Despite the loss to Old Loughtonians on Saturday, Southgate’s Men stand 6 points clear at the top of the table. 2 away games follow in the South West against University of Bristol and Bath Buccaneers before final homes games against Sevenoaks and finally Old Cranleighans on 2nd April.
The maths is reasonably simple; Southgate need two wins whilst maintaining their healthy goal advantage over Old Loughts to secure promotion. Meanwhile Loughts need to win at least 3 of their remaining games scoring a lot of goals with Southgate losing all of ours and letting in a lot of goals to lose our promotion spot. Alternatively should Southgate lose all our remaining games and Loughts win all of theirs it makes for a more straightforward equation resulting in Loughts promotion.
Alternatively both Canterbury and Teddington stand remote chances of promotion if results go their way and the top two sides falter.
Yet nothing is to be taken for granted, recent results have seen 2 losses, 1 tight win against bottom of the league side Hawks with stronger performance against Canterbury and Brighton. Kwan’s side has suffered a string of injuries including to key players Ramshaw, Sofat and West (who should all return over the coming weeks) which has disrupted preparations.
Each of the remaining games is a must win game for the team. After nearly a decade in the 1st division there is a great opportunity to finally return to the top fight of English Hockey. With that in mind the team travel to Bath on Sunday looking to take one big step in that direction. It was a tight 2-1 win when the teams met at home back in October and another tough encounter is expected.
All support will be welcome.
You can imagine the Women’s East Conference to be a bit like a marathon in which the two front runners have stayed the course and matched each other almost stride for stride over 26 miles, with the winner decided coming by the very last final sprint to the finish line.
Those front runners are Guildford and Southgate’s Women. The women are undefeated after beating Bishop Stortford 5-0 at the weekend and have only let in 6 goals over 14 games. Yet promotion remains far from certain as Guildford are just 3 points behind and lapping at our heels.
If Southgate can beat East London at the weekend (6th) then top teams Wayfarers (4th), Ham & West (2nd) and finally draw or beat Guildford (2nd) in the final game of the season they will win their promotion. The likelihood is it will go down to a final show down on April 1st at home against in an effective playoff for promotion. Southgate needing a draw or a win to go through to Division 1 next season.
A massive game and a great occasion to look forward. But 3 big games before then kicking off at Lea Valley 6pm on Saturday. Come down to the Olympic Park and cheer on Ellie Robinson and her brilliant team.
