

The Knutsford keeper, who had been outstanding throughout, was finally beaten again by Mark Proctor for Keswick to grab a valuable point.

They have slipped to second but have a game in hand in which to register the win needed to put them back on top.