Colchester Hockey Club men's first team felt they were on the wrong end of some of the umpiring decisions as they lost 2-1 to a St Ives side that was sitting bottom of East Men's League division one.

The hosts’ second goal came in contentious circumstances.

With the umpire deeming a deliberate and serious foul by Duncan Scott in the D a penalty stroke was awarded, with the St Ives man fluffing his effort, but with Aaron Sime already guessing and diving, the ball dribbled into the goal.

The home side had taken the lead when Colchester surrendered possession and St Ives broke quickly, with a forward getting a touch in front of Aaron Sime to lift it over the Colchester goalkeeper.

Colchester had their chances in the first half and a number of penalty corners failed to produce a goal.

In the second half, Colchester controlled much more of the game and through Mark Prince found a way back into the match.

Some neat work in midfield from Chris Fowler allowed him the space to find a ball forward to Prince, who rounded the goalkeeper before slotting home.

Colchester continued to press forward but still had to be wary of the home side’s quick breaks and the defence stood firm and repelled their attacks.

Colchester’s best chance to take a point fell to Richard Sexton, who fired off a reverse stick shot but could not find the target.

With the game nearing the end, Rob Mann saw red after appearing to have an arm raised in his face and he was deemed to have kicked out and the umpires saw the retaliation as aggressive and sent him off.

Colchester’s man-of-the-match was James Tallentire.