Results – 5 March
This week sees another victory for the Men’s 4s…
Men’s 1 lost 0-3 away to Nottingham
Men’s 4 won 4-2 at home to Old Silhillians 4
Goals: Niek Nijsen (2), Noel Burton & Rob Davies
Back to the usual afternoon pushback this week, not that you would have noticed for the first ten minutes of the match. Silhillians went through a lot of disciplined looking warm-up drills and had arrived prepared for the winners go second match and took the lead after 7 minutes. Sils had some promising young players on the wings and used their pace to run our defence a bit ragged.
Their early goal woke Harborough up and we slowly clawed our way back into the game. Once Harborough had settled, and found their positions the game looked more balanced with pleasing hockey being played by both sides but neither side managing to convert opportunities.
Approaching half time Harborough had a promising break as Cameron Smith was through on goal and past the keeper, only to be denied by the defender’s foot. Up stepped Rob Davies to calmly slot home a penalty flick through the keeper’s legs. 1-1 Half time came.
The half time prep talk was not quite the Al Pacino “inch by inch” speech from Any Given Sunday (best bit of the film IMHO) but Harborough came out fired up for the second half.
“Now I can’t make you do it. You gotta look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes. Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him. That’s a team, gentlemen and either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That’s football guys. That’s all it is. Now, whataya gonna do?”
Within a minute of the restart Noel Burton capitalised on some great play and a lovely through ball to fire home. 2-1 to the men in green. Harborough now seemed to be firing on all cylinders. The game moved from end to end with both teams thinking “next goal wins”.
At 49 minutes Niek Nijsen topped off a great series of passes with a super strike. 3-1 Harborough. Realising they could go away empty handed Sils pushed on and were rewarded with a couple of penalty corners. The second or third of which they managed to sneak a goal. 3-2. Fifteen minutes left and all to play for. With ten minutes to go Harborough’s efforts came to fruition with Niek scoring a sublime second. 4-2 Harborough.
The last ten minutes saw some great end to end Hockey, Harborough looking to make it safe and Sils looking to leave with something. Harborough put their bodies on the line, quite literally. Billy signalled one minute left and the men in green held firm.
Well played Harborough a great team effort and a super way to end our last home match of our first season. Final score MHHC 4, Old Silhillians 2
Women’s 1 lost 2-7 away Rugby & East Warwickshire 2
Goals: Alice Skinner & Bronwyn Wood
Women’s 2 lost 2-3 at home to Loughborough Town 3
Goals: Niamh Burton & Ella Partridge
Badgers lost 2-5 away to Welford
Goals: Kayleigh Creighton (2)
