Northwood ready for battle with DHS
Northwood has a date with Durban High School (DHS) in their first match back from the King Edward VII School (KES) Easter Hockey Festival.
Coach Justin Collins and his team visit the blue turf of The Coliseum for a Saturday morning showdown with the Horseflies.
Catch the action LIVE on SuperSport Schools!
Over the Easter weekend, The Knights won four of their five matches at KES and finished the festival undefeated.,
They kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 victory over Waterkloof, followed that with a 2-1 triumph over Selborne College, and then edged out Pearson 3-2. Their biggest win came against Helpmekaar Kollege, whom they beat 3-0 before drawing 1-1 with the hosts, KES.
Collins’ highlight at the KES Easter Festival was the drawn encounter against the home side. In the first half, Northwood came under a massive amount of pressure. The Knights, though, were happy to sit deep and defend with a plan to catch the Red Sticks on the counterattack.
One of those counter-attacks paid off when the visitors won a penalty stroke, which Kyle White converted.
KES fought back and equalised from a penalty corner. Northwood had more intent in the second half and created several chances but, unfortunately for the Durban school, they were unable to add to their first-half goal.
“I felt that we were good in our deep defence throughout the festival,” Collins told SuperSport Schools Plus. “The guys showed some good defending in the deeper spaces and owned their island well,”.
His players managed possession well and showed control, Collins said. However, he felt that they needed to do a better job of converting opportunities into goals by being more clinical in the circle. While Northwood manipulated their opposition on their outlets for good phases, they needed to do it for longer periods to totally outplay the opposition, he explained.
Collins hopes that his side has taken lessons from their shortcomings at the KES Easter Fest and will put those to good use when they take on DHS. Coach Keegan Hezlett‘s skilful side poses a constant threat with their attacking prowess, and Northwood will need to be as good in defence as they were during their Gauteng excursion.
The coach also expressed his hope that Luke Allen, The Knights’ top goal-scorer in Johannesburg, will be on song and will lead them to victory against the Josh Mungherera-captained powerhouse.
The opening push-back in the contest is at 11:15 on Saturday morning.
