Slazengers 3’s latest game was a home fixture against local rivals Garforth. In recent seasons these matches have been tough encounters against evenly matched sides. However, Garforth only had eight players and were up against it before the match had even started.
To their credit however, for the first 20 minutes it was the home team who looked like they were playing with 8 players. Their passing was slow and predictable and they kept on making the wrong choices across the pitch. Instead of playing with some composure and making the opposition work hard for possession they gave the ball away time and again.
It was no surprise when Garforth took the lead after 15 minutes, poor defending by everyone allowed an innocuous ball into the goalmouth to be deflected past keeper Darren Buttery. At least this set back stirred the Horbury team into action and slowly the passing and movement began to return and it wasn’t long before Slazengers scored an equaliser through Ted Richardson. This was quickly followed by an easy tap in for Dan Levitt who was on hand to take advantage of James Walker’s original saved shot. Half time score was 2-1.
Second half Slazenger’s improved greatly and began to use the width of the pitch to stretch the play and put a tiring opposition under the cosh. The numerical advantage began to tell as Slazengers scored at regular intervals throughout the half. Ian Hedges scored a well taken brace, Simon Taylor scored for the second time in as many weeks from a tight angle during a penalty corner, Byron Dean slipped the ball under the advancing keeper for one of his two goals and it was good to see James Walker find the back of the net with a great strike right at the death after unselfishly setting up several of the other goals.
It was to Garforth’s credit that they never gave up, their heads never dropped and they even managed to score another well taken goal before the end of the match. Final score 8-2.
