Fantastic fightback sees city men crowned kings

Leicester sealed the East Midlands Division One title after a dramatic comeback at home to Market Harborough.

Their 2-1 victory maintained Leicester's unbeaten home record and saw them promoted to the East Midlands Premier Division at the first time of asking under coach Andy Partridge.

Both sides showed their intent early in the fixture and, after a thrilling first half, they went into the break deadlocked at 0-0.

Harborough carved out a number of chances from penalty corners in the first period but Leicester defended them well.

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The hosts also created a number of efforts at goal but were lacking the vital final touch.

Ten minutes into the second period, the deadlock was broken when Harborough finally converted from a penalty corner. Leicester also saw right-back Dipen Lad sin-binned shortly after.

It proved to be a tense 10 minutes until Leicester were back to full strength and, as soon as they were, Ollie Pointon converted a penalty corner to bring the scores level.

With the clock ticking, the home side pressed on and, after good work from Doug Whittaker out wide, he angled the cross for fox-in-the-box Tom Budd to get the faintest of touches to convert, in off the far post.

It produced a frantic last five minutes but the victory was Leicester's.

They go to bottom side Mansfield on Saturday for the final game of a remarkable season.

Leicester's faint promotion hopes in the second-team East Midlands Premier Division were ended after a 1-1 draw at league leaders North Notts.

Despite missing several key players, Leicester felt this was one of their better performances of the season after ending Notts' 100 per cent home record.

Notts had the best of the possession during the first half and went a goal up after catching out Leicester with a quickly-taken free hit.

Notts' attempt to bully the Leicester defence failed to work as the back four stood strong and made countless tackles and blocks.

Leicester were rewarded for their hard work with just five minutes of the game left when Rory Long's cross into the 'D' was tapped in by Rich Thurlow.

But there was to be more drama in the dying seconds as Notts were awarded two penalty corners. The first was cleared brilliantly off the line by captain Chas Allen and the second was blocked by full-back David Tyers.

After a win for Boots, Leicester dropped to fourth in the table, going into the final match of the season at home to Nottingham HC.

Leicester's fourth team ended a fine season under captain Tom Court to finish fifth after a 4-2 victory against Coalville.