NESTON South Wirral suffered a second league defeat as they went down 3-2 at home to South Cheshire.

Neston played some of their best hockey of the season in a terrific opening twenty minutes.

Former skipper, McNeight, put Neston one up from close range, before incredibly firing over an open goal shortly after, but that didn't seem important when Khedun waltzed through the visiting defence to make it 2-0.

Only wasteful finishing prevented the home side from going further ahead, as the Congleton based side struggled to come to terms with the pace of Jarvis, McNeight and Donnelly.

Neston were punished when Shepherd misjudged the visitors only shot of the half to give South Cheshire hope.

Although South Cheshire raised their game after the interval, Neston still dominated but were occasionally guilty of forcing passes as they sought to put the visitors out of the game.

The Parkgate men were rattled when South Cheshire levelled from a corner rebound, and were stunned when the visitors broke away to score a fine third as Neston pressed for a winner.

South Cheshire could hardly believe their luck, and packed eleven men behind the ball for the final ten minutes as Neston camped inside their 25-yard line, but Neston couldn't find the composure for an equaliser.

This weekend, Neston hit the road with a visit to Preston in the league on Saturday, before heading to Kettering for an England Hockey Vase tie on Sunday.