M1's Make the Double

This Saturday saw Driffield Men’s 1st team welcome Harrogate 2nds in a reverse of the previous week’s fixture where Driffield came out 4-1 winners.

Now missing two key players in Mark Shepherd and Ed Cherry the lineup looked slightly different to previous weeks, with Oli Richardson and Marcus Chacksfield now leading the line upfront. Tom Voase was also welcomed back into the midfield after missing last week’s game.

The match started evenly with both teams enjoying spells of possession and chances on goal, but to no avail. That was until Will Foster made a tackle on the Harrogate 23m line and got the ball into Oli Richardson who then fed his strike partner Marcus and a well taken finish saw Driffield go 1-0 up. The home side would lose their flying winger George Martindale, who took a blow to the face and was forced to watch on from the sidelines, fingers crossed he’s back in action for next weekend.

Harrogate kept coming with well crafted attacks of their own and were awarded a penalty flick when Sam Falkingham stopped a goal bound shot with his foot. The flick was however wasted by the away team and pushed wide of the goal. Half time, 1-0 Driffield. The second half saw Driffield win more battles in the midfield and create plenty of chances, with Sam Falkingham coming close, only to be denied by the post from a penalty corner. Later chances were converted by Marcus, who pushed the ball over the line after a scrappy passage of play in the Harrogate D, shortly followed by a strong strike on goal from Oli to put the home side 3-0 up and in control until the full time whistle.

The win puts Driffield top of Yorkshire 1st Division and keeps Harrogate bottom. This Saturday sees an away trip to City of York 3s. Thankyou to umpires Adam Saltonstall and Ben Miller and to all those who came to support.