IF a run of bad results had seen High Wycombe Hockey HC retreat into their shells a little bit, they smashed their way out of it in grand style with a win against the league leaders on Saturday.

The first team had been suffering a crisis of confidence, and that won’t have eased when Maidstone scored against the run of play to go 1-0 up just before the interval at the weekend.

But a stirring second-half saw goals from Dan Andrews and Will Needham turn it around to record a morale-boosting win.

Captain Gary Goodman said: “We were playing the top of the league, but they didn’t look like it.

“We pulled together as a team and everything came right. We’ve got a lot of quality in our team and the potential has always been there, it was just about showing it.

“They scored just before half time and a part of you wonders if it’s going to happen again.

“But we stuck together and hopefully this is the start of something special now.”

On Saturday they go to Marlow, who are three points above them in the table.

Elsewhere at the club, Wycombe 2s (Liam Connelly, Dom Day and Tom Thompsett) lost 6-3 to West Hampstead 2s, Steve Ridley, Olly Eades, Tom Faerber and Chris Hatton scored as Wycombe 3s beat British Airways 6-4, and a Jack Tebb treble helped Wycobme 4s to a 3-3 draw with West London.

Joe Daly (2), Andy White (2), Daniel Aldridge, Alex Dianello, Tim Hazlehurst, Colin James and Paul Stinchcombe inspired Wycombe 5s to a 9-0 triumph over Eastcote and a Harry Bennett goal wasn’t enough for Wycombe 6s against Sonning.

In the Mercian League, the U18s were held 5-5 by Oxford with Dan Andrews (2), Justin Brown (2) and Roberto Parmegiani their scorers.

For the girls, Milly Lloyd Hunt was the star with two hat-tricks.

Her treble helped the U14s to a 3-1 win over Maidenhead and she scored three more in an 8-0 victory over Banbury, when Rosie Campion (2), Caroline Spence (2) and Bethany Wagge also netted.