Ben Rhydding 3 Sheffield Hallam 2nds 2

SHEFFIELD arrived at Ben Rhydding with a very different looking side to their previous encounter when they were thoroughly trounced.

This promised to be a far more closely-contested match, which Rhydding were going to have to fight for.

Sheffield played half-court for the whole game which Rhydding initially ignored, patiently keeping the ball.

They created three or four good chances but lacked a ruthless touch in front of goal.

Sheffield’s goalkeeper played well and proved to be very hard to beat but Rhydding did not expect to find themselves 2-0 down after 20 minutes.

Sheffield went 2-0 ahead in the first twenty minutes. Poor defensive decisions and loose marking were to blame.

Rhydding decided to up their game with Ross McMillan proving influential in both attack and defence.

Neil Sugden was given plenty of room to step into midfield and was able to deliver a killer ball for Will Musgrave to put over the keeper’s head to start the comeback.

The game became quite ugly in the second half and Sheffield began losing players to the sin bin.

The numerical advantage helped Rhydding open up the packed circle and Musgrave found a passing lane to Matty Bairstow who slid in and equalised.

A combination of resilient goalkeeping from Sheffield and poor execution from Rhydding meant that string of corners went unconverted until Musgrave finally fizzed one in to seal the narrow victory for the league leaders.