1st Feb 2020 Mens 3rd v Slazengers 2(Away) 3 - 5 loss

This was the battle of the top end (Slazengers) of Yorkshire div. 2 versus the bottom end (Ben Rhydding 3rds). Not that you'd have known it from the game.

Rhydding began the game putting the home side under pressure, who took some time to work us out. It took about 20 minutes to gain their first goal, but they were shocked to be facing a short corner within a couple of minutes of the restart, which was drag-flicked to the bottom-left corner by Buck from a pacy injection by Logan.

Slazenger's second goal came from a defence-passing long ball into the D, that their centre forward did well to reach, nicking it past our stretched keeper.

Going into half time, 2-3, courtesy of a Wardle goal, the game felt there to be won, as Slazengers had spent the half fighting with themselves, clearly disappointed to be embarrassed by the bottom of the league.

Within ten minutes, the second half went to 2-4 after Slazengers won a short corner, scoring from a straight strike.

Benedikz was unfortunate not to be protected after a Slazenger player slid into him on the ground, taking his legs from under him, then playing the ball. The decision went against Rhydding. However, not giving in, the ascendency went back to Rhydding, with Lee-Wardle scoring our third goal.

Logan and man-of-the-match, Sutherland, kept Slazenger's threat well tempered (and frustrated), but an unfortunately 'won' short corner led to their fifth and final goal in the dying minutes of the game.

Overall, Rhydding had some silky skills that shocked the opposition, making for a good game, maybe only spoiled by some interesting whistle-y decisions. These decisions felt like they'd put a dark cloud over an otherwise strong performance, but it turned out the cloud was smoke from a bakery fire in Wakefield.