17th Nov 2018 Mens 3rd v Leeds 7(Home) 3 - 2 win
A slightly misleading scoreline as we were winning 3-0 with 5 minutes to go.The 3rds have had a habit of starting slowly this season so we focused on upping the intensity from the off. Against a Leeds team who have conceded few goals but scored fewer, we sacrificed sweeper to keep 3 up front and put 4 into midfield.
This gave us complete dominance in the first half, with nearly all the play being in the Leeds half as we pinned them back.
Against a dogged Leeds defence and good keeper it took about 15 minutes to take the lead though. A great advantage from Umpire Blackburn allowed Joe Cussons to force home the first goal after he could have blown for a short corner. Then just before the break we doubled the lead with a delightful team goal following a free hit in the Leeds 23 which was moved first right and then left before being passed across to Tom Young to nick in in front of the keeper and loop the ball over him.
We started the second half strongly and Hudson added to the lead with a delightfully worked short corner routine, one-twoing it through the defence with Mark Horsman.
In the last 15 minutes, we lost our shape and Leeds started to play better. Pratt, having had virtually nothing to do all game suddenly had to make two brilliant saves. Sam Bretherick was rested for 2 minutes by the umpire after a robust challenge on one of the Leeds forwards. On his return to play, he then saved a certain Leeds goal by comprehensively taking out the centre forward. Leeds scored from the resultant flick. A couple of minutes later they put together a wonderful move to score a second, but it was too little too late as the umpires blew full time as soon as play resumed.
A great battling performance for 55 minutes, with all team members showing great intensity. Special mention must go up front to Tom Young and Joe Cussons who chased lost causes all day and won balls they never should have. All the youngsters - Worthington, Young, Bretherick and Horsman battled hard and didn't shy out of any challenges. The midfield also worked their socks off, with Hudson controlling the game in the middle and Sutherland continuously disrupting Leeds. And some great defending by Horsman, Hughes and Bretherick when called upon.
But man of the match goes to Rob Pratt for his outstanding saves in the second half which delayed the Leeds fight back.