Men's 1sts still in promotion hunt

Ben Rhydding 3rds 1 - 3 Halifax 1sts

Scorers : Jones, Sutcliffe, Graham (M)

After a 2 week break with snowed off games, the team came to Ben Rhydding for a 4,30 start with all guns blazing and produced a really good all round performance.

Both teams were intent on playing good passing hockey with the Halifax lads producing more chances with Matthew Graham and Matthew Baistow causing the home team problems but unable to find the finishing touch.

It was left to Michael Jones to open the scoring, firing in a great flick at a penalty corner. Rhydding came straight back to score also with a flicked penalty corner.

After that goal, Tony Sykes had a solid game in goal and was not beaten again and indeed was excellent as a relacement for regular keeper Matthew Metclafe.

1-1 at half time.

Halifax continued to have more possession but struggled to finish off some fine moves. Jones was having a fine match from right back setting up some good attacks down the teams right hand side and veteran Paul Graham marshalled the defence with a calm assurance and allowed Simon Arch and Dave Wheatley the opportunity to keep possession and limit the home teams skilful forwards.

Finally Halifax took the lead when Josh Sutcliffe ghosted in on the far post to slot the ball home from a Bairstow cross. Matthew Graham made up for some earlier misses getting a 3rd goal with a superb strike from a tight angle.

Bairstow went close to getting a 4th before a late rally from Rhydding forced Halifax to work hard in defence. Leigh Walker made some good tackles and Sykes made a vital save to ensure there was no comeback.

Bairstow was brought down in the final minutes by the home keeper but the missed penalty from Jones had no bearing on the result as Halifax claimed 3 points(3-1 win) to just about stay in the race for promotion