Shrewsbury Hockey Club up and running after win
Jamie McVittie and Craig Heath both scored twice as Shrewsbury picked up their first Midlands Two points of the season from a 5-3 home win over Old Silhillians.
Shrewsbury are now targeting another positive result when they travel to Stratford with spirits lifted after initially opening the campaign with back-to-back defeats.
"It was a really good team performance against Old Sills and just what we wanted," said Shrewsbury defender JP Turford. "All of our five goals came in the first half.
"It has been a difficult start although the team feel we really should have beaten Coalville in the first game. We then lost at Boots, but they are clearly a good side and they had another big win last weekend, beating Leicester 11-2."
The victory over Old Sills lifted Shrewsbury up two places in the table to ninth spot as they now get ready to take on fifth-placed Stratford, who have so far won one, drawn one and lost one of their three games.
Shrewsbury made a flying start with McVittie, back from his honeymoon in Vietnam to make a timely first appearance of the season, firing them in front early on from a short corner.
The same supply line led to Heath following up his opening day hat-trick against Coalville with two quick goals to take his tally for the season up to five.
Sam Cassidy, a new recruit from Keele University, then grabbed his first goal for the club before McVittie struck again to make it 5-2 at the break.
The visitors added another in the second half but Shrewsbury held on for the win.
A Dave Tracey hat-trick helped fire Telford & Wrekin to their second straight win with a 4-2 home win against Stratford.
Tracey netted two short corners and a penalty stroke before Phil Bailey converted another short corner to make the game safe.
On Saturday Telford & Wrekin host a Finchfield side who have failed to win in their opening three matches.
And first-team manager Alan Parnham believes there is more to come from his side.
"I would say we aren't yet playing to our full potential, probably only about 75 per cent," he said.
"The win should have been 6-2 or 7-2 because, player for player, we were far better than them.
"We seem to train better than we play. Once we can get up to 100 per cent then we will cause teams a lot of problems because we have a good squad and good spirit."
Defender Jon Woodrow returns but 13-year-old Barney Bithell will be missing.
