Hockey: Sheard leaves it late to fire Leeds to narrow win

Looking to begin the new year in a positive manner, the men’s sevenths hosted local rivals Ben Rhydding at Sports Park Weetwood. The earlier meeting of the season ended in a narrow 3-2 loss for the blues, and all players involved knew this match would not be any different.

Leeds struggled in the initial period, with the defence being called into action on multiple occasions, before a change in formation allowed them to start winning the midfield battle and slowly assert their control on the game. Some strong tackles from the back gave the midfield combination of Howell, Buckle and Sheard freedom to play the ball around, and make use of the space that they were finding as Ben Rhydding were pushed back.

It was deep into the first half when Leeds finally got a reward for their hard work, as the ball was brought up over the halfway line by Matt Smith, exchanging some swift passing with Chris Eveleigh and catching the Rhydding defence napping. Smith kept his run going and released a pass across the area to Buckle, who evaded his marker and slotted home a reverse stick shot.

The lead was not to last however, as Ben Rhydding upped their game and just before the half ended fought back to equal terms.

The result was on a knife edge throughout the second half, as both sides fought hard to gain that elusive second goal, and it looked like the points would be shared as Kallum Greenwood was denied a perfect goal after a pass from Nathan Foxall found him unmarked in the area.

Greenwood hammered the ball into the bottom corner, but it was disallowed as the ball hit a defender’s foot before breaking through to him. Leeds had to wait until four minutes from time to snatch the win, after a series of short corners allowed players to push forward.

A short corner was stopped at the top of the area by Towers, before he slipped the ball left to Sheard who forced the ball past a despairing keeper.

After the game, captain Towers said of the result: “We worked hard for the win and deserved the three points.”

As the men were celebrating their home win, the ladies’ third team were doing the same away at Northallerton.

Controlling possession from the start, and never letting the hosts get into it, Leeds were two goals up at half-time with both of these coming from Pips Tomkinson – the best following some lovely two-touch hockey down the left being finished with a strike from the top of the ‘D’.

The third goal was a deflection at the post by Lynn Harkins, after sustained pressure by the visitors forced a short corner in the second half.

This victory meant Leeds were able to open a small gap between them and the third place team in the league, also keeping pressure on the leaders with half the season left to play.

Leeds Hockey Club, full results: Leeds Men’s 6ths 2 Doncaster 2, Men’s 7ths 2 Ben Rhydding 1, Men’s 8ths 1 Lindum 0, Leeds Ladies 3rds 3 Northallerton 0, Ladies 4ths 2 City of York 0, Ladies 5ths 3 Ben Rydding 1, Ladies 6ths 6 Ben Rydding 0.