29th Jan 2022 Mens 5th v Adel 6(Away) 12 - 0 win
What a difference a week makes. After losing 9-0 to Adel’s 5th team last weekend, Rhydding turned the tables to score 12 unanswered goals against their 6th team to claim their first points of the season. So what was the difference? Well it has to be acknowledged that these are quite different teams. While their 5th team is vying for top spot in the league the 6th team lie second from bottom. Rhydding’s youthful forward line of Box, Blears, Massey (and the somewhat less youthful) substitute Brook had too much pace and skill for the veteran Adel defenders, scoring at least two goals each with Massey completing a hat-trick. Not to be outdone by his son, Richard Box also scored twice from short-corners with Alex Wood completing the list of goal-scorers – a just reward for his hard-working midfield play in both weeks. Rhydding dominated for much of the game with Westwood controlling midfield alongside Harlen, Wood and Shutt. At times Rhydding played some beautiful hockey with flowing sequences of passes and off-ball movement. The defence of Oates, Bishop, Box and Blackburn snuffed out Adel’s attacks giving a Byrne a far more restful afternoon in nets than the week before. The game also saw the welcome return from injury from Sean Massey, who was quick to point out that his personal record for the season is W1 D0 L0 F12 A0. So was it really Sean who made the difference? Even though he wasn’t on the pitch when most of the goals were scored… is his mere presence enough…