Ben Rhydding 5 Wigan 2

Ben Rhydding were back at home last Saturday for arguably their most important match of the season. Coming off the back of a loss and a draw, Rhydding desperately needed to win to put their season back on track.

Rhydding began nervously and played the first ten minutes lacking in fluency and confidence. Sensing Rhydding's nervousness, Wigan capitalised on a number of Ben Rhydding's passing errors, nearly scoring the opening goal after a fine passing manouvre down the right hand side and through their attacking circle.

With their season on the line however, Ben Rhydding slowly began to fight back. Tiffany, King and Haslam were superb through the middle, and a 30 metre pass from centre midfield found Dan 'Oz' Kelly unmarked in the circle and he calmly finished on his reverse stick side to put Rhydding in front.

Moments later Rhydding should have been on the scoreboard again, but Haslam failed to capitalise on a golden opportunity directly in front, his shot skimming the post as it went wide of the net.

Rhydding's first short corner of the game resulted in the next goal. Passing the ball around the right side of the circle, Ricky Harmer slid a pass into Oz Kelly who deflected in his second for the game.

Rather than dominating the rest of the first-half, Rhydding allowed Wigan to get back in the game with a number of mis-directed passes, and just before half time Wigan scored to bring the scores back to 2-1.

The second-half however belonged to the home team. After just five minutes of play, left midfielder Haslam made up for his early blunder in front of goal to slot home a magnificent backstick strike from a tight angle. Minutes later Parkes capitalised on Wigan's failure to clear the ball from defence with a fantastic rising shot from the right side.

The pace of the game then slowed significantly as Rhydding began to throw the ball from side to side, not allowing Wigan to get back in the game.

A brief lapse in concentration however gave Wigan a penalty corner, and Rhydding's 'keeper Phil Weaver failed to keep out a mis-hit flick from the Wigan centre-forward.

Ben Rhydding managed one late goal to their captain Brad King, and ended up taking three valuable points.

Rhydding travel to York next week in the last game before the Christmas break. A win will leave them in an excellent position to move up the table in the new year. A loss could have devastating consequences to their championship dreams.