The Sils entertained the league's bottom side off the back of a run of bad results, but knowing that the team was still developing, and the scorelines did not reflect a lack of effort.

From the start, the game adopted the patterns that it would for the whole game; the Sils young, skilful forwards attacking at pace, but being thwarted by some solid defending within the Harborough defence, whilst in contrast the visiting side's more direct approach was to hit balls down their right and look for attacking opportunities through strong, direct, running.

Both teams had half-chances in the opening 10 minutes, with Steve Tabb in goal being called upon to work with his defence to thwart a few PCs, whilst at the other end, Sils, particularly in the form of Aran Singh, were causing defenders problems, and winning their own PCs.

The opening goal came to the home team, but it could so easily have gone the other way - Harborough hit on the break, and their centre forward through on goal only faced with Tabb in goal, thought he had done enough, but his shot hit the outside the of the post and bounced to safety. From the resultant 16, Dave Ward won some space down the right hand side, and played the ball forwards. Singh and Frazer Keep combined down the inside left channel to leave Dan Garstang in on goal, and he had the composure to collect the rebound from his initial shot and slide the ball home from close range. This clearly deflated the visiting team a little, and Sils enjoyed their best period of the game. Keep and Singh continued to combine down the left, and with Seb Pond putting in another assured performance in the middle of the pitch which belied his young age, more chances came.

The second Sils goal came as a result of the left side combination, but was finished neatly by Joseph Bell, fresh from a school match, whose positional sense was excellent all match, and allowed him to arrive at the far post to collect a cross from the left and flick the ball home to give the Sils a 2 goal cushion.

Half-time came, and Sils were in a buoyant mood, but knowing that there was still a lot of hard work to do.

The second half proved to be a battle of wills and attrition, with Harborough able to get one goal back via a neat deflected shot just in front of the keeper. However, the resolute defending of Simon Spain, Dave Burton, Steve Aylin and Oscar Leonard, meant that whilst they perhaps caused themselves some more issues then they needed to by turning the ball over and having to defend several PCs, no further goals were conceded. At the other end, the youngsters continued to work hard, and whilst the home team did lose the services of the excellent Dave Ward with about 15 minutes to go (through a mystery "old age" injury), the hard work from every member of the squad meant that the Sils themselves could have probably scored another goal or two if the ball had fallen more cleanly for them in the D.

Overall though a thoroughly pleasing win, which just about secures the 5th team's position in this division for next season. Whilst mathematically still possible for one of the sides below them to catch the Sils, it is very unlikely, so the team's hard work was rewarded, and it was also great to see three regulars from the 5th team from earlier in the season stepping up and making solid contributions in the 4th team game beforehand.

https://midlands.englandhockey.co.uk/competitions/2025-2026-4582409-adult-midlands-open---mens-group-4583908-midlands-open---mens-division-9-south-east/table