Wien crashed out of this season’s EHL after a thrashing at the hands of a rampant Rot Weiss Koln at East Grinstead hockey club today.

Having lost at the hands of Kelburne yesterday the Austrians faced an uphill battle to salvage their place in the competition, needing to beat one of the favourites.

The first half was one-way traffic with Christopher Zeller setting up Marco Miltkau early on to calmly roll the ball into the bottom corner and open the scoring. It was 2-0 when Miltkau turned provider and set up Niclas Thiel. The Austrians were like lambs to the slaughter as Zeller went round the right hand side and pulled back to Miltkau for 3-0.

Rot Weiss made it four as Jan-Marco Montag scored a low drag flick before Marcel Meurer turned smartly and found the net for 5-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter offered little respite for Wien as the Germans immediately scored their sixth from a penalty corner. An outrageous behind the back pass from Montag set up Christoph Menke who made no mistake for the sixth.

Lukas Graser in the Wien goal kept out Leon Willemsen but the seventh was just around the corner. A sweeping move down the right allowed Moritz Trompertz time and space in the D and he hit an unstoppable reverse stick shot past the helpless goalkeeper.

Menke could have scored again as he was clean through but Graser did superbly to see him off with a reverse stick save. Graser was again called upon as Hendrik Schwarzer slapped a broken down penalty corner goalwards, but the goalkeeper did well.

Zeller deflected a ball just past the post, but after a video referral it was ruled that Graser had fouled the Olympic gold medallist and a stroke was given, which Zeller scored.

On the stroke of half time, Zeller latched onto an aerial out of defence, he drifted into the D, went round the goalkeeper and slotted home with a minimum of fuss. The half time score was 9-0, an EHL record.

Wien dug in during the second half and although Graser was kept busy by Zeller, Miltkau and Menke, Rot Weiss were made to wait to reach double figures.

The tenth came as the ball looped up into the air; Graser tried to clear with his glove but only succeeded in palming the ball to Alexander Schollkopf who calmly volleyed in.

The crowd started to get behind the Austrians in quarter four as Graser performed more heroics denying Zeller and Miltkau as well as Joshua Delarber.

Then came the biggest cheer of the day. Wien forced a penalty corner which Mathias Gero flicked underneath Peter Schlich to give his side a consolation and the crowd something more to cheer about.

For good measure Rot Weiss forced a penalty corner of their own and scored again. A quick exchange of passes from Montag and Miltkau before the latter completed his hat-trick.

The Germans put a gloss on the score with another penalty corner goal. Zeller’s accurate pass was deflected into the roof of the net by the sliding Marcel Meurer and the score was 12-1.

In truth, Wien played their hearts out. Their second half display was one to be proud of as they stemmed the flow of goals and avoided the unwanted record of the heaviest defeat in EHL history. Rot Weiss showed their class and will be feared by every team in the draw. Is this to be the year they go all the way and get the rewards their talent is capable of?