Ben Rhydding Ladies 3 Loughborough Students 1

AFTER a lengthy winter break that brought Ben Rhydding some good results in their indoor competition, Ben Rhydding welcomed Loughborough Students and their former coach James Ross to Countances Way for their return to Investec Conference North action.

A blistering start for the home side put a huge amount of pressure on the Loughborough defence, and an aggressive press proved extremely effective.

Ben Rhydding opened the scoring after just three minutes through Jo Ellis, a regular on the score sheet. A ball fired in from Sarah Bell found Ellis in the circle and she expertly flicked the ball past the goalkeeper.

A Ben Rhydding side that sometimes takes ten minutes to come alive were a force to be reckoned with, in the opening half of the fast-paced match.

Deciding not to relent on the pressure, Ben Rhydding doubled their lead after only one more minute. Jess Purvis demonstrated her effortless skills coming into the D, and passed to Jen Wilson on the penalty spot.

Wilson took the ball with her back to goal, transferred it from her left foot to her right and hit at her target on her reverse, sending the ball into the side netting.

Just before half time, Sarah Whitehead gave the Ben Rhydding crowd something else to cheer about, after receiving a rebounded shot at a penalty corner and slotting it coolly past the Loughborough keeper.

The Loughborough students found it hard to cope with Ben Rhydding on all areas of the pitch, and were denied all likely chances of scoring by Charlotte Smith in goal, helped by a solid defence of Tanisha Janzen, Rachelle LeBourdon and Rosie Atkinson, who all found themselves successfully battling the ball away from goal on more than one occasion.

Kate Hesketh and Sarah Bell, perhaps let their adrenaline get the better of them, both ending up in the sin bin, with yellow and green cards respectively.

A consolation goal was merely a matter of too little too late, with Madeleine Newlyn firing home for the student visitors on the strike of full time.

Ben Rhydding move to fourth in the table ahead of their double header this coming weekend. They travel away to Durham on Saturday before they face National Premier side Buckingham Ladies on Valentine’s Day in the National Cup.