Hockey: It’s make or break for Garvey

This weekend is perhaps the biggest in the club’s season so far with both the men’s and ladies’ first teams in Irish Senior Cup action at Comber Road on Saturday.

Then on Sunday, the men’s team take on Cookstown at Shaw’s Bridge hoping to reach the Boxing Day Kirk Cup final for the fourth successive season.

On Saturday afternoon, the men take on Corinthians at 2.45pm while the ladies will be in action against Cork Church of Ireland at the other side of the clubhouse at 2.30pm.

The men’s team have won the Senior Cup a stunning 23 times. Their captain Jonny Bell knows if this season is to be one that ends in triumph, their next few matches are vital.

“These few weeks could determine our season in terms of what silverware we will be competing for come the end of the season.

“We have this weekend’s matches then, if we get through, we could have the next round of the Irish Senior Cup the following week and then play Banbridge in the IHL.

“It’s exciting having the games coming up. These are the games that we play hockey for.”

Garvey’s opponents Corinthians beat Newry 2-1 in the first round of the competition and Bell is wary of the threat they’ll pose at Comber Road.

“Corinthians are a bit of an unknown quantity because we haven’t played them for a few years so we don’t really know what we’re up against,” he said.

“That makes them dangerous and we know we’ll have to play well to beat them. All our focus is on Saturday’s game at the minute and we’ll turn our attention to Sunday after that.

“We’re playing reasonably well at the minute. The graph has been in an upward curve since the start of the season. We started slightly slowly but we’re getting into our stride now and we’ve a big, big few weeks coming up.”

Garvey will be without midfielder Sean Murray but otherwise hope to be at full strength with Timmy Cockram back in the squad along with Steven Arbuthnot who both missed the game against Civil Service last Saturday.