The college crowds were out in force early on Saturday afternoon to see the winners of Lancaster and York’s respective College A League winners take each other on. The writing was on the wall early on in the game for York’s Halifax, as Lancaster’s Lonsdale scored twice in quick succession in the opening minutes of the game. This prompted a spirited reaction from both crowds; expletive laden shouts of embarrassment at the visitors, and predictions of a 12-0 win from the home team.
Those decrees of embarrassment seemed to work for the visitors; whilst they were unable to make any attempts on goal in the first half, their keeper put in an admirable performance for the rest of the half, making a selection of stellar saves to keep the score at 2-0 going in to the second half.
Halifax got off to a decent start in the second half – the Lonsdale keeper even had to make a couple of saves! Unfortunately for the visitors though, none of these shots were converted, and fortunes soured as Lonsdale continued to threaten down the rights wing, putting the game to bed when they scored their third and fourth goals in quick succession. Halifax attempted to make a comeback, however the limited decent chances they had were denied by the Lonsdale keeper. The home team continued to mount pressure, ultimately ending the match with seven goals without reply, generally being a much sharper and better organised team.
Despite the free scoring second half for Lonsdale, Halifax’s goalkeeper undoubtedly deserves some credit for a string of great saves. Without his heroics the crowd’s predictions of at twelve goal thrashing could have become a reality. Lonsdale’s man of the match was harder to pick out, although it was definitely one of the two players in a number 11 shirt!
