Midlands men battered in national final

aaron.goile@fairfaxmedia.co.nz

Auckland secured the men’s and women’s national hockey league titles yesterday.

A dominant display by Auckland’s men saw them batter Midlands 3-0 in the final at the North Harbour Hockey Stadium, while a sixth minute goal from Krystal Forgesson in the women’s final was enough to see off Northland 1-0.

Marcus Child, Veeran Morar and Jared Panchia fired in goals for Auckland in the men’s final, where the sides battled horrid conditions.

Midlands coach Simon Brill said the final result was disappointing, and said going 2-0 down in the first quarter decided the match.

‘‘We were well and truly outplayed in that first quarter, and it cost us,’’ Brill said. ‘‘From then on we had to chase the game, and in those conditions it was tough.

‘‘In the final three-quarters I think we actually edged the match, but it was a bit too late and we couldn’t finish our chances.’’

Goal scorer Panchia said the early goals were vital.

‘‘Four in a row is huge. A lot of the guys here have played two or three years now but we also have a lot of young guys coming through and that shows our depth.

‘‘Hopefully we can keep going and win again next year.’’

Auckland started the match with a bang when Marcus Child opened the scoring after five minutes, and Veeran Morar doubled the lead six minutes later with a cracking strike from the edge of the circle.

The men in blue were bossing possession and camped up deep inside Midlands’ half, with their swarming defence ensuring Midlands couldn’t clear the ball up field.

Midlands have relied on the commanding performances of Tim Deavin and Nick Woods throughout the competition, but Auckland were shutting the midfield duo down.

Those two early goals finally woke the Midlands team up, but there was little they could do when trying to move the ball.

Auckland had their tails up, but it was a testament to Midlands’ organisation at the back that they weren’t down more than two goals at first quarter time.

As the weather worsened in the second quarter, with large pools forming on the North Harbour turf, Midlands found more success in possession.

Richard Petherick had a chance from a penalty corner, but his pass off to Deavin was deflected wide by keeper Devon Manchester.

Despite the conditions, Auckland were still forming some nice attacking moves with slick passing.

Auckland cemented their lead after halftime when Panchia hammered the ball on from a tight angle.

Receiving the ball with his back to goal, Panchia turned his defender and rifled a shot across Midlands keeper Hamish McGregor and into the top left corner.

In typical Auckland fashion, the sun came out for the final quarter, drying up some of the pools of water.

The change of weather didn’t create a change in fortune, with Auckland back on attack early, and Child was denied a second goal by a good stop from McGregor.

That stop was McGregor’s last moment of the match. With 13 minutes remaining, he was pulled from the field as Midlands added a striker to try and force their way back.

Midlands didn’t find any more success with an extra field player, and survived two penalty corners.

Although the ball was mainly up their end, Auckland were taking their time with everything they did to wind down the clock.

Midlands import Deavin was named most valuable player.

In the women’s final, Krystal Forgesson scored in the sixth minute to hand Auckland total domination of the national competitions, securing a 1-0 win over Northland.

Meanwhile, in Waikato premier club hockey University won the women’s nine-a-side title with a 6-4 win over Old Girls in the final at Gallagher Hockey Centre on Saturday, while Te Awamutu won the men’s by beating Suburbs 4-3.