THERE was disappointment for Waltham Forest Ladies hockey team at the weekend.

They narrowly lost a close contest to Bishop’s Stortford, 3-2, in a clash between promotion hopefuls.

Forest played excellently at the back to keep the hosts away from the goal, and early in the half responded with a goal against the run of play through Emma Livingstone-Jones.

Stortford equalised to make the score even at half time.

The hosts struck fast with a counter attack to leave Forest reeling, and went 3-1 up soon after.

Forest clawed a goal back to make it 3-2 when Livingstone-Jones poached Sue Moore’s goalmouth scrambling shot.

There was certainly a lot of action in both circles throughout the game and Forest keeper Mog Campbell was deservedly voted player of the match for her dedicated display between the sticks.

Without Campbell in goal, the scoreline could have been very different. Forest had their share of chances to both equalise and even take the lead, but opportunities were squandered as the pressure mounted with the approach of the full-time whistle.

Despite now sitting in third place, Forest have a game in hand and are just one point behind Stortford. With three remaining fixtures, they need to bag all nine points to grab the second spot and be in with a chance of promotion to Division One.