Positive signs for Midlands sides

Ignore results the Midlands hockey sides are slowly building during their repersentative hockey campaigns towards the national tournament.

"We got better as the weekend went on, which was a good sign," said Midland's Lincoln Churchill of a men's side that had to play without the coaching duo of Darren Smith and Dion Gosling and recorded a win, loss and draw from three outings.

"Darren was away assisting with the Black Sticks men's side while Dion got really crook just before he was set to come down," Churchill said.

A Casey Henwood goal was the side's only reward in a 4-1 loss to North Harbour in Rotorua on Friday night but they responded with a 4-3 win over Wellington in Taupo on Saturday morning courtesy of goals from Ricky Clark (two), Raynesh Smith and Churchill.

A 3-3 draw against Auckland completed their schedule on Saturday afternoon as Henwood, Hugo Inglis and Craig Hardman scored.

The women's side went down 3-2 to Wellington and 4-1 against Auckland but showed coach Hymie Gill enough to believe his side will be a force in the National Hockey League tournament next month.

"We feel we can beat both those teams at tournament time," Gill said.

The men's side were without the Black Sticks trio of Andy Heyward, Stephen Graham and Richard Petherick due to national team commitments while Lloyd Stephenson was a late withdrawal with a family bereavement and the team's two imported players, Australian Bevan George and Malaysia's Selvaraju Sandrakasi don't arrive til later this week.

"We struggled against Harbour but were better against Wellington and Auckland," Churchill said.

"It had all the hallmarks of going pear-shaped with a skeleton squad but we worked hard on our structure and set-up and that started to show against Auckland."

The women's side led Wellington 2-0 at halftime through a Jess Bagley brace but a poor second half effort negated most of that good work.

Goalkeeper Sally Rutherford was a standout in the first half before being replaced while Tambra McGarvey and Sam Charlton also shone.

"We improved some aspects dramatically against Auckland, like our ball speed and work ethic, but just couldn't score goals and they did," said Gill.

Lymarah Wharerau netted while McGarvey and Parekura Rangitauira, in her return to top level hockey, impressed Gill.

- © Fairfax NZ News