THE odds seemed to be stacked against Knutsford Hockey Club’s women’s first team on Saturday.

Despite travelling to face Crewe on the back of two victories from as many games this season, they were beset by unavailability.

Seven players who featured in the previous week’s 7-1 thrashing of Macclesfield could not play and thanks to captain Lucy White, they were able to scrape together the bare minimum of 11 players.

This proved no barrier, however, as they ran out 2-1 winners to continue their perfect start to the campaign.

Knutsford attacked from the outset and finally took the lead when Gill Lunt used her pace and skill to get around the Crewe defence and slot the ball into the goal.

After seeing out some pressure from the hosts after the break, Knutsford doubled their lead as Lunt turned provider for Hannah Quinn, who converted a reverse stick shot.

Controversially, Crewe pulled a goal back as the ball was kicked into the goal unbeknownst to the umpires, but Knutsford held on for an impressive win.

Meanwhile, the men’s thirds played a development game against Macclesfield’s fourths.

There were opportunities for several juniors to get game time, with Ben Woolf impressive on debut while Arran Sanderson and Aden Martin got to play on the same side as their fathers.

Macclesfield scored the only goal of the game midway through the second half to run out 1-0 victors.