27th Oct 2018 Mens 5th v Leeds Adel 5(Away) 1 - 2 loss
From the first whistle Adel started to put Rhydding under pressure, and for a couple of minutes it looked like the 5ths were going to be overwhelmed. Then we settled down and started to play our own hockey, and the game evened out.
The first half was characterised by good strong play by both sides. Adel demonstrated better passing skills, particularly in midfield. This allowed them to push hard when they had possession, and meant they brought the game strongly into Rhydding's half and then inside our 25. For 5-10 minutes they mounted several attacks with Rhydding struggling to clear the ball, but determined defence by Bryan, Johnnie and Carl plus some superb saves by Jacob meant we kept them from scoring.
They didn't have it all their own way. When we collected the ball in midfield we were more than capable of bringing it into their D, often on the left with a great combination of good dribbling and passing by Dan, Greg and Seb, supported by Paul and Oliver in the midfield. That got the ball across to David T several times, but we couldn't quite find the net.
0-0 at half time.
Rhydding settled into more positive play and passing, ending up with David T in the D again but with no clear shot past the keeper. He reverse stick lobbed the ball over the keepers head, though it was going just outside the goal, only to be brought down from the overhead by David A into the back of Adel's goal. 1-0.
Adel didn't take this lying down, and put more pressure on. Oliver had to drop out due to hamstring problems, so Rhydding were playing with 11 whereas Adel had 2-3 subs, and the Rhydding men started to get weary legs and slow down. Adel got a string of short corners and converted one of them with a good strike, bringing the game to 1-1.
With 15 minutes to play both sides wanted the extra goal, and sadly it was Adel that kept the pressure up and converted again, so 1-2.
Rhydding kept going right up to the final whistle, with Greg dropping into centre mid and playing an outstanding game, and Max filling the right mid slot.
Our juniors Seb and Max both had excellent games (once Seb's hands had warmed up!), demonstrating lots of skill and especially determination. Max was very strong in the right mid role, intercepting a lot of Adel attacks down their left, and Seb set up several of the Rhydding attacks.
Man of the match, though, goes to Jacob - outstanding commitment, energy and goal keeping skills, without his performance it would have been 1-4 or 1-5.