Market Harborough hockey have a Remembrance weekend to forget

The silence was observed impeccably, and nothing stirred except for fogged clouds of breath and the bleating of sheep and alpacas at the adjacent petting farm.

Harborough went into the game off the back of a difficult defeat to Panthers, and were hoping for a win to help them climb the table against Westleigh; the league’s bottom side who were without a point.

Harborough started brightly and managed to get between the Westleigh midfield and defence but were finding it difficult to carve out any clear cut chances. That was until Alex picked up the ball just past the halfway line and played it into the onrushing path of Sam who had turned his man in the D. Sam controlled the ball on his reverse stick, outmuscled the defender and slotted the ball home. However, instead of building on Sam’s excellent finish Harborough let Westleigh back into the game and the opposition were for a time camped into the Harborough half. Jack and Ads kept stepping ahead of their men and making fine interceptions but the team couldn’t seem to keep the ball on the end of their sticks, giving it away softly several times in quick succession. Westleigh made one of these opportunities count and half time saw the teams level at 1-1.

Harborough had been working on their press during the week (men’s training is 7:30 – 9 on Tuesday evenings at Robert Symth Academy) and were pointedly reminded of this fact at the interval, with the plan to take the impetus to Westleigh and do our best Jurgen Klopp gegenpress impression. This worked initially until Westleigh realised that they could fling the ball over the top of the press which successfully neutralised our best intentions. Why don’t teams do this to Liverpool more often? Fortunately, Harborough were still dangerous when they worked the ball through the midfield quickly and managed to win themselves a short corner which was dispatched by Alex who dribbled around the first two defensive runners and gamely mis-hit the ball into the bottom left corner.

Somewhat predictably, Harborough showed a lack of killer instinct and let Westleigh in a second time as they conceded one short corner too many and the Westleigh centre back crash the ball past Jake, who had no chance, to level the scores once more. In the final quarter both teams were briefly down to 10 men and with more space on the pitch Harborough almost took advantage with Owen hitting the post after a first time deflection and James throwing himself at a stationary ball which was flirting tantalising with the Westleigh goal-line but sadly he was unable to connect with the ball and jarred his wrist instead.

Next week Harborough are at home against Nuneaton and will be hoping that their home comforts/fortress (two wins from two) will give them the edge they were lacking this week.

Midlands Men's Division 5 East:

Team Played Won Drawn Lost For Against GD Points

1 University of Nottingham 5

6 6 0 0 33 9 24 18

2 Northampton Saints 2

6 6 0 0 21 5 16 18

3 Leicester City 1

5 3 1 1 18 6 12 10

4 Mansfield 1

6 3 1 2 19 13 6 10

5 Derby 1

5 2 2 1 12 5 7 8

6 Nuneaton 1

6 2 2 2 14 19 -5 8

7 Market Harborough 1

6 2 1 3 18 17 1 7

8 Nottingham 1

6 2 1 3 13 16 -3 7

9 Leicester 2

6 1 1 4 12 24 -12 4

10 Panthers (Leicester) 1

6 2 0 4 13 30 -17 4

11 West Bridgford 3

6 1 0 5 7 24 -17 3

12 Leicester Westleigh 1

6 0 1 5 9 21 -12 1

Other Market Harborough hockey results:

Men’s 2, 3 – 3, Northampton Saints 5 (scorers Allen, Bacon, Burton)

Men’s 3, 3 - 2, Khalsa Leamington 5 (scorers Attenborough, Wilkinson (2))

Women’s 1, 0 – 8, Atherstone Adders 1