St Albans proved to be the villains of the story from a Welwyn Garden City Hockey Club point of view - as both first teams were beaten by the neighbours to the west.

The men were hoping for their first points of the season when they took on the Tangerines' third team in East League Division Two South West.

And after a dismal 8-0 loss on day one to Luton Town, WGC put in a much better performance, only to lose 3-2.

They got off to the best start possible start as well when Dan Hatt won the ball in midfield and played a one-two with Bilal Hassan.

The first shot was saved but Hassan stuck the rebound away for a first-minute lead.

It was a short-lived advantage though as Saints jabbed the ball in after a scramble where Welwyn goalkeeper Dan Klinger had claimed there was a foul on him.

The rest of the first half saw St Albans maintain possession with good ball pace and accurate passing.

The WGC defence did keep them out for the most part until they switched off slightly giving Saints the chance to run into the D and score.

A third followed soon after following a quick restart on the sideline but the momentum changed after the break with Welwyn much better.

They were suddenly biting into tackles and those that did slip through the defence were met by Klinger saves, or in one case a deflection from Rob Sansom.

They started to create more chances too with David Allmand-Smith and Nate McIntyre unlucky not to win several penalty corners after some driving runs.

And they reduced the deficit to one where a long ball to Allmand-Smith put him through with just the keeper to beat, which he did with a smash from the right of the D into the far corner.

Welwyn kept on pushing and came close to equalising on a few occasions, most notably the last play of the game when Adam Hassan dummied his marker and laid it back for Pete Mullens to cross.

That found Bilal Hassan on a run into the D and he was one-time deflection was heading in until the keeper prodcued a fine save.

The ladies meanwhile could not back their opening day success, going down 2-0 to St Albans thirds in Division Two.

They too had some promising moments throughout the contest, a number of shots just slightly off target.

Holly Butramis-Gair, the player of the match, played a strong right wing back game throughout, tackling hard in defence and counter attacking at pace to put the St Albans players under constant stress.

Julieta Bonazza was a powerful midfield presence, taking on players at the top of the D to get the ball into shooting positions.

However, St Albans capitalised on a couple of breaks to score one from open play and another on a short corner, both in the first half.

And the home side had WGC on the back foot at times in the second period with keeper Erica Stovold making some crucial saves.

But again there were moments going forward involving the likes of Ruby Sanderson and Lisa Sheffield and they were able to prevent any further goals.

It was feast to famine for Potters Bar's teams.

After 19 goals across the squads on the opening day, none could find the net on week two.

The best results were two 0-0 draws, the men's second and third teams battling to a stalemate in Division Three while the fourths were held away by Shefford & Sandy.

The first team went down 6-0 to Old Loughts while the ladies had to concede their game away to Letchworth.