Slazenger men’s 2nd team managed to keep their unbeaten record at home this season with a 4-3 win over University of Leeds 6’s. The match was a close one with some great play created by both teams but was overshadowed by disapline issues, with the match having two yellow cards and a red card. Slaz started off the better team and scored two early goals. The first was a great team goal which was started by Ben Graham who ran the ball through to the top of the ‘D’ and passed to man of the match Isaac Fisher who crossed it to Byron Dean who struck the ball home. Slaz’s second came from a saved shot from Ben Graham and Simon Randall pulled the ball back and flicked it over the keeper. With slaz leading comfortably the game saw 2 yellow cards being shown at once.
Slaz captain Robin Whawell was fouled twice in a row but lashed out at the second foul just before the umpire awarded Slazenger the free hit. This earned him a deserved yellow card, but a Leeds player was also shown a yellow card for continues arguing with the umpire. With tempers running high the match was full of reckless challenges and turned from an enjoyable close contest to unfriendly and rough. The visitors managed to pull a goal back just before half time. At half time the slaz captain went over to the Leeds team to apologise a third time for his actions in an effort to try to calm the match down.
The second half started as the first had started with slaz creating most of the chances and were rewarded with a third goal. Ben Graham ran down the right wing and cut in and passed the ball to Isaac Fisher who had a shot but was saved by the keeper but Simon Randall was there to score his second off the rebound. Although slaz had a strong lead it didn’t stay that way for long and Leeds soon pulled one back to make it 3-2. Although the game had calmed down compared to the first half tempers were still running high and both teams were making reckless challenges. Leeds then had a player shown a red card for a dangerous and aggressive challenge.
Robin Whawell had the ball and was about to be challenged by one Leeds player when another player charged at him from the other side with his elbow high and collided with the slaz captain. The player was shown a straight red and was told to leave the pitch, Leeds were not impressed by their own players behaviour and the Leeds Uni captain was quick to run off the subs bench to discipline his player and to apologise to Robin who luckily only had grazes and a sore head from the challenge.
With ten minutes to go and Leeds down to ten men Slaz scored their forth goal which was again started by Ben Graham who ran the ball through midfield and passed out to Simon Taylor who dribbled the ball down the right wing to the back line and passed the ball back to the penalty spot to Anwar Al-Khaili to strike the ball passed the keeper. This should’ve sealed the match but Leeds scored their third goal soon after and with five minutes to go they were pressing for an equaliser but slaz’s defense managed to keep Leeds out. Although slaz grabbed all three points the win was tarnished by both sides aggression and lack of discipline. Next week slaz play Hull University at home.
