Men's 1s title push takes a dent

It was a score line which possibly flattered the travelling side but nobody could take away how clinical the Leeds men were, on a day when they were restricted to few chances.

The 1st half was dominated by the home side from start to finish as they had more than the lion’s share of possession. This possession saw them break into the Leeds “D” on 21 occasions but nearly every attack turned out to be toothless and resulted in no end product, as they could only muster 3 blocked shots and won only 1 penalty corner. On the other hand Leeds were very clinical with their possession; in total they only had control of the ball in the WBTHC half for 2min 6secs but they broke into the home sides “D” on 5 occasions scoring an incredible 4 times.
Leeds opened their account with a nice low flick from a penalty corner and then proceeded to follow that up with 3 open play goals. Whitley Bay could only respond with 1 goal of their own, a deflected drag flick from Phil Ithurralde, as they went into the break 3 goals behind.

The 2nd half was a more timid affair as both teams limited each other to few chances but again Whitley Bay dominated the possession with little threat.
Chris Traynor gave Whitely Bay a glimmer of hope when he got the score back to 2-4 with a penalty flick but this was not enough to make up for the 4 conceded in the 1st half. In fact it was Leeds who closed the scoring for the day, as a drag flick from a penalty corner was adjudged to have crossed the line, as it ricocheted down of the crossbar.
Out of a total of 4min 20secs of Leeds possession in the WBTHC half Leeds taught the home side a vital lesson; all the possession in the world is no good if you can’t produce any end product.

Now 6 points adrift of the top spot, WBTHC will need to pick themselves back up and dust themselves off as they travel to 2nd place Formby in Liverpool next Saturday, for a must win match.