McBride ready for play-off battle

Hornchurch chairman Colin McBride is confident his side’s Ryman Premier Division play-off semi-final against Bury will go ahead tomorrow.

Urchins ended the regular season as runners-up to champions Billericay, after beating Leatherhead 2-1 on Saturday.

But the heavy rain which has fallen across the county in recent days has left pitches waterlogged, with Division One North matches at Leiston, Redbridge and Ware still to be played after several postponements in recent days.

Hornchurch’s Bridge Avenue pitch appears to be holding up, though, and McBride said: “It drained well on Monday and at this point I don’t think there will be a problem.

“The sun is meant to be coming out later today and I will visit the ground later.

“If it is off tomorrow night, I think it will be played on Saturday.”

Urchins shared the ground with Havering Mayesbrook Athletic Club, who usually use the facility on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sundays.

They have changed their training night to Thursday this week to help accommodate Hornchurch’s play-off tie and McBride is hoping his men make the most of home advantage.

He added: “We’ve not played as well recently as we did earlier in the season. We’re not as fluent.

“But when we’ve had dips before, we’ve come out of them and thrown an excellent performance in.

“We’ve won more games than anyone and we’ve got the best defensive record, so we will be sound at that end. We’ve just got to get ourselves going again at the other end.”

Admission for tomorrow night’s match is �9 adults, �6 concessions and �2 for under-16s.

If successful, Urchins will host the winners of the tie between Lowestoft and Wealdstone in the final on Bank Holiday Monday (3pm).

l Joe Anderson won the vote of both the Hornchurch supporters and his teammates to walk off with two player of the year awards at the weekend.

And Martin Tuohy took the club’s golden boot after netting 30 goals in league and cup matches during the 2011/12 season.