Preparing for a promotion push
An unlikely promotion push is being mounted by Newark Hockey Club men’s 1sts.
The team is only three games away from pulling off an incredible promotion after an extremely poor start to the season.
A run of five successive wins has seen them rise to fourth in the table, one point behind second-placed Buxton, who have a game in hand.
Coach Sally Davies said: “It is so close up there. You cannot predict who is going up, but I would love it to be us.
“We were still working on playing a different style of hockey at the start of the season and it took a while for it to start working, but now it has all come together.
“We are definitely outsiders, so we have to win our last three games. I would say we have got a 50/50 chance of going up.”
The coach of Newark Ladies’ 1sts, Paul Halfpenny, also has promotion in mind — for next season.
Newark, at the highest level they have ever played at, have been battling against relegation for most of the season.
However, they look set to be safe after a league reshuffle means only one team will be relegated.
Halfpenny hailed his side’s attacking style, but warned they need to produce more consistently good defending if they were to push for promotion next season.
Halfpenny said: “At the start of the season we wanted to consolidate to stay in the division, now we want to be in a fairly good position to set ourselves up well for next season.
“We need to push on. We want to be a force to be reckoned with so I’m looking for a response from the players after two defeats.”
Halfpenny said the team had suffered from unavailabilities, but praised the 2nds and 3rds players who had put in good performances for the first team.
“Against Shrewsbury (in second place) we had to draft in players from the 2nds and 3rds but we matched them all the way, which gives me huge confidence that we are doing the right thing,” Halfpenny said.
“Seventeen-year old Megan Beard has scored 20 goals this season, which is outstanding, and our captain Sarah Pask has been an inspiration. All the regular players have taken the step up in their stride.”