Foes locked in race for last finals berth

THE battle for the last finals spot in men’s Premier League hockey will go down to the final round today, incredibly between last year’s grand finalists.

With North-West Graduates and Derwent securing top-two positions, Canterbury locked in third position last weekend, leaving OHA and University to battle for fourth spot. The Ships trail University by three points but have a superior goal difference, meaning they must defeat DiamondBacks at 3pm before relying on Graduates to defeat University at 6pm.

OHA hasn’t beaten the Maroons all season, losing 1-0 and 3-2 either side of a 3-3 draw in their previous encounters, but will start huge favourites to get the job done with Kurt Mackey returning.

“The team is determined to finish on a high if this is to be the last game of our season,” OHA coach Nick Leslie said.

“We’re not expecting Graduates to do us any favours, they have no reason to take any risks whereas Uni has everything to play for pending the result of our game.

“It would obviously be disappointing for us to miss the finals but at this stage we are still in with a shot, so we are going to do the best we can to get a win and see if the other result goes our way.”

University coach Paul Ancher is confident four-time premier OHA will get the points, leaving his side in need of a draw or a win against a Jai WalkerKidd-less Graduates side to secure a return to finals action.

“OHA has had an incredible run of premierships and will obviously be watching on and supporting North-West Graduates, but we aren’t focused on anyone other than ourselves,” Ancher said.

“We have worked hard to have our fate in our own hands and now we find ourselves in the position of if we’re good enough then we’ll be playing in next week’s elimination final.”

Derwent and Canterbury will prepare for their respective finals with a 4.30pm clash, with the Strikers resting Stuart Webb and Torin Bester.