Hockey: Coach sticks it to rivals - and own players

PHOTO/FILE

Tech College Old Boys player/coach Trent Williamson could not have made his point any clearer to his team when he scored their only goal in the final 15 minutes of the 3-1 loss to defending Manawatu League champions Massey.

Not choosing to take the field until late in the piece on Saturday, Williamson, who is still TCOB's top scorer this year with three, wanted to show his forwards the best positioning to set up an opportunity at Palmerston North's Twin Turfs.

"It upsets them too [that I scored]," he said. "I've been yelling at them to stand on the post, just because there's a lot going through the circle."

When his tired players went their own way, Williamson came on at 3-0 down and duly based himself near the Massey post, popping in the late goal to bring the final margin back to two.

As the first game of Round 2, TCOB had still shown a lot of improvement against the table-toppers, who beat them 6-0 in the opening league game in April.

"We looked a lot better than we did then," said Williamson.

"They are the top team, it was a pretty good game. We had them stressed out."

Inside player Chad Warner "had a blinder", while young Ben Pillet also played well.

Assisting the team was Colleen Baylis, who effectively ran the bench to ensure there was a quicker rotation of fresh legs.

"She knows what she's doing, a bit more than I do," said Williamson.

Still hunting victory No for 2014, Tech will be reasonably confident facing Palmerston North Boys High School on Saturday at the Twin Turfs, given a number of the best PNBHS players have Under-18 representative commitments.

In the women's competition, Collegians tried a few positional swaps for their away match to Massey, but still went down 4-1.

They were 2-1 down at halftime after Jessica Watkin drove into the circle and managed to flick one past the keeper.

Watkin had been switched to centre while Aleisha Rainey was brought into centre defender.

However, Massey were still able to absorb Collegians' time in possession and get on the breakaway to score their goals, a trait which is always sure to be frustrating to an opposing coach.

"It doesn't take much," said Collegians' Jan Dixon.

"The passing, we just couldn't put the ball away at the other end."

Collegians will now play Palmerston North Girls High School on Saturday, with the game being moved from 3pm to 12pm to allow the Wanganui Under-18 representatives time to travel to Hastings for their game against Hawke's Bay at 6 o'clock that evening.

Coming off the bye week, the TCOB women will play College at the Gonville Domain at 1.30pm.