OLTON & West Warwickshire’s first home game of the Conference West season ended in a 2-2 draw with Cardiff & Met.
From the pushback, the visitors put Olton under pressure but the hosts held firm.
In the 18th minute they did, however, take the lead when a hard hit into the D was deflected in to give Cardiff the advantage.
Within two minutes Olton were level with a drag flick from a penalty corner scored by player-coach Pete Jackson.
The rest of the half was an end to end battle with neither side getting that vital goal.
After the break both sides came out at speed. Olton had the better of the exchanges but could not get the final touch.
The game hurtled on with mistakes being made by both sides and it took 25 minutes for Olton to take the lead, also from a penalty corner, this time scored by Dan Sulway whose shot that was going wide was deflected into the visitors’ goal.
That left ten minutes for Olton to hang on but, with four minutes to go after a misplaced pass was intercepted in midfield, Cardiff broke again and scored again from open play.
In a frantic last few minutes there were two yellow cards, one to each side, but no more goals.
Meanwhile, Olton ladies secured a 3-1 win at Swansea in Conference West.
It took only seven minutes for Olton to take the lead with a penalty corner from Sally Walton.
In the second half Olton increased their lead to 3-0 with penalty corner strikes from Alice Conquest in the 43rd minute and a second from Walton 11 minutes later.
Swansea pulled a goal back in the 66th minute but it was too little, too late.
