2:19pm Wednesday 17th March 2010
By Sports Desk
Ben Rhydding sealed their dreams of promotion to the National League with a superb 7-0 home victory over Oxton.
The performance left men’s first-team coach Demi Dowley and manager Mark French struggling to contain their emotions at how far the team have come in two years.
Oxton had been in contention for promotion themselves until recently but were blown away as Rhydding scored all their goals inside the opening 46 minutes.
Dave Carter saved well from an early short corner to set the tone before Alex White, often an unsung hero, latched on to a cross to open the scoring.
The floodgates then opened as Sam French boosted his season’s goal tally to 24, with veteran forward David Cutter first setting up Mark Wilson and then converting himself to make it 4-0 at the interval.
With David McNally running riot in midfield, supported by the hard-running Jon Clough and mercurial Matt Bell, Rhydding added three more goals in the first 11 minutes of the second half.
A brilliant passing move ended with Andrew Parkes deftly lifting the ball over the advancing Oxton keeper and further strikes followed from Bell, who was unselfishly set up by Luke Lambert, and finally Danny Foster.
Rhydding have one match still to play at Manchester on Saturday and will be hoping Bowden slip up on a tricky trip to Durham University which would see the Ilkley club not just promoted but as champions as well.
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