BEN Rhydding Men put in a gritty and professional performance to win 3-2 at Newcastle University.

Although the low sun posed a challenge to the vision of Rhydding in the first half, they still were dominant for the first 15 minutes.

But Newcastle scored against the run of play, having had very little possession.

Even though Rhydding were missing two key defenders, defensively, every Rhydding player showed technical excellence.

Some key tactical changes saw Ben Rhydding shift into a new gear in the second half and it did not take long to equalise.

Charlie Smith made certain of Matty Bairstow’s shot to make it 1-1. Will Musgrave then set Smith, whose clinical finish gave Rhydding the lead.

The students replied with an equaliser to take it back level. Rhydding piled the pressure on and Will McHugh won a corner, which allowed Musgrave to score the winner with less than five minutes to go.

Rhydding play Bowdon at home at 3pm this Saturday.

Ben Rhydding Ladies and Leicester played a thrilling game that ended in a 3-3 draw.

Ben Rhydding went into the half-time break 2-0 up with penalty corner goals from Tanisha Janzen and Rachel Doherty.

Leicester hauled themselves back with penalty corner goals before Olive Hepi put Leicester in the lead with ten minutes to go with the only open play goal of the match.

Within two minutes Beth Cordukes (who tops the list of scorers in the league) scored the final goal from another corner.

Goalkeeper Charlotte Smith made a number of fine saves to help Ben Rhydding gain a point to keep them in fourth place in the table going into the winter break.

The Conference North season re-commences in February.