City of Manchester 3 Ben Rhydding 4

BEN Rhydding travelled across the Pennines to play City of Manchester for the third time and they maintained their perfect record against their Lancashire rivals this season.

Rhydding had full possession of the ball for the first part of the game with Manchester not even getting a touch.

They went 1-0 ahead courtesy of a Will Musgrave corner. Another corner saw Ross McMillan covert beautifully to make it 2-0 within four minutes and Rhydding must have thought it would be a drubbing.

Manchester defended with 11 men in the circle and this meant that Rhydding were awarded a great number of corners. This served to disrupt the momentum of the game and destroyed their ability to play with intensity.

Inevitably number three came from a corner. Matty Ramshaw smashed the ball home.

Nobody could have predicted the way the second half went. Rhydding rested on their laurels and conceded three penalty corners which they then defended very weakly as Manchester pull back to level at 3-3.

The volume and the aggression of the game seared onto a different plain now and Rhydding flicked the switch back to fast hockey.

Manchester’s keeper was forced to execute some stunning saves and Rhydding seemed unable to beat him.

At last, Ramshaw connecting with Connor Dowley, drew a last-ditch corner and Musgrave put it away to seal an ugly victory from a disappointing performance.

This puts Rhydding nine points clear at the top, having now scored 60 goals but some serious lessons will have to be taken on board ahead of Saturday's home clash with second-placed Didsbury.