Tim Clarke helped give City the edge in the second half

SKIPPER Ben Hudson believes the way Cambridge City start the second half of the season will be crucial to their title ambitions.

The battle for East Hockey Premier A supremacy resumes on Saturday, with City travelling to bottom of the table Norwich.

With his side currently third behind West Herts and Bedford, Hudson feels a good run of results will put them firmly in contention for top spot.

“We need to start well, but the good thing is we’ve got a strong squad going into the second half of the season,” Hudson told Cambridge First.

“In previous years we’ve lost players over Christmas but everyone is coming back this year and we’re at full strength and looking forward to getting back into it.”

Describing his team’s performance in the league so far as satisfactory, Hudson said they need to cut out “silly” mistakes that have dogged City in some matches.

“Looking back on a couple of games we’ve dropped points because we’ve made silly mistakes and chucked games away where we should have won,” he said.

“A bit of that is down to inexperience, but at the same time we have experienced players in the team too.

“We’ve got a really talented team with a lot of good young players, and have some of the hockey we’ve produced this season has been brilliant. If we can produce those levels on a consistent basis then we can hopefully close the gap on the leaders. Promotion has been the aim all along.”

City are almost at full-strength for their trip to Norfolk, though regular goalkeeper Nick Rowley is away. They will be hoping Cambridge University do them a favour in their match away at West Herts.

In Women’s Premier A, City’s ladies also get up and running on Saturday. Vikki Franks’ team went into the Christmas break fourth in the table, and have a derby match to look forward to at the weekend when they take on Cambridge University. The University players will be out to avenge their 2-1 defeat to City back in September.

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