10th Oct 2020 Mens 5th v City of York 8(Home) 3 - 2 win
After a long wait league hockey finally returned for the Ben Rhydding 5th team with City of York arriving for the first match of the day.
With a solid back line and Jones picking up everything in front, Rhydding were able to feel confident in passing the ball around in midfield and their first goal came from some lovely passing on the right hand side to bring the ball the length of the pitch and get behind a resolute York defence for Harlen to score from close range.
Rhydding should really have gone on to put this game to bed in the remainder of the first half, but going into the second half still at 1-0 gave York a chance which they duly took by scoring two from a succession of short corners to take a 2-1 lead.
Holding onto the ball was proving difficult for Rhydding and a couple of formation changes didn’t really solve this while sloppy passing made it difficult to get any momentum. Last season this team would have probably lost this game but we kept probing and dare I say the fitness from training (at which the 5th team always have the best numbers) meant as the game wore on we started to find a little more space, with Threlfall causing problems with his running at players and Tindall selflessly dragging defenders out of position, and with a little more thought about when to pass and when to run with the ball, pulled goals back through Tilbrook and Shutt to take the 3 points.
Lots of positives, particularly from the first half performance and the desire to not give up in the second half, and continuing to concentrate on the basics should stand the team in good stead.