Lancaster men’s thirds football team secured a deserved victory in the curtain raiser to a fantastic day of football. Tom Wood’s side, made up of college players outclassed a university side that had competed in BUCS all season. As Wood admitted afterwards, “It could have been four or five nil at half-time”.
The dynamic front play of Billy Tosh and Neil Brown and dominant aerial presence of Ross Sheppard from centre-half laid the platform for a comfortable win. In the opening stages, York attempted to use their forwards as target men but found no way through the impenetrable defence of Lancaster.
At the other end, Lancaster looked sharp up front and it seemed that a chance would fall their way.
For all their fine play, the Lancaster opener came from a horrible error from the York ‘keeper; as he rushed from goal only to present the ball on a plate to the industrious Mike Hall, who gratefully rolled the ball into an empty net. From this point on Lancaster asserted total control over the game and prevented York from building pressure by suffocating the midfield play.
Into the second half, and the inevitable soon occurred as Lancaster added to their tally. A textbook bicycle kick from Billy Tosh saw the ball fly into the corner of the goal with York players leaden footed in defence. The rampant Lancaster side then sewed the game up with a quick-fire third; superb wing play by Brown saw the ball put on a plate for Jamie Lovatt to slam home from six yards.
Lancaster then killed the game off and the only blot on an otherwise flawless display was a consolation strike from York in the closing stages. The final score was a comprehensive 3-1 win and this result gained Lancaster a point towards the overall Roses standings. Captain Tom Wood was understandably elated after the game and praised the standard of his college select side, “The quality which was shown was fantastic and it looked as if we had been playing together for 3 years, not 3 weeks.”
By Matthew Todd
