Preston Hockey Club Men’s 1st XI Season Review 2015/16
Following promotion to the Conference North, Preston made a big statement before a ball had been hit with the appointment of former England and Great Britain coach Peter Nicholson as head coach of their Men’s 1st XI.
The main aim of the season was to survive in the division and Preston succeeded with five league wins, enough to earn a seventh place finish (Preston’s highest National League finish), five points ahead of the relegation play-off, with their highest points tally in the National League.
I spoke to captain Robin Taylor to get his opinion of how the season unfolded, click on the video to find out his views.
Although the season will be deemed successful to those who follow the club, there is still large room for improvement in certain areas. One of which being their away form over the season.
Preston’s away form was the second worst in the league, ahead of only Wakefield, who finished in the relegation play-off. However, no side lost as many away games as Preston this season as they lost 7 of their 9 games.
Taylor put it down to the differences in standards of pitches across the league:
“Pitches in hockey, there are so many varieties. In particular now, we’re at that sort of level where we’re at a high level but we’re not at the highest level. So the league above us, everyone will have water-based pitches, but in our league it will depend on the financial implications of the club.
“We have a lot of clubs that have water bases, very bouncy pitches. We tend to have a little bit more of a sand-dressed astroturf which isn’t quite as bouncy. One of the things we do struggle with is when we go away and play on water, it changes the dynamic of the game slightly.
“So again, preseason we’re looking at training more on water-based than on our pitch and try to come to terms with that.”
As you can see from above, Preston’s one and only away win came from their trip to Lichfield in November. A result which came during Preston’s highest point of the season as they won 4 of their 5 league games from the end of October through to November.
Preston’s only defeat in the league in November was against top of the league Loughborough who won 5–1 in Preston.
Preston bounced back with three straight wins in the Conference North against Lichfield, Sheffield Hallam and, most notably, second-place Bowden. The win against Bowden won Preston the only three points they picked up all season against the top 3 in the league (P6, W1, D0, L5).
Another area for concern was the form after the winter break. Going in to the break, Preston were eyeing a fourth place finish, which was made even more possible given the previously mentioned victories leading up to the break against Sheffield Hallam and Bowden.
However, after Christmas, Preston failed to pick up a single victory in the league. The run of 7 games without a win saw them finish 5 points behind the three sides above them (Doncaster, Sheffield Hallam and Deeside Ramblers).
Taylor pointed out the two main factors that he thought let his side down after Christmas:
“A lot of the teams in the National League play indoor hockey, as a club as a team we’re not as committed to that.
“We were a little bit inconsistent with the way we handle the Christmas break, which meant coming in after Christmas we were probably not ready. We had a couple of fixtures fall through that we wanted to play…warm up games and that didn’t work out.
“The other one was, we had a couple of key players we lost for long parts of the second half of the season.”
Having being knocked out of the cup by the University of Birmingham in November, Preston only had the league to focus on after Christmas, but they struggled to pick up any points and suffered some heavy defeats in February and March.
One thing Preston will be hoping for next season is an improvement in consistency. After showing signs of being up there as one of the best in the league before Christmas, it is the whole season that people will judge you on.
Overall Preston will be pleased with staying in the division for a second year and can hope to build on the survival with a stronger campaign starting in September.
But what about the support? Other sports clubs in Preston live under the shadow of the Championship football side Preston North End with teams like Preston Hockey Club and Preston Grasshoppers (Rugby) acting as more community and socially driven clubs.
I tweeted a poll this week asking people whether they had attended a live hockey match at all and the response was as you would expect for a minority sport, with 67% of 42 people saying they have never watched a live hockey match.
With Preston Hockey Club being tucked away behind the train station near Avenham Park on South Meadow Lane, you’d forgive many Prestonians if they didn’t even know the club existed!
I spoke to a former Preston player Jack Dawson who gave his views on why it’s worth people going to watch their local side play hockey.
The Conference North in hockey is almost the equivalent of Championship/League One football and Preston should be proud of the fact they have a team competing at such a level.
Perhaps next season Preston Hockey Club can force people to pay attention by competing for promotion next year. Although I maybe am pushing it a little there.
All in all a good achievement for Preston this season, staying in the division, and they will be hoping for an even better season next campaign.
You can keep up-to-date with Preston’s progress by following their twitter account @prestonHC1903 or through their website prestonhockeyclub.com