Ben Rhydding 5 Brooklands 2nd 3

This was a huge three points for Rhydding at a crucial juncture of the league season.

An extremely young side included Andrew Lorimer who made an excellent debut.

It took them less than two minutes to score the opening goal, with Will Musgrave offering immaculate prov-ision in the final third and Ali Jordan, impressively arriving from defence at the back post to convert.

Seconds later, both Jordan and Musgrave were instru-mental in goal number two, which was converted by the prolific Callum Franks.

Harry Sherlock nearly made it three with a delightful skyward deflection from another Musgrave delivery.

Rhydding showed compo-sure in building the ball from the back, through Neil Sugden who was given the ball in congestion with complete faith that he would pop the ball out creatively.

Kieran Borrett was absolutely devastating and won so much ball by closing down quickly and ruthlessly.

Andy Clemerson was a class act, as ever and Connor Dowley combined well with him to shore up the key areas of the pitch.

Rhydding defended well in a brief period of pressure before taking the game back to Brook-lands.

The slippery Elliot Dowley broke through, drew the keeper and slipped a generous ball under his arm to repay Musgrave for his many gifts into the circle and it was slotted effortlessly to put the visitors three ahead.

It was Musgrave who made it 4-0 when a corner went wrong and a superb recovery recycled the ball and found him ready to score.

Rhydding were under pressure going into the half and an inventive corner was well executed by Brooklands to get them back in the battle.

Rhydding replied almost immediately.

Musgrave’s eagle eyes spotting the perfect oppor-tunity to put the ball in for Harry Sherlock whose timing on arrival for the most gratifying slide deflection was absolutely flawless.

Going into the break at 5-1 was a nice position to be in.

The game became grid-locked in the second half and after 20 minutes each side had only managed one circle entry each as the war raged on in midfield.

Rhydding began to break through but were denied on several occasions and youngster, Ross McMillan showed great craft in finding good passing lanes in dangerous areas.

Brooklands scored two late goals.

One came from a corner and one from a bizarre incident when Musgrave was smashed in the face with a body-check but play was allowed to continue.

This was disappointing, as the margin did not reflect the match.