Sheffield Hockey Club

YHA Men's Indoor Cup Finals

Hillsborough Leisure Centre

Sheffield Hallam men’s Indoor squad completed a unique treble last Sunday when they won the Yorkshire Men’s Indoor Cup at Hillsborough Leisure Centre.

Originally the Cup Finals should have been run with two pools of three where the top of each pool would then play in the final.

Hull  and Bradford dropped out during the week and the finals became a four-team round-robin event with the top team winning the cup.

Game Summaries

M1 7-6 W v Sheffield University Bankers

GK: Simon Hujwan

GS: Phil Roper 6,20,30,34,35,36 - PS,PC,F,F,PC,PC Brendan Creed 28 - F
In the first game Hallam played perennial rivals Bankers and it was Bankers who opened the scoring in the second minute with Hallam equalizing through Phil Roper four minutes later.

After that the score board keep turning over but with Bankers always in the lead until they were 6-4 up with six minutes to go.

Three goals in the final six minutes from Phil Roper turned the match around and Hallam took a grateful 7-6 win into their second game.

Roper netted an incredible six times during this game only allowing Brendan Creed to supply Hallam’s other goal.

M1 6-2 W v Leeds

GK: Simon Hujwan

GS: David Goodfield 2,33 - F,F David Smith 7 - PC Brendan Creed 12 - F Gareth Furlong 37 - F Phil Roper 38 - F

CARDS: GREEN Rhys Gowman YELLOW: Alex Humphries

Hallam had little trouble against Leeds and while Leeds showed that if you give them an inch they would take a mile Hallam were in no mood to compromise.

Goodfield with two, Smith, Creed, Furlong and that man Roper scored for Hallam to put Hallam in pole position in the tournament with two wins out of two.

M1 7-5 W v Wakefield

GK: Simon Hujwan

GS: Phil Roper 1,13,33,38 - F,PC,F,F Rhys Gowman 2,35 - F,F David Smith 40 – F

In the last match Hallam just had to not lose to take the cup and for once Wakefield put their noses to the grindstone and played some serious hockey building a two-nil lead in two minutes.

Hallam pulled this back to 2-2 by nine minutes and the half ended with Wakefield leading 4-3.

The goal chase continued in the second half as first Wakefield went 5-3 up before Hallam pulled it back to 5-5.

Once again Hallam won the game with two goals in the final two minutes.

Hallam’s scorers were Phil Roper with four, Rhys Gowman with two and David Smith snatching the last in the 40^th minute.

Thus ends an intriguing indoor season during which Sheffield Hallam’s 1^st team have won the National Division 2 North, Yorkshire Premier Division title and the county indoor cup, their 2^nd team have also won the Yorkshire 2^nd Division title.

Hallam are also holders of the YHA men’s Champions Trophy, the county cup, and so not only have a unique set of indoor trophies also hold both the indoor and outdoor county cups.

During the course of the short indoor season Hallam have played  total of 29 matches, won 22, drawn 2 and lost 5 during the course of these matches they have scored 166 goals and let in 108. Quite a record!

Sheffield Hallam Cup Final Squad: Simon Hujwan (GK), Alex Humphries, Phil Roper, David Smith, Brendan Creed, David Goodfield, Rhys Gowman and Gareth Furlong.