The new strike partnership of Joe Naughalty and Robbert Schenk came up trumps for Brighton and Hove again on Sunday as they maintained their winning run in the Men's Hockey League Conference East with a 3-2 victory over Cambridge City in a tight affair at Blatchington Mill School.

While not at their best in their first home match of the season, Brighton did enough to secure a third successive win, only goal difference keeping them behind leaders Oxted in the table.

The first half was a cagey affair and only came to life after Cambridge were awarded a penalty stroke following a mix up in the Brighton defence. However Chris Borsoi saved the poor attempt and the home team began to impose their game.

Brighton went ahead after 28 minutes when a superb pass from Tom Langston on the right sliced through the Cambridge defence and found Schenk on the byline. His cross led to a scramble in the visitors circle and a penalty corner, which Naughalty converted with a precise low shot into the corner of the goal.

Five minutes later it was 2-0 after a brilliant counter attack. Naughalty was involved as Brighton cut through the middle of the pitch and his threaded ball into the circle was deftly flicked past the goalkeeper by Schenk.

Cambridge reduced the arrears early in the second half when Nathanael Farrant converted a short corner and Borsoi did well to keep them from equalising after a mistake by the otherwise excellent Langston. As the game became stretched
Brighton had to keep their defensive discipline with Langston, Andres Gimenez and Luke Owen keeping the Cambridge attack - who scored 10 last week - in check.

Brighton had to play the final seven minutes with ten men after Naughalty was controversially yellow-carded, the umpire deeming he had not given a defender sufficient time to self start from a free hit, but the home side's anger at the decision dissipated when Schenk immediately grabbed a third goal, volleying a bouncing ball past the goalkeeper. It was the Dutchman's fifth goal in three league matches for Brighton since joining from Oxted.

Farrant ensured a tense finish by converting another penalty corner with three minutes remaining but Brighton held on for the three points.

Brighton tackle Canterbury, who secured their second win of the campaign with a 6-1 victory against promoted City of Peterborough, at Blatchington Mill School on Saturday (2pm). Oxted remain top of the Conference East after a 5-3 win over Richmond while free scoring Old Georgians put seven past Old Loughtonians.

The men's 2s won 2-1 at Kings and Alleyns to record their first win of the season in the South League Kent/Sussex division one while the 3s drew 2-2 at home with Worthing 2s to maintain their unbeaten start to the Sussex League division one.

"A tough game against recently promoted Worthing, where BHHC couldn’t convert their chances," reported skipper Andrew Bromley. "BHHC M3 warmed up well and took to the pitch with confidence, moving the ball about well and linking lots of phases of play. Jago Hussain opened the scoring with a clinical finish near post, giving the keeper no chance. As the half wore on the 3s drew more and more saves from the keeper until Chris Page hit an undercut ‘top bins’, again giving the keeper no chance.

"2-0 at half time and with Jo Elgar barely troubled in the Brighton goal, thoughts led to closing Worthing out and potentially extending the lead. Unfortunately we conceded two goals against the run of play and feel hard done by to have walked away with only a point."

Three of the lower XIs faced Eastbourne opposition with mixed fortunes. The 4s are a point behind the 3s after going down 2-0, the unbeaten 5s shared eight goals and the points in division two with Eastbourne 3s while the 6s shipped 12 goals.

BHHC 4s captain Carlo said: "Eastbourne 2s are definitely one of the stronger sides in the league and we knew it would be difficult ... having won 10-0 last week Eastbourne clearly felt confident and were very good.

"Missing three key players through injury it meant we needed to rely on team play even more than usual. By half time we had more than held our own and went into the half time break with no score for either side.

"We created some great patterns of play with some clear chances in front of goal. It was obvious that we were frustrating them and the game was balanced finely at half time.

Eastbourne converted a short corner two-thirds into the second half and with the game stretched scored a second short with 4 minutes to go. We matched them in every department except for converting some of our shorts and some of our well worked chances in front of goal.

"Psycho Pixie made some outstanding saves and phenomenal brave one on ones; JC and Doc integrated really well and the defensive and midfield units were outstanding.

"Cards started to fly in the second half and if there was a competition for best card and worst tackle, hands down Harvey Van Agnew would be the winner, his reverse stick crunching axe wielding effort on the Eastbourne forward towards the end of the game was very impressive!

"We left the pitch proud of the performance yet disappointed that we did not get a point out of the game. Great team effort and very proud of the lads."

Pete Stevens said the 6s were surprised to come up against an Eastbourne 4s team containing two ex-internationals and finished a distant second. "Despite a positive first 20 minutes where the opposition struggled to break us down and Ali scored a good equaliser on the break, the floodgates opened as we tired and we eventually went 12-1 down."

The 7s dominated their game with Crawley 4s but despite a host of short corners and forcing a number of good saves from the visiting goalkeeper were caught out and lost 1-0. After a strong pre match warm up, the 8s suffered a heavy defeat, going down 6-0 to East Grinstead 4s.