Premier League Round 5 – Match of the Round Preview

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Round 5 – Match of the Round Preview

North East Hockey Club v Burnside Hockey Club

Preview by Bevan Jones

Premier League Women

Sunday’s round five clash between the host and 5th placed North East Hockey Club, and 6th placed Burnside Hockey Club, should be an intriguing contest. 

In their four games so far, North East have a 2-2 record and Burnside are 1-3 so both teams will be looking for a win to keep in touch with the top four. 

Burnside will be out for revenge after North East won 2-0 in their last meeting in round one. 

Burnside had a tight 2-1 loss against Adelaide University in round four and Coach, Sanjay Singh, said they were expecting the team to perform differently from when the round one encounter. 

“I feel like we are improving every week, in the first game of the season when we played North East we were getting all of our plans in order,” Singh said. 

“We are a different team now and it is crucial for us to get back on the winners list, but we are looking forward to showing everyone that we are a different side to when we first met North East in round one. 

“We played well against Adelaide University last week and just a setback in the second half that cost us in the end.” 

North East are coming off a 4-2 win last week against the Grange Royals and Coach, Holly Evans, said they were expecting a tough contest against Burnside. 

“Burnside have showed that are improving game by game and it’s not going to be an easy one,” Evans said. 

“We have to earn the right to beat this young Burnside group and it wouldn’t surprise me if they came out stronger and harder from the last time, we played them in round one. 

“We will be looking for good quality ball movement which we did well against Grange and we had some high-quality goals in that win, so we just need to play the same way against Burnside.” 

This should be a terrific contest, but I am tipping Burnside to bounce back from their loss to Adelaide University last week and get some round revenge against North East, with a 2-1 victory.

Premier League Men

Like the women’s contest, Burnside will be seeking revenge on the road from a round one defeat when they travel to take on the North East Hockey Club on Sunday. 

In round one it was 2-0 the way of North East and both teams sit equal on a 2-2 record from their four games so far with only percentage separating the 4th placed North East from the 5th placed Burnside. 

After a 2-1-win last week against the Grange Royals, North East Coach Jordan Glover set a clash again with Burnside would be a great game to measure where his team are at.

“North East Men are revelling at the opportunity to face Burnside again,” Glover said.

“Having made huge leaps forward through this cycle of games, I am expecting our men to be relentless and thorough with a team-first approach.

“This game acts as a great foundation to measure progress and set up the next half of the first cycle of games.” 

Burnside are also coming off a victory last week, they defeated Adelaide University 3-0 and their Coach, Dan Haseloff, said it was another must win clash against North East. 

It’s potentially season defining for Burnside, if we want to play finals, we are going to need to take some points from the likes of North East to have a chance,” he said. 

“It was a scrappy affair in round one, we are looking to simplify the way we play, not to overuse the ball.  

“The effort has been excellent in the last two games so we are looking to build on that and finish off chances as they'll be tough to come by.  

“North East go in as favourites I would think but we are looking forward to the challenge.” 

Burnside will be looking for revenge from round one and are starting to hit some good form, based on this I am tipping an upset. Burnside to win 3-2.

This week’s Matches of the Round are LIVE on LiveHockey - https://livehockey.com.au
Men @ 2:00pm | Women @ 3:30pm