19th Oct 2019 Mens 3rd v Slazengers�2(Home) 0 - 4 loss
It�s difficult to call a 4 nil defeat a competitive result but until mid-way through the second half we had played very well against the league�s in form team Slazengers. The first 15 minute period was relatively even with Ben Rhydding actually creating more chances than the opposition who had spent more time complaining at umpiring decisions than getting on with the game. The young legs in the team were stretching the older back line of Slazengers but we failed to capitalise on some chances created by Ewan and Barnaby up front. The strategy of holding more in midfield seemed to work well in defence of our territory but perhaps lacked enough support in attack to penetrate the opposition�s D effectively. There were some new faces in the team and Josiah Wood in goal made a great one on one tackle/save in the latter part of the first half as a clever aerial wrong footed our defence (a sign of things to come in the second half). We went into half time feeling we should have made better use of our chances but bolstered by a 0-0 score line against a good side.
The second half began in the same vein but the Slazengers midfield gradually got the link working with their forward line and Ben Rhydding were working less well as an overall unit, with gaps appearing between defence, midfield and attack. At the first short corner of the half they scored. Still feeling like we could battle with them we forged forward in search of a goal. Unfortunately this led to more space at the back and aided by a very skilful midfield display from their number 30, plus some accurate shooting from their centre forward, we saw two goals fired into our net in quick Succession. Steve and James in midfield pushed us on to try and salvage something from the game as we still had a decent amount of possession but we could not really threaten their D, with only one real shot on goal. The final nail was a breakaway goal as we pushed forward, finished well from a difficult angle by their centre forward.
Ultimately the stronger team did win but taking positives from the game we learnt that we can compete with such teams for long periods however we also need to take our chances when given and be more clinical in and around the opposition D.