Rufforth United Reserves vs Huby United Reserves- Match Report

A great Rufforth United Reserves attacking display saw them make amends for their opening game loss, defeating Huby United Reserves by a scoreline of 4-2.

Rufforth started excellently, a long clearance found Chris Murcutt, who was able to control the ball and streak towards the Huby goal, before calmly slotting the ball home into the bottom left corner of the goal to put Rufforth in front within 5 minutes.

This great start from the home side was almost added to a few minutes later, when Tom Bateson found himself within sight of goal but the Huby 'keeper reacted well to save his low shot.

Left back Tom Bays then had a goal ruled out for handball, as instead of using his head to direct a James Everard cross into goal, he used his hands.

Bateson redeemed himself for his earlier miss minutes later, reaching the end of a lovely lobbed through ball from midfield before slowing the pass down and firing into the top left corner of the goal, to double Rufforth's advantage.

Rufforth continued to pile on the pressure, with Steve Ridley connecting with a couple of corners, but unfortunately he was unable to direct his headers towards goal.

Another goal should have been credited to Rufforth when a Huby defender sliced a clearance towards his own goal, which struck the underside of the crossbar, before bouncing over the line and coming back out again. Unluckily for Rufforth however, the referee couldn't see if it went over and so gave Huby the benefit of the doubt and let play carry on.

The home side's lead was again extended when a great ball from winger Nick Hewson allowed Bateson to chip the Huby goalkeeper for his second goal of the game, and Rufforth's third.

And so Rufforth went into the half time break three goals to the good, but of course wary of a potential come back. The chances of this happening were lowered, however, when shortly after the break they scored again.

A beautiful lobbed from Mercutt found Bateson in acres of space on the left hand side of the box, and all he had to do was kick the ball in, as Mercutt's pass had drawn the goalkeeper completely out of position, allowing for an incredibly easy finish to complete his hat-trick.

This wasn't the game though, as Rufforth began to back off, relaxing, and allowed Huby more time and space on the ball. This new found space paid dividends for Huby, as they scored two goals in quick succession to halve Rufforth's lead.

It was only good defending from Ridley, Bays, Liam Morrison, and Simon Teale, as well as substitutes Chris Lodge and Lee Jefferson that prevented Huby from edging even closer to Rufforth's lead. Rufforth still created chances though, substitute Gaz Stephenson almost reached a great cross from Jefferson that ended up being deflected behind for a corner.

As time went on it only became clearer that Rufforth would hold on for the win, Huby's attacks were being repelled with relative ease by goalkeeper Jeff Osbourne and his defence, and midfield play was comfortable enough to ensure no surprise counter-attacks were launched against Rufforth.

And with the win Rufforth earned their first win and points of the season, as well as scoring their first league goals of the season. Man Of The Match went to Bateson, for his hat-trick.