League Table

Sunday 26th September 2010, Match Day 1 : Manchester HC vs Deva HC (25-17)

This first game of the season was a test and a preparation game before the European Challenge cup for Manchester HC. The 7 players squad( absence of  Girost, Georgiou, Lasek transferred to Canberra HC, Australia) was playing Deva for the first time in this league.
After a good start from the Yellow and black and some spectacular saves from their Slovakian goalkeeper, MHC was leading 12-3 at half-time.
The second half started with a slower tempo and Manchester simply managed their efforts.
Deva team played few good moves and forced MHC to stay concentrated in defence.
Hammache with 8 goals helped MHC to win the game and showed the teams' potential without few key players. Well played ! Job done MHC! Final score 25-18.


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 Sunday 10th October 2010, Match Day 2 : Manchester HC vs Wirral HC  ( 10 : 0 ) 
Top scorer 33, Tomasson Julien: 7 goals (included 2 penalties)    




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 Sunday 17th Oct 2010, Match Day 3 : Manchester HC vs University Of Manchester HC (30-25)

Today, Sunday the 17^th of October, Manchester’s squad had to travel to Liverpool Greenbank to play a promising mancunian derby.

The game started on a tempo mainly orchestrated by the university team. The 6-0 defense of the MHC was not articulated enough and left too many 6 meters shots to its goalkeepers. It also had some difficulties to adapt its attack against the high defense that the University players had set up. The ball circulation was too often disrupted by the advanced line player. The first half came with a first red card for Manchester University after a verbal expression toward the referee.

Both teams would have gone to enjoy the break on a parity score if Semir Latouji had not scored this furious goal on the buzz.

Half time MHC 15 – 14 Manchester University

MHC’s performance in second half was a lot more serious both in attack and in defense. The solidarity of the men in defense simplified the keepers’ job. Unfortunately the pace slowed down in the middle of the second half when Manchester University ended up with only one player plus the goalkeeper on the court. This incident occurred after a second direct red card and a succession of fault and contestation.

Then Karim took the wise decision to play the match till the end, refusing the forfeit.

Although the tension of the game was really high, Rudy ¹7 for Manchester University kept his self control and did a nice game scoring an overall of 6 goals.

Both teams left the court with good manners even though we could feel the frustration on Uni’s side.

Top scorers Girost 10; Karas 7; Hammache 4

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                           Sunday 24th Oct 2010, Match Day 4 : Manchester HC vs Liverpool Speke HC (28 : 10)

 We were looking forward this game top prove ourselves that last year’s lost was an accident. Due to a problem of communication both teams met early morning in the Manchester Sugden sport hall. After as couple of phone calls we learned that we and our supporters, coming from Slovakia and Spain had to travel to Liverpool Greenbank to play this match, kick off 3 o’clock. Consequently, having other commitment elsewhere, two of our players (Karim and Mister Zolt), could not attend this game.
 
The 7 magnificent left had to team up and become the fantastic 7 to face Liverpool Speke in this important match. Team play and discipline were the key words, vice captain Minas and Commander Karas, were in charge that day. As usual the Slovakian wall was in the goal and thanks to a good night of sleep Jeremy Holden was in a scoring mood. In the first half, the MHC played a collective and disciplined handball and scored most of its goals in fast breaks with its wingers.
 
After 30 minutes of play the MHC was in charge with the score sheet showing 17 – 6.
 
Although having no bench the Mancunian still had their legs and decided to play fast in the second half. Tension rose in the middle of the second half when after a couple of physical challenges Liverpool Speke started being penalised by many 2 minutes and even 2 red cards.
The MHC remained calm, never answered to the provocation and got only one yellow card for the all game. After a little time the match returned to its normal pace and the MHC managed its lead.

Top scorers Rybak 8; Georgiou 6; Holden 5; Girost,Karas 4 and recently signed no.33 Julian Lasek 1




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             Sunday 7th Nov 2010, Match Day 5 : MHC vs Liverpool Wolves HC   ( 26 : 22 )



         

Today the 7^th of November, the Manchester Handball Club and Liverpool Wolves met in Warrington to play this classic match of the northern league. Manchester’s players had to bear in mind that that day was a special day for them as due to a match cancellation 3 weeks ago, they had to play against Wirral 3 hours later in Manchester‘s hall Bellevue. However the instructions given by the coach and echoed by Minas were clear and simple: “we play at 100%”. In fact after 3 consecutive wins, Karim’s squad could not afford to lose this game that seemed already decisive for the play off race.

Manchester started this game rigorously. The solidarity of the men in defense resulted in a quasi systematic abortion of Liverpool’s attempt to score. On the other side of the ground, Manchester’s halves created gaps between the defenders by moving the ball around and so took many 6 meters shots. The mancunians made the difference during this first 30 minutes, and enjoyed the break with a comfortable lead of 6 goals.

Nevertheless, Liverpool came back from the break with a new defending tactic, to which Manchester had difficulties to adapt its attack. Despite their motivation and success at shooting, Liverpool never achieved to close the gap on the scoreboard and finished the game 4 goals behind, 26 - 22 .

After this important first win, the MHC squad had to hurry and drive straight to Bellevue to get their second victory of the day. This time the battle was won a lot more easily as Wirral did not turn up to the sports hall, thus Manchester automatically benefited from a 10-0 win. This situation pleased most of the players as they did not have to endure a second exhausting game.

The usual fast tempo implemented by these two teams got slowed down, as both defensive formations were solid and experienced. Nottingham started this game with a high 5-1 which perturbed Manchester’s ball circulation. However the Mancunians managed to score by playing between their defensive lines. The MHC defended as a unit, the opacity of their central block obliged Nottingham to take shots on the wings mainly. The outstanding performance of our goalkeeper Zsolt Deak, allowed Karim’s men to enjoy their break with an advantage of 5 goals. ( 11 : 6 )

After the break, Nottingham came back on the pitch with an even higher defensive system (4-2), which encouraged our halves to provoke one on one duels. The ball was released to our winger when the solution could not be found in the center.

After 5 confusing minutes in the middle of the second half, during which one of our player got a red card and two of Nottingham’s players got sent off 2 minutes, the orange and black fought hard to close up the gap that was separating us on the score board. They never succeeded though, finishing the game 7 goals behind.

After this important victory over a tenor of the northern league the Manchester Handball Club is going to keep working hard in order to maintain its position of leader in front of the threatening formation of Salford next weekend.

Top scorers: Girost 6; Hammache, Georgiou 5

The game started with Salford reciting some exciting handball and going through some good moves to open a Manchester defense which was not performing as efficiently as in their past few matches.

Verdict? Salford were ahead 13-4 after 15 minutes of play...

Manchester took a time out and re-organized, slowly coming back into the game and stopping Salford from every corner of the court, with clinical fast breaks from Georgiou and Hammache...thus levelling to 13-13 with an on the buzz shot from Girost.

The second half started well for Manchester who took a 2 goal lead...Sadly, the Mancunians started to acculumate mistakes with poor ball circulation leading to too many ball losses, poor shots from the wings and almost no initiative from 9m.

In the meantime Salford re-organized and equalized soon before taking a deserved lead of 1-2 goals...taking it to 3-4 goals towards the end of the match.

Well done to Salford for playing a good game both in attack and in defense and taking home 2 points.

Manchester will have to learn from this match and quickly regroup as the objective is still to top the Northern Division 1.

Top scorers for Manchester Georgiou 9 goals Girost 5 and Karas 4.

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               Sunday 28.11.2010, Match Day 8 : MHC vs Wirral HC   ( 10 : 0 Forfeit )

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               Sunday 5.12.2010, Match Day 9 : MHC vs University Of Manchester HC  ( 35 : 20 )


  This first weekend of December saw the second Mancunian derby of the year at Sugden sports center. The hard work during the trainings and the return to the basics of handball, allowed us, the Manchester Handball Club, to take the 2 points at stake. It was important for us to do a solid game and enjoy ourselves after the 2 points conceded 2 weeks ago against Salford.

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            Sunday 12.12.2010, Match Day 10 : MHC vs Speke HC   ( 32 : 21 )

   Last match of the year 2010 saw two teams from oposite sites of the league table. MHC top and Speke botom line.

Sadly, with only 8 players available on the day and Rybak injuring himself on his first goal, 4 first team players missing (Girost, Deak, Holden and Tamssom) and training having started just 10 days before...this game was always going to be difficult...

The team was particularly slow...and apart from Liatouji who stood out with 8 goals on the day and Belus in goals, the rest of the Mancunians played below their normal level and therefore rarely presented a serious threat to a Nottingham team with a goalkeeper particularly on form (7 six metre saves!).

Yet, the mancunians's defense was strong and a few fast breaks allowed them to build a lead of 4 goals at half time. (11-7)

The second half saw Nottingham come back to 1-2 goals for most of the match and with 3 minutes left, the 3 goal advantage was narrowed down to 1 due to two consecutive passive plays blown against Manchester.

The last seconds of the game were tensed but Manchester kept the lead and overall deserved to win this match.

The serious work begins now for Manchester to come back to their good positive attacking handball...

Top scorers : Liatouji 8 , Hammache 3 , Pliatiskas 3