11th Jan 2020 Mens 2nd v City of York�4(Away) 7 - 1 win
The Men�s second team started off their 2020 league fixtures with a trip to York. The day did in fact start before York though, as the squad of 14 gathered in Burley-in-Wharfedale to the new Town Cryer be sworn in. Danny Foster said he was honoured to take on this �new and exciting opportunity� having been head hunted by local councillors and residents who had heard him bellowing instructions on the occasional Saturday over the past few weeks. Some of these people hadn�t even been near to the hockey club when they heard him. It was a great note to start the day off on and really brought the team together.
Rhydding beat this York side 9-2 last time out, but couldn�t afford to be complacent after the Christmas break. They started off strongly and scored early on to settle the nerves, with Horsman fizzing the ball down the left side to the extremely fast Lorimer; he in turn passed to Fraser on the edge of the area, and once he has danced around his defender he released the ball to Tommy �twelve goal� Hagan who had no problems in slotting the ball home. 1-0.
Rhydding pressed hard and fought well, with George getting the second goal which gave Rhydding some freedom to push further forwards in search of more goals. This search very nearly came off when Lorimer had the goal at his mercy, but for the second time in the game was pushed to the turf and this time a penalty stroke was given. As any confident goal-scoring striker would do, Lorimer wanted the flick he had won and after a scuffle with Foster, who believed it was his turn on the flick rotation system to take it, he put the ball narrowly wide. Not to be put down by the miss, Lorimer attacked from the resulting 16, winning the ball back and dribbling past not one, not two, not three but four defenders before hitting the ball into the roof of the net with a fine reverse stick strike. 3.-0.
Complacency wasn�t an option for Rhydding, who left no time before getting their fourth of the game, with Lorimer slicing a pass through the central defending pair to McHugh, who slipped the ball left for Murgatroyd to nearly cock up, before shifting the ball over the line. A snail would have got to the line faster. 4-1 at half time as York scored a goal on the half-time whistle.
A few notable mentions from this week, Fraser ran the show in the midfield transferring the ball from left to right superbly and all of the back four had great games. Foster played well and was unlucky to miss a second half flick, blazing the ball about 3 metres over the crossbar.
McHugh finally got his goal with a mighty fine strike before Hagan making it 14 for the year so far for him and then came the showstopper; Fraser passed it to Lorimer who shimmied his way past one defender before slipping the ball left to Fraser who ran down the left with it only to pass the ball back to Lorimer who was sliding in at the back post to make it 7-1 at full time.
Many congratulations to Sturgeon for not falling this week, to Horsman who had a great game at the back and also to Lee Ryan, who made several chances upfront.
I must stop the report now, as Danny is going to be standing on the steps of the Town Hall in 15 minutes ringing his bell.