Southgate found themselves on the wrong side of a tight 2-0 defeat on Saturday evening, going down to Canterbury after some excellent work to clear the playing surface of snow.

The defeat leaves them fourth in the Men’s Hockey League Conference East with 14 points, three behind third-place Canterbury.

The hosts started brightly and enjoyed the best of the opening exchanges but, as the half progressed, the away side started to dominate, and they opened the scoring in the 26th minute – Tom Bean converting a penalty corner past Chris Rae in the home goal.

Southgate dominated large parts of the second half, confining Canterbury to attacking on the counter.

Despite hitting the post, though, they couldn’t convert a number of good chances and were eventually caught out two minutes from the end when Harrison Smith converted Canterbury’s second on the break.

Southgate will look to get back on track on Sunday, February 10 when they host City of Peterborough at Trent Park.