HOCKEY - Tough fixture ahead for Northland

The prospect of facing a beefed-up Central team with Black Sticks men's players Shea McAleese and Bevan Hari included has the Northland team bracing themselves for a testing National Hockey League (NHL) fixture tomorrow.
Northland lost 6-0 to Canterbury in the final round robin match in Wellington yesterday, the red and blacks surging out to a 5-0 halftime lead with an impressive attacking display.
That has left Northland at the foot of the NHL table and facing a play-off with Central tomorrow. If they lose they will be playing off for the wooden spoon on Sunday.
"Central will be a tough game especially with those two players coming back in since we last played them. They will be a totally different prospect and a very tough team to face in that sort of game," Thorne said.
"It was the game we wanted to avoid, but we couldn't do much about Canterbury once they got going," he said.
The result also means both the Northland men's and women's teams are in identical positions for the finals weekend in Wellington. They women meet Southern today in a bottom four play-off they have to win to avoid the wooden spoon game, although they finished seventh on the table at the end of round robin matches.
But there wasn't much the Northland men could do to halt the Cantabrians last night, their talent-laden attacking line proving too slick for a stoic Northland defence.
"We held them out for the first 15 minutes then let in three goals in about five minutes. It was just bang, bang, bang and that was it. They put two more in before halftime," Thorne said.
A change at goalkeeper helped Northland fend off a flurry of second half attacks, youngster Jared Cocking assuming the pads in goal and fending off several attempts, while Mark Thorne and Joe Bartholomew also did well.
It was a much-improved second half display from the Northland men, with Northland able to exert some pressure on Canterbury through the midfield, but they were unable to convert a couple of handy chances.
The good news was that Northland came through the match virtually unscathed with the full squad available for selection tomorrow. Defender John Child, the skipper, was the only player Thorne was concerned about.
"We are all fit and ready to go, only the pride is hurt at this stage. John (Child) has an abdomen strain that he has carried virtually for the entire tournament but he battles through every game and should be right," Thorne said.
The game against Central tomorrow is at 9am.