Loughborough Students 5 Ben Rhydding 0

Ben Rhydding suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of a strong Loughborough side on Saturday. The Ilkley side started the game well creating more attacks than their opponents.

The front three of Rachel Doherty, Kate Hesketh and Abbie Brant pressed Loughborough into making a number of defensive errors early on.

Rhydding were unlucky to see a penalty corner go just wide and a strike in the D go over the bar, in the opening ten minutes.

The midfield of Jen Wilson and Jess Purviss continued this hard work resulting in lots of turnover possession for Rhydding.

Although the visitors had more possession and more shots on goal it was the home side that opened the scoring from a well-struck penalty corner and managed to keep their narrow lead until half-time.

Loughborough came out a much more organised side in the second half.

They pushed their centre back further forward which meant the Rhydding press was not as effective.

That combined with tired legs from all the hard work in the first half, gave the home side a big advantage.

They moved the ball around well and made things very difficult for Rhydding’s defence.

Despite some solid defending by Rachelle le Bourdon, Sophie Atkinson and Rebecca Fox, Loughborough found the net with two quick goals to extend their lead to 3-0.

Jo Carpay in goal performed well but just couldn’t get her foot onto Loughborough’s fourth goal from a precise penalty corner strike.

For the last ten minutes Rhydding didn’t give up and found some space up front.

They were awarded a penalty corner which was cleared off the sideline.

In the final seconds Loughborough added a fifth with a penalty flick after the ball hit a Rhydding defender’s foot on the goal line.

Fortunately the loss didn’t change the ilkley side’s league position as the other teams below them also lost.