Liverpool Hope firsts vs Manchester Met firsts: match preview

Already crowned champions, Man Met firsts, are looking to complete an unbeaten run in the league with a win or draw to Liverpool Hope on Wednesday. 

The match will conclude an incredibly successful season for Man Met who have only dropped 2 points in the league.

The boys in blue and orange were crowned champions in their last fixture against Liverpool Hope earlier this month in an emphatic 6-0 win. 

And a 4-0 win in their last game to Bangor 1’s sets them up perfectly to achieve the ‘invincibles’ title. 

For Liverpool Hope, they go into the final day off the back of a 1-1 draw to UCLan 2’s away from home.

The final game of the season will take place at Hope Park in Liverpool at 3:00pm on Wednesday the 2nd March. 

Team News

Defender Alex Hallchurch returns to the squad following a 4-week absence due to injury. 

Manager, Gareth Smith hopes he will be fit enough to get some game time on Wednesday. 

Both Oliver Putnam and Nathan Baker who have missed games over the last few weeks also make a return for the final game of the season.

Prediction

If Man Met’s last encounter with Liverpool Hope is anything to go by then you would expect nothing less than a win.

However, with Hope this time around having nothing to lose and Man Met having an unbeaten run to complete, it’s likely to be a much more open game than the previous fixture. Meaning Hope could cause problems for Man Met at the back.

Nonetheless, MMU still go into the game as clear favourites, and I predict a 4-1 win for Man Met FC. 

Pre-match interview

NQ spoke to Man Met’s Head Coach, Gareth Smith ahead of the game to get his views on how it might go: 

“For us, being the team that’s been chased all year, generally teams drop off you. So, there isn’t that much freedom to play the game how we want to play. Therefore, it will be interesting to see what they do.

They might see it as the last game of the season, not too much to play for, so they might just think ‘let’s see if we can go and beat them’. And that might help us because if it’s an open game we know we can pretty much beat anybody.” 

“Generally, throughout the year the spirit has been great, if we’d lost a few games that might have changed, but generally it’s a testament to how the Committee and the Captains have got everybody together.

If lads do see others dropping off or not being there on time, they generally manage that themselves. So, for me, Alex, Jonnie, and Dane, as coaches that becomes a lot easier because the changing room is managing itself. So, I think the spirits are really good.” 

“To go a season unbeaten at any level is a really good achievement because it shows how committed the players are. It also shows their quality that their able to go out and win as many games as they do.

In some ways it’s really disappointing that we’ve dropped two points away at Liverpool John Moores. But ultimately what we wanted to do was get into the next division and that’s the aim for next season too. I genuinely feel like we should be competing in division one of BUCS for the quality that we’ve got.”

“If you put the last two BUCS seasons together, we are 17 unbeaten. So, if we continue that it can only give us confidence going into next season.”

• All credits for photography go to Ben Stiff. Check out his website here.