Our BUCS Match of the Week takes us to the Men’s South Eastern Tier 1 league for a matchup between two unbeaten sides, University of Hertfordshire and Imperial College London.

Hertfordshire currently occupy the top of the SE Tier 1 table with a perfect 4/4 record after convincing wins against Surrey, Portsmouth and Essex with their closest result a one-goal game with King’s College.

Meanwhile, Imperial also have a 100% success rate this year, recording big wins against Surrey and King’s College, perfectly setting up tomorrow’s game between two sides that spent most of last season evenly matched and are gunning for promotion to the South Premier Division.

Hertfordshire won last year’s SE Tier 1 on head-to-head record after they tied with tomorrow’s opponents on 25 points at the top of the table.

They won the first meeting between the sides 6-3, before a big crunch match towards the end of the campaign finished 9-9, which was enough to give the home side the title before going on to miss out on promotion to the Premier South with an 8-9 defeat to Swansea.

Imperial also came up just short in the BUCS Trophy last year, losing out in the semi-final to Birmingham for a place at BUCS Big Wednesday.

With both teams back at the top of the league for the 2019/20 season, Imperial will be looking to go one better this time around with a win, as tomorrow’s game will give a strong indicator of the favourite for the crown.

Ones to Watch

University of Hertfordshire

The Uni of Hertfordshire team is led from the back by goalkeeper and captain Callum Ledger, with a .740% save percentage this season and experience playing for English Universities he will be a tough roadblock for the Imperial attack.

Ledger’s defence will be ably assisted by defenceman, Jack Armitage, a highly experienced member of the team playing in the SEMLA Premier Division for Welwyn Warriors is a cornerstone of the Hertfordshire defence.

At the other end of the field, Hertfordshire’s attack is marshalled by attackman Stephen Aspinall, who has registered 32 points already this season with 26 goals, 6 assists and has league lacrosse experience at Camden.

Imperial College London

Charlie Merry, 4th year defender and club captain who has played for the English Universities side, controls the Imperial defence and is a player capable of causing turnovers and transitioning the ball at speed to set his side up in attack.

Ben Reed also has English Universities experience and finished as Imperial’s top scorer last season. He works relentlessly on hitting the top corner, is a go to player on a fast break and mis sure to feature on the scoresheet tomorrow.

And finally, bringing the youth to the side is fresher Theo Ehrmann, who as a member of England U19 training squads, adds a huge amount of versatility and will operate as a two-way middie for Imperial equally adept at bringing the ball out of defence and dodging to goal.