3 off as Men's 4ths "lose their heads"

Halifax headed to Ben Rhyding on the back of an outstanding performance despite the defeat to Tadcaster last week. Halifax fielded a much changed team due to call ups to other sides. Little did we know what was about to happen. A lowly Ben Rhyding team should have been a walk in the park for a confident Halifax team.

Halifax started slowly and withstood some continuous pressure from Rhyding who had clearly fielded some new players who hadn’t been available in the past few weeks. Halifax were struggling to adapt to new roles and positions and frustrations started to show. Even Rob Keene picked up a green card for a mistimed tackle and many free hits were conceded. Some rough but fair challenges we being penalised at regular intervals until a break away from Rhyding finally broke the deadlock 0-1.

Not long after Halifax got to grip with the game and did make some chances that were wasted by poor decision making. Ben Rhyding became more and more confident with our inability to pass and stay calm in what was fast becoming a dreadful performance. To top it all, Jack Willis was sent from the pitch for knocking a ball away despite the good work he had been putting in to drag the team back from their poor start.

To further punish Halifax a goal was conceded while Jack serving his yellow card from a miscleared short corner meant Halifax went into half time 0-2.

Despite numerous discussions during the half time break, it appeared Halifax were putting in the worst performance of the season not being able to make clear cut chances at the start of the second half. It was noted and reported at half time that players had clearly been put in to the Rhyding team to boost their chances of a result. Umpires had also warned the Halifax captain at half time about players tackles.
Despite this, Halifax were putting up a good fight almost literally in some senses as the tackles started flying in and the petulance got worse. This was topped off by a hat trick goal by one of Rhyding’s “New” players. 0-3.

Halifax did manage a breakaway chance which inadvertently was turned into the Rhyding net by a defender, from Paul Crowther’s cross. Halifax now trailed 1-3 and could have further improved their chances when Roy Atkinson went through 1 on 1 with the keeper and couldn’t miss but managed to hit the keeper rather than bury the second goal. Halifax wasted the resulting corner and withstood further pressure.

Halifax seemed unable to get back into the game which was further marred by Captain Penny-Ward being shown a yellow card for what appeared to be a timely tackle. He reacted by throwing his stick on his way off and got into a disagreement with a spectator, all were losing their heads. The game continued and yet again Halifax lost a further player as Phil Green tried to tackle the hat trick player from Ben Rhyding and actually missed and hit the players stick resulting in another penalty corner.

The game ended and all Halifax players agreed this should be a lesson learned and we should enjoy our week off.

Despite Neil's admission it was his fault the general consensus was all players were off key and we showed a lack of discipline and ability when required.

Roll on our next game at Leeds in a fortnight, enjoy your week off lads.