M1 Visit Holcombe On Saturday Evening
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men head to Holcombe Park on Saturday evening with the aim of rebounding from last Saturday's 4-2 home defeat to Old Georgians in the Men's Hockey League Premier Division.
Push back at Holcombe Park will be at 1800. The game will be a key match for both teams as Holcombe can draw level with Surbiton on 33 points next Thursday if they win on Saturday and then win at Wimbledon on Thursday night in a match rearranged from last weekend due to Wimbledon's indoor exploits in Europe.
A Surbiton defeat on Saturday could allow Wimbledon to join Surbiton on 33 points instead, if Wimbledon win at Southgate on Saturday and beat Holcombe on Thursday.
Surbiton will be hoping for their first win at Holcombe Park since December 2019 when Luke Taylor's hat-trick earned a 3-2 away victory. Since then the teams have met more frequently at Sugden Road than Holcombe Park with no meeting in 2020-21, Holcombe winning 3-0 in Kent in 2021-22 and drawing 2-2 on the opening day of the 2022-23 season.
Holcombe also ended Surbiton's hopes of a league title last season winning 2-1 in the semi-finals of the League Finals tournament, before losing to Old Georgians in the final.
Holcombe inflicted Surbiton's first defeat of the season back in September when Gareth Furlong's penalty corner brace was not quite enough as Phil Roper scored twice and Nick Bandurak also struck to give the Kent club what could prove to be a vital 3-2 win.
Surbiton went on a nine game winning streak following that defeat before last week's loss to Old Georgians. Two of Holcombe's three league defeats have come at home to Wimbledon and Old Georgians before a narrow 3-2 loss at Old Georgians a fortnight ago.
Holcombe's forwards were on fire at the end of October and beginning of November as the University of Nottingham were beaten 12-1 on their own pitch and Holcombe beat Beeston 10-0 at home in successive weeks and in the first 12 games of the season have scored 56 goals.
Bandurak leads the way with 14 goals, closely followed by Roper on 12 and Tom Russell on 10. Alex Pendle has scored eight goals; Tim Guise-Brown has scored four goals and Sam Taylor is on three. Rob Field and Hayden Phillips have each scored twice with Tom O'Keeffe scoring once.
Surbiton's Struan Walker will be aiming to add to his 21 goal tally after being held scoreless last Saturday, whilst Taylor's brace against Old Georgians took his season tally to 13 goals, with fellow penalty corner specialist Gareth Furlong on ten.
Elsewhere in the Top Six, Old Georgians visit Hampstead & Westminster at 1745 with Southgate hosting Wimbledon at 1700.
In the Lower Six, the top two teams qualify for the eight team League Finals tournament. Three teams are effectively battling for the two qualifying places with Oxted on 17, Beeston on 16 and East Grinstead on 15 with three games remaining.
Beeston are at home to Cardiff & Met at 1800, Oxted travel to Reading, also for an 1800 push back and East Grinstead go to the University of Nottingham who could lift themselves of the bottom of the table with a win and a Reading defeat, having lost all eleven matches in Stage 1.