Manchester HC 20 - 11 Haslingden HC 9th Novemebr 2008, Bellevue
Manchester’s second team took to the court for the first time this weekend with a mixture of experience and fresh faces to face Haslingden, the former division 1 outfit from Lancashire. Manchester had 2 key rookies missing from their line up, however, those who were there to make their handball debuts did so proudly and came away with an extremely good start and a firm basis to build on over the coming season.
Faced with a more experienced opponent, Manchester worked hard to find gaps in the Haslingden defence leading to early debut goals from Ric Hennessy and Mike ‘Screech’ Harrison. The scoring continued from every position, but by far and away the most lethal finisher was Jeremy ‘Bumblebee’ Holden who finished the match with a stunning 7 goals and a man of the match award.
Manchester’s hard work in attack was matched by their tenacity in defence. Some aggressive defending from debutant Dave ‘The Butcher’ Rowlands along with some great saves by Karim ‘Airport run’ Hammache allowed Haslingden only 4 goals in the first half of play.
The team performed very well under the circumstances, but also made a number of mistakes which they will look to work on in the coming weeks. All in all though, a positive start.
J. Holden – 7, M. Harrison – 4, R. Hennessy – 4, S. Liatouji – 2, P. Karas – 2, K. Hammache – 1, D. Rowlands, J. Tamssom
Manchester HC 13 - 9 Sheffield HC 9th November 2008, Bellevue
Manchester’s second game came in the form of a thrilling contest with Sheffield HC. Fantastic goalkeeping in the first half from Semir ‘Of course I’m from France’ Liatouji and in the second half from Petr Karas held the Sheffield team to only 9 goals, while Manchester once again took the advantage in attack. 4 more goals from Jeremy ‘Bumblebee’ Holden as well as first scores for Dave ‘The Butcher’ Rowlands and Julien ‘Sticky ref’ Tamssom gave Manchester their second win in two games.
J. Holden – 4, R. Hennessy – 4, P. Karas – 2, D. Rowlands – 1, M. Harrison – 1, J. Tamssom – 1, K. Hammache, S. Liatouji
Manchester’s next games see them face Speke and Deva on the 6th December in Sugden.
