Rotherham 1 V Ben Rhydding 2

Off the back of a huge 4-0 win to start the season Rotherham Men's 1s faced their first away game of the season. Some availability issues lead to a reduced team travelling up to Ben Rhydding. It was a wet and windy day and a delay in the previous match left both team with only a short warm up.

The first half started very cagey with both teams trying to feel out the opposition. A break down in discipline lead to Rotherham being reduced to 10 men for a short period after knocking the ball away following a foul being given against them. A tough press from the home during this period left Rotherham struggling to get the ball out of their own half, leading to the home team breaking the deadlock a scrappy goal from a hard ball across goal, which took a deflection off of a Rotherham stick sending the ball flying into the near top of the goal from close range. This very unlucky goal then set a poor mood with the Rotherham team for the remainder of the 1st half which saw them concede a second goal just before the half from an excellent breakaway down their right hand side before a defence splitting through ball found a forward in space in the circle, with him putting the ball past the advancing keeper giving the home team a 2-0 lead at the break.

After a firm team talk at the break Rotherham started with intent to change the score line. The travelling team put the home side under a lot of pressure, winning the ball higher up the pitch and starting to battle their way back into the game. This commitment to get themselves back into the game and putting pressing the Ben Rhydding goal led to a breakaway opportunity for the the home team with a long though ball once again finding a forward with space in the circle who took the ball round the goalkeeper to make it 3-0. Consequently this fired up the Rotherham boys who then produced the best 15 minutes of Rotherham’s hockey for the season so far with great passages of play using quick short sharp passes to produce a handful of goal scoring opportunities which could have led to a comeback. Rotherham were unfortunately not able to find the back of the net before the end of the game, with the final score being 3-0 to Ben Rhydding.

The Rotherham Men's 1s have to opportunity to bounce back with a local derby game against Sheffield Bankers on Tuesday night.