M6's vs Leeds 7s

Leaving behind a cold and frosty morning in the heart of Yorkshire for an early yet sunny start at Weetwood, COYHC Mens 6’s up for a return to form and set to leave the woes of an unsuccessful but not disappointing journey to Hull the previous week.

Pitchside started with a small crew wondering where everyone was, this meant some late fines were on the way, with Joe Moisley on the end of an undeserved accusation from the fines master due to having spotted his doppelganger minutes earlier taking a different route than the one to Weetwood. An early DOD contender on the horizon, late as usual, Ernie is spotted dragging his feet over to the dugout, as he’s decided to come in a completely different choice of kit to that of the entire team, oh dear. Despite all this, York were in good spirits and with a quick debrief of what worked well last week and what didn’t we set about it.

Firstly, Bedders helped with the mental game by placing the warmup right in the practice area of two lonely Leeds boys trying to avoid the early morning sun in their eyes during warm-up; York had won the mind games before the whistle.

Unfortunately, Leeds won the toss and elected to play away from the sun, giving City the pushback. Instant possession, an upbeat City found themselves planted in Leeds’ half and were regularly finding themselves in and around the D, still an early goal was yet to be seen and with all the excitement City found themselves leaving a large gap between their back three and the cluster of mids and forwards (maybe a little to close together), a scare was needed. Leeds found some turnovers and pressure was put on the visitor's defensive structure. Luckily, Matt Marshall had returned this week and was there to shore up the defence, meaning Matt, Kieran and James held them off long enough for City mids to get back, with some great mopping up from Doyle in goal when required.

These scares woke the York boys up and were able to hammer the home defence causing a Leeds player to stop the ball on the line with his foot, ‘Allo you’re up’. A swift flick with the sound of the backboard and York were 1-0 up. Much of the same for the next minutes pelting the Leeds D, young Murphy on a roll strung together some passes with Bedders, Bedders who found himself alone at the top, duffed the ball, confusing the Leeds keeper (expecting a hard hit) leading him to fumble. A slow ball on its way to goal, Bedders’ eyes lighting up, but wait what’s this? Ben ‘long legs’ Crossley sneaks in to help the ball on its way, 2-0.

Half time, not much to ponder over, all was positive sat in the goal, other than to say about closing the gap between defence and midfield and we’ve got this.

Second half and both teams found themselves with a barrage of attacks, Leeds obviously had a word with themselves! York found themselves with some short corners to defend. 4 within 15 minutes, with Bedders coming back to cover left post, Matt running 1, James running 2 and Kieran right post and Doyle on good form ready to palm off any shots, Leeds were repelled swiftly.
City’s turn for the short corners: 6 in quick succession. Balls injected swiftly, Leeds were struggling to get to the top quick enough, but sadly York couldn’t find the gap. Finally, Sam shoots within another short corner sequence, he finds the first foot, but with advantage played Bedders tries again and finds a foot on the line, penalty flick! This is it, time for Bedders to shine. He brushes Allo off “I’m taking it”, backing off is a decision Allo would regret, top bins was the plan, it looked good, but sadly an inch outside, failure!

This was sadly how the half would be remembered, as not much would happen thereafter. A couple of screams from the centre mids for the forwards to “post up, back post, post post post!” twice the ball goes to the backboard with 2 metres between the post and stationary forwards not willing to scuff their knees with a dive, names withheld.

The visitors win 2-0, glory in the glorious sunshine. The 6’s are back! Everyone excelled this day showing what they can really do, congratulations to Murphy for an outstanding performance and a huge points tally for man of the match.

Reprieval for Ernie’s tardiness and failing to bring the correct kit as Matthew Bedford, despite having the boldness to put himself forward, still missed and as such was rewarded with dick of the day.