For those of us who have taken the time to decipher the system in place to determine the England Hockey League Premier Divison finalists, the contenders for the title have been confirmed.
After coming through the regular season (first phase), the top six part of the season (second phase) and now the third phase, Old Georgians, Wimbledon, Surbiton and for the first time in their history, Oxted will make the trip to the Nottingham Hockey Centre to battle it out for the trophy.
Time to take a quick look at the teams and what we might have in store this weekend.
The champions Old Georgians are back again to see if they can win their fourth title in a row, and with their record in the various phases of the season, they have to be strong favourites for more silverware.
In the first part of the campaign they won 11 out of 11 matches, scoring 70 goals and conceding just 16. In phase two they dropped points for the first time in a 5-5 draw with Wimbledon but normal service was resumed as they won the rest of their games and then all three of their matches in phase three to march on towards finals weekend.
OGs have bagged 106 goals with Sam Ward in imperious form, notching up 38 of those. Ward has been ably supported by Tom Carson (18 goals) and Alan Forsyth (16 goals) as the Weybridge outfit put all (bar Wimbledon in that one game) to the sword.
They have a star-studded line up with 15 of the squad of 16 in their final game of the season boasting senior international honours. They’ll take some stopping.
Awaiting them in the semi-final will be Oxted, who are making their first appearance at finals day. Oxted booked their place in the semi-finals by virtue of beating Beeston 3-2 whilst Holcombe’s loss to Surbiton ensured they missed out by a point.
Oxted’s season has largely been characterised by picking up points against the sides around or below them but also defeats to the top sides. It would be fair to say that their place in the final four is something of a surprise, but they’ll be hoping that’s not where the surprises end. You might describe their semi-final with OGs as a “difficult task” especially after their two previous meetings this season finished 9-2 and 6-2.
The other men’s semi final pits Surbiton, last year’s runners up against Wimbledon – the bronze medallists from last season.
Surbiton have bagged an impressive 85 goals across the season, with only Old Georgians in the final four outscoring them. Struan Walker is their top scorer with 20 goals. It is worth noting that almost 33% of Surbiton’s goals have come from penalty corners, suggesting that set pieces will once again play a big part in deciding the outcome of the matches. At the other end of the field, in James Mazarelo, the Seals have one of the best goalkeepers in the world who has turned in a series of splendid displays for England in the past few months. Undoubtedly goals win you games, but defence wins you titles as the old adage goes. The goalkeeper could have a crucial role to play if the Sugden Road outfit are to take home the trophy.
When Surbiton and Wimbledon met in November they both came away with a share of the spoils after a 2-2 draw whilst the second meeting ended 5-1 to Surbiton in part thanks to a hat-trick of Gareth Furlong penalty corners.
Wimbledon won their final two games with an aggregate of 10-2 to qualify for finals, so will be coming into the weekend with plenty of confidence.
They have a lot of attacking talent on display with Fred Newbold (nine goals this season) impressing more and more and Euan Gilmour finding his goalscoring touch at just the right time (10 goals this season all from open play.) Not to mention the considerable talents of Liam Ansell. It’s also worth a shout out to their goalkeeper, Ore Ogunlana. A man for the big occasion, he excelled in the pressure cooker of the shootout to help Wimbledon win the bronze medal last season and you wouldn’t bet against him rising to the challenge once again this time around, should his team need him.
The semi-finals take place this Saturday with the final and 3rd-4th place playoff set for Sunday.
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