Miserable start for Northland

John Child has been part of the Northland mens hockey team for a long time now.
He made his debut in 1995 and has been a regular representative pick ever since.
So he knows the daunting challenge the latest version of the Northland mens representative team faces in the week-long National Hockey League (NHL) tournament in Wellington next week.
The Northland side made a miserable start to their 2011 campaign at the weekend, losing to Auckland 9-0 in Auckland on Saturday then capitulating to North Harbour 7-1 at the Rosvall Hockey turf in Whangarei yesterday.
Two full rounds of the NHL are were played a various venues at the weekend, with the rest of the hectic tournament to be played out in Wellington starting on Saturday.
They face six games in as many days against provincial opponents in Wellington starting this weekend. It has put the team on edge.
"We have been under the pump in this tournament for the past couple of years but if we can take some of the positives from this weekend," Child said.
"We've just got to get some early goals in and get our backs up a bit then we might be okay," he said.
"It is pretty hard when you make the sort of start we have, although our second half (against Harbour) was a lot better after we talked a bit about making sure we got into the game a bit more."
Yesterday Harbour launched into their work early, leaping out to 4-0 with polished set play moves from penalty corners. Midfielder Joseph Bartholomew whipped three past a confounded Northland defence from penalty corner strikes.
By the 30 minute mark Harbour were up 6-0 and had a death grip on the Northlanders. The sheer pace of the counter attack and the polished skills of their attacking line had the home side reeling.
Northland could have capitulated completely in the face of the constant barrage of Harbour offence. Instead they staged a comeback, of sorts.
Northland's best attacker, Jeremy Child, netted a nice break out goal just before the break then battled back in the third quarter.
By the final quarter Northland were leg tired. They conceded another two goals in the last 15 minutes.
Results. - Saturday: Auckland 9, Northland 0.
Yesterday: North Harbour 8 (Jospeh Bartholomew 4, Jan Petersen 2, Cory Barrett, Shaun Barnett), Northland 1 (Jeremy Child).