COURTESY MAITLAND MERCURY

Maitland Rams coach Nathan Baker is the first to admit his team didn’t deserve to win on Sunday.

The Rams struggled to a 4-3 victory in a scrappy match against the bottom-placed team Gosford at Wyong Hockey Complex.

“We just didn’t play well,” he said. “Our defence didn’t muscle up and I think a lot of the boys looked at the opposition and saw how young they were and took them lightly. But still it was good to play poorly and still win.”

The Rams scored after five minutes through Tobin Bush but some sloppy defence allowed Gosford to level the scores a short time later.

“They hit back straight away from a penalty corner,” Baker said. “It was really sloppy defence from us, our goalkeeper made two or three saves and we just couldn’t clear the ball out.”

The Rams conceded a second goal in similar fashion before Peter Urquhart hammered the ball into the back of the net from a well worked short corner.

Baker said his team was unlucky not to be further ahead at the break after missing several simple chances in the first stanza.

“We missed two open goals,” he said. “I had a brilliant ball passed to me that beat the keeper but I couldn’t control it and it went out of bounds and Matt Brown had an open net and hit the crossbar.”

Brown made up for his error in the second stanza when he scored the Rams’ third and fourth goals, which were enough to hold off the young Gosford team.

In the other Hunter Coast Men’s Premier Hockey League matches Souths beat University 5-2, Norths stayed one point ahead of Maitland with a 6-3 win over the Tigers and The Entrance got the better of Wests 3-1.

The Rams don’t play again until July 18 when they meet Wests, the only team they haven’t secured a win against this season.

The Hunter Coast Men’s Premier Hockey League has the week off because of an under-13 Northern NSW Hockey Championships, to be held in Newcastle on July 10 and 11.

 v  The 13th round fires off with the Lions v Seapigs clash on Saturday from 3:30pm. Its 4th v 5th, a crucial game for both teams. Back in round 7 Souths recorded a solid 5-0 victory.

Souths are undoubtedly dissapointed with thier current league position of 4th and will know a win here will create a 5 point gap between them and the students. Its the right time to be playing University who will once again be struggling for quality players due to the Semester break. The Lions should be able to create plenty of chances and register a hefty win in this clash. People who play at the club have indicated there are a number of players whose performances have been below par, and that thier positions in the team have been put on notice. Its healthy for a club when you have so much competition for places, and with Souths you know they will be there abouts come September and will have knuckled out the balanced squad that will give them the best shot at a title defence.

Lions icon John Fernance had this to say: "Last weekend saw a much improved performance from South’s, but still not up to scratch for a club that has played in every top grade Grand Final since 1996. The major improvement was the effort and intensity showed by players, as each and every player knows that their position is on the line every week. West’s played a very negative style of hockey last week, and it took patience to crack their defensive line and put the result beyond doubt.
This week see’s another Saturday game against University. Due to this South’s will be without Sydney player’s Daniel Edge and Michael Sneesby, Ipswich player Jaden Ekert, whilst Stuart Fletcher and Kyle Bosworth remain out with injuries. University have had some mixed results this year but have shown they can match is with anyone on their day. Tom Budden, Quentin Pursey and Taylor Jordan are the key players in the Seapig’s line up and we will have to keep them under wraps if we want to come away with the points. Coach Simon Vimpani was happier with South’s performance last week, but has told his team there still needs to be alot of improvement if they want to be part of finals action this year. Nothing but two points will be acceptable for the Lions in this one, as we try and close the gap of the top three."

For the Seapigs, they are coming off a 3-1 victory over Gosford last week. It was reported that the Central Coast outfit fielded a very young side in that clash which certainly helped University. Its always tough for the club this time of the year, and it remains a mystery with what team takes the field. The incentive in this clash is that a win will see the team just 1 point behind Souths on the ladder. A loss would make it a big challenge to close the gap on the top 4. With a vocal crowd expected at the NIHC Saturday afternoon (Souths v Uni PL women from 12:30) the students wil want to have a go at Souths, so it could be a very good game to watch.

Seapigs Adrian Verela had this to say about the Uni squad: "Uni had a good win last week, considering how many players they had out. Souths this week will be a bigger challenge though - Simon Massey and Andrew Nash return, but we are still without regular starters, Nick Khan, Nick Crocker, Quentin Pursey, Matt Barton, Drew Cooper and Nik Sharpe."

v  Down at Wyong Sunday last placed Gosford hosts 2nd placed Maitland. With the Marketting Arm of the Rams promoting a double figures scoreline there is no doubt this game will be an exciting one for fans on the coast.

Gosford certainly have been dissapointing this season, but the highlight has been a 2-2 draw with the Rams earlier in the season at Maitland. The team though appears to be struggling to get a consistent squad on the park each week, and this lack of consistency will affect them in this clash. Liam Alexander is likely to be missing, he is part of the AHL squad that is competing in Canberra this weekend, he is irreplacable in the Gosford lineup. Gosford are pretty hard to break down, they defend surprisngly well but just lack that go forward at the moment. The key will be to score early, put pressure on the Rams. Comments in the Maitland Mercury by Rams coach Nathan Baker might serve to fire up the Gosford outfit and see them determined to prove the doubters wrong. No team news.

The Maitland side will be bristling with confidence after some great results the last few weeks, including consecutive victories over Souths and Norths. The team ahs found several things that had been lacking over the previous few years, the ability to score plenty of goals as well as the belief they can compete with the 'big boys' in the competition. As a result, they are winning games and winning them in style.

Coach Nathan Baker had this to say: "No changes for this week apart from Brett Gallagher coming back from injury, and there is a possibility that I will be out due to injury. We'll see what the team doctor says after training tonight. All in all, I'm very happy with our position at the moment and we'll be looking to keep scoring big as we have been in the last 4 rounds. We've scored 21 goals in the last 4 matches and we just need to keep it up to keep pressure on Norths."

v Midday sees competition leaders Norths tackling Tigers. Last outing, Norths ran up a 9-1 tally over thier rivals.

Norths were outclassed last weekend by Maitland, and its not too often they lose 2 in a row. The team would of trained hard during the week to ensure they are prepared for this clash against one of thier great rivals. Despite sitting 6 places above Tigers, Norths will not take this game lightly. They know a win is crucial if they want to maintain top spot in the ladder.

Skipper Silas Moss reports the following: "Its always interesting to see how we respond after losing. We were treated to a hockey masterclass by Maitland last week and have learnt that if you switch off for a few minutes you can have your backs against the wall pretty quickly. Tigers this week is a tough proposition. I don't for one minute think there position on the table reflects their capabilities. Soon enough they will click and collect a series of wins. They were 1 goal off The Entrance last week, so I expect that this weekend could be a turning point for their season. Our boys are on alert. As always we will have a few changes. Matt Dawson jets out to China, and a few injuries will see us field a new line-up."

Every week we report on how Tigers have not got the results their hockey has deserved this season. As pointed out above, they are a very good side. They have scored in every game, ahev shown they can score plenty as well. The problem still lies in defence where the team is leaking an average of 4.25 goals a game. Noone can win hockey matches with that kind of record. Reports out of the Coast last week do suggest the team played a far better game then they have done recently, and the tide might be turning in Tigers favour now. No bigger test of this then against competition leaders Norths.

v The final game of the round hits off from 1:30, with Wests hosting The Entrance. In round 7 The entrance got up 6-2 at home.

Like Tigers, Wests are playing better hockey then thier ladder position suggests. They have played out some gutsy results in the last few rounds, including that 3-3 draw with Norths. A win here keeps thier slim finals chances alive, a loss certainly will be the end of the line especially if Souths get up over University. So its desperation stakes and this will be the motivator for the team going into this clash. The team ahs the ability to mix it with the top sides, but they seem to fall apart in the second half and let winnable positions slip. If its a fitness thing that can be resolved easily enough, but if its a mental thing there is much work to be done. Only the coaching staff can solve that one. But teams are wary of Wests and with good reason.

The Entrance will want a win to maintain thier position on the ladder. A loss could see them back to 4th. The team doesnt travel too well, and has struggled when playing at the NIHC, with just 1 win to thier credit this season there. But the team will be confident and will hope to bag the win with a stylish game of short passes and speed in attack. Not much to report on the side this week, but check regularly incase team news becomes available.

Get out and support your club this weekend!

COURTESY MAITLAND MERCURY

Maitland Rams coach Nathan Baker has put his team on notice for Sunday against winless Gosford.

Baker wants his team to make their premiership aspirations clear with the team’s first double figure win of the season when the Rams travel to Wyong Hockey Complex.

The Rams have scored eight goals twice in the Hunter Coast Men’s Premier league this year but Baker said he was hoping his team could put together their most convincing win of 2010 to stay in touch with first-placed Norths.

“I want a big game out of everyone this Sunday,” Baker said.

“We got into double figures a couple of times last year but we’re yet to do it this year.

“I’ve made it one of our objectives for this week.”

Baker said he had stressed it was crucial for the Rams to pick up full points against the competitions’ bottom teams.

“Our run at Norths in the third round starts here and we’ve got to win and win convincingly,” he said.

“The last time we played Gosford we had a 2-all draw and the boys are still bitter about that.

“That draw and the one with Wests are two points we could have had to put us ahead of Norths.”

Baker said the Gosford team that has lost 10 games this year was very different to last year’s grand finalists.

“They’ve lost a lot of players since last year,” he said.

“They’ve got a lot of young kids playing for them now – like 16 and 17-year-olds.

“It will be good for them in years to come but at the moment I think they are going through a bit of a rebuilding process.”

Baker said he wanted to see an improvement in the Rams first half and for his team to show no mercy against the hapless Gosford.

“The last three games we’ve been tight at half-time and then we’ve come out and performed well in the second half,” he said.

“But this week we need to get going right from the start and not give them a sniff because they’ve got the sort of team that could jag an early goal and then defend their lead.”

The Rams and Gosford start at 11.50am at Wyong Hockey Complex on Sunday.