Southgate Mens 2’s secured their long sought after promotion to the National League on Saturday evening in South London after a tense game with top table rivals London Edwardians.
To say the promotion has been a labour of love for captain Andy Fell and a raft of players who have been together through thick and thin and various close flirtations with entering the top raft of English Hockey- always just falling short at the last hurdle. Last year the team took it all the way to the final game of the season when despite seeing off Surbiton in the spring sunshine, West Herts showed their resilience with a clinical win of their own to secure the only promotion spot out of the London Premier Division.
Coach Chris Pearce took 15 players with him on the long away travel to Forest Hill and the Kings Ground- Matt Burgess coming in for the absent Jonny Maunder with an otherwise largely unchanged team. Perhaps one of the key contributors to the success this year has been the stability Pearce has found in his playing group with senior players like Will Gibson, Will Shepherdson, Drew Burkin and Sim Sausage Bird melding well with the up and coming talent of the likes of Leo Garner, Matt Burgess and Harry Haynes. Yet it was Drew Burkin who stepped up to the oche achieving a crucial brace of goals, one from open play and one ripping drag flick to give the ‘Gate side a 0-2 advantage by the 28th minute.
Yet London Edwardians under team manager Danny Harvey are always a tricky team to beat- especially on away soil- and they managed to find a way past Savvas Hadjigeorgiou in the Southgate Goal just on the knick of half time to send the home side into the break with their noses hard to Gate tail. A testing and testy second half followed with the visitors on the end of 3 green cards and a yellow with the team left with a man down for nearly 10 minutes across 35 nail biting remaining minutes as umpire Damian Hallett’s watch ticked down.
Yet the wiles of Fell, Hollett, Poplar and Wicks won the day and the side saw out a goal-less second half cueing scenes of ribald celebrations after a good 5 years of graft, effort and heart ache. Southgate now join a rare phalanx of clubs who have 2 sides in the national league which offers a fantastic standard of hockey and a superb pathway for player development. Watch out East Conference, the Southgate M2 are on their way.
Congratulations to the team, to Chris Pearce and the extended squad on a huge achievement.