21st Sep 2019 Mens 1st v Harrogate Men's 1s(Home) 3 - 5 loss
In a tense and fiercely contested opening league match, Rhydding conceded early after some defensive confusion led to a Harrogate player getting a free shot. The home side found themselves 2-0 down very quickly when a second easy goal was scored after defensive errors. Rhydding pulled it back to 2-1 within minutes; a great back hand from Ross McMillan being skilfully deflected by Charlie Smith. Smith continued to cause problems for Harrogate throughout the match and was the stand-out player of the game. The drama began to unfold as out of the blue, for an innocuous challenge, the umpire awarded a penalty stroke for Harrogate. Now 3-1 up by a turn of bizarre fortune, Harrogate�s tails were up. However, Charlie Smith took matters into his own hands, slicing through the whole team with Will Musgrave galloping alongside to gobble up the pass he was given to slide it into the goal. Now at 3-2, the game was back on. Musgrave stormed through and smashed a delightful backhand home to level the scores and Harrogate looked broken. However, a corner given against the run of play for Harrogate gave them the chance to take the lead again at 4-3. It was a cruel blow for Rhydding that a beautiful interception by Matty Birch was penalised as a foul and a corner given. This put the game to bed as Harrogate converted to take the match out of Rhydding�s reach.