Men’s 3s climb to 4th with win

Halifax Mens Third team were at home this weekend against a confident Ben Rhydding who sat second in the league.

The last time the two teams met had a frantic final few minutes as Ben Rhydding took the lead with less than five minutes on the clock before Halifax equalised in the final minute.

This “second leg” would be just as tense in the end.

Halifax had two new players this week as Luke and Jamie had moved up from the fourth team, and were also tentatively trialing the fitness of Ryan who’d been out with an injury since the beginning of the 2018/19 season.

The fresh young legs of Jamie open up with field in a game that could’ve gone either way as he slotted his first goal for the team past the diving Ben Rhydding goal tender.

Ben Rhydding looked dangerous throughout and managed to get a goal back from a penalty corner just clipping the outstretched foot of Halifax’s keeper before the ball bounced up into the net. Half time arrived with the score at 1-1.

Mid way through the second half Bryn Hans got his stick onto a ball sent in to the D by Stuart Blagbrough and diverted it into the goal for Halifax to take the lead, following it up with his second of the game ten minutes later as he dribbled around the pressing keeper and the base line before finding an angle into the far corner to make it 3-1.

Captain Chris Knight and Bailey Blagbrough both spent time in the sin-bin mid second half before Ben Rhydding scored from another penalty corner as the final 10 minutes loomed.

Halifax pulled the full team back into defence attempting to absorb the pressure from Ben Rhydding as they piled players forward to try for an equaliser. Halifax were strong at the back and managed to block all attempts to score and coming close on a couple of counter attacks.

The final two minutes seemed to take much longer as Ben Rhydding were up for another Penalty corner. It was cleared by Steve Fawkes and soon after the final whistle blew with a 3-2 win for the home moving them up to fourth in the league with only two points separating them from the new second place team.