Bowden 7 Ben Rhydding Men 0

Ben Rhydding travelled to Bowden and were given a lesson in how to play hockey as a very impressive Bowden side showed what high tempo play combined with excellent first touch can achieve as they trounced the Ilkley side.

For the first ten minutes Rhydding played well and young Sam French had a good chance crashing the ball into the side netting but thereafter it was one-way traffic as Rhydding’s ambitious tactics, which they were unable to execute as planned, enabled Bowden to mount wave after wave of attacks which led to them converting four goals before half-time.

Young Joe Dowley was left cruelly exposed at left-half but never lost his cool and demonstrated he has the potential at this level. The two full-backs, Danny Foster and Man-of-the- Match Steve Mitchell put in some great tackles but they and centre-half Craig Smith found they had no outlets to relieve the pressure.

Tim Dryden was solid at right-half but found Bowden’s pace difficult to cope with and the midfield of Kieran Borrett, Neil Sugden, French and skipper Andrew Parkes were quite simply overrun.

Up front Cameron Borrett, clearly struggling with injury, David Cutter and Mark Wilson rarely got the ball though Wilson did have an excellent chance in the second-half to convert one of few Rhydding chances but the ball got caught up under his feet.

In goal Dave Carter did not look as sharp as usual but could not be blamed for the heavy defeat, indeed without him it could have been much worse.

Despite the fact that Bowden must be one of the best hockey playing sides in the league coach Demi Dowley and manager Mark French will have to reflect on their tactical approach so they can get back to winning ways with the next game against Hull.