There was disappointment for both Welwyn Garden City Hockey Club’s first teams as they tasted defeat on Saturday.

The men went down to a 3-1 defeat to high-flying Bedford Seconds, while the ladies were beaten 2-0 by Blueharts.

With Bedford chasing top-of-the-table Luton, Welwyn expected their opponents to press high and play a high energy game.

Welwyn set up to frustrate their opponents and were successful in repelling the early pressure.

The Welwyn counter was dangerous with forwards Dave Allmand-Smith and Nate McIntyre giving the defence plenty to think about, going close on one occasion with an effort that went narrowly over.

However, Bedford's pressure eventually led to a series of penalty corners and they found the net with a good routine around the 25-minute mark.

Welwyn were able to keep the deficit to one goal at half-time and they remained solid after the break.

With 15 minutes to go Bedford found the net again with another well-executed penalty corner routine, but Welwyn were not giving up and kept frustrating and countering when opportunities arose.

An excellent counter attack saw Nate Last beat a defender and casually put the ball into the goal in the bottom right corner. Bedford appeared a bit rattled and at this point started misplacing passes.

Welwyn briefly felt they could get something from the game, but their opponents regained their composure and scored again with five minutes left.

From the outset of the ladies’ game, both teams did lots of good transferring around the back in defence, to open up play for their respective attacks.

Welwyn had a few breaks in the first half, with the pace of Connie Dykes putting the defence under pressure. Pace was also on Welwyn’s side when taking free hits, with Ruby Sanderson running at the opposition but they weren’t able to build on their counter attacks.

Despite a strong game for Welwyn’s defence and goalkeeper Nat Granger, Blueharts earned a few short corners in the first half with one resulting in an unstoppable deflection into the top of the net.

In the second half, the Welwyn defence remained strong, with Charlie Honour and Holly Butramis-Gair making lots of strong tackles in the D.

Fin McIntryre’s roll outs to get round the opposition were effective, leading to strong attacking play from Welwyn, who had a few opportunities in the D, with most of them leading to short corners.

Julieta Bonazza’s reverse hit was unlucky to strike the post rather than the back of the goal, but Blueharts were able to find the net for a second time to complete the win.