by David Fitzpatrick Sanderstead celebrated promotion to Surrey Division One on Saturday as they comfortably beat Woking III's 4-1.

The win puts them 13 points ahead of Walton & Weybridge with only three games to play and secures a top two spot, although another win this Saturday will clinch the title and mean Addiscombe, the only team still capable of catching them, will be too far behind.

Short corners made the difference on Saturday as Sanderstead won more and converted well to score three of their goals.

Woking on the other hand had just a handful and were unable to capitalise.

John Devaney in particular proved a menace to the home defence, outmanoeuvring the Woking left back to generate several short corners in the first half.

From these Martyn Avery stepped up to score twice, hitting a powerful shot for one goal and exchanging passes with Denzil Dolley for the other.

He narrowly missed out on a hat-trick, seeing another short-corner chance brush past the post.

But it was Woking’s centre forward who opened the scoring, taking advantage of a rare lapse in concentration at the heart of the Sanderstead defence.

He drove goalwards and slotted home tidily past Dan Pacitti, though his effort was soon cancelled out.

Dolley hit a fierce reverse strike from an acute angle, which deceived the Woking goalkeeper, giving the Gryphon man his 27th goal of the campaign.

Following the half-time break Mark Bryan extended the Sanderstead lead, slapping home from the edge of the circle after the Millers won their umpteenth short corner.

Meanwhile, his defensive colleagues kept a second-half clean sheet.

Pacitti was called into action for two saves, but Woking offered little in the way of a threat to the Sanderstead goal.

After the game, skipper Avery said: “Promotion has been our ambition from the outset, and it’s hugely rewarding to achieve it with four games still to play.

"But we’ll still be competing hard in our remaining fixtures, and will go into Saturday’s meeting with Surbiton in the knowledge that a win will guarantee us the title.

"That’s quite an incentive to perform well.”

Sanderstead hockey club is looking for new members of all abilities to support the first team at a higher level next season, as well as to strengthen the squads for the club’s other sides.

Anyone interested in joining should visit sandersteadhockey.com or contact Martyn Avery on 07968 973305 for more information.

The next fixture is against Surbiton 4a on Saturday, March 6. Push back will be at 1pm at Croydon High School.