Broadhurst's reign as football 3rds captain ends with a crushing defeat

Roses was not as successful as hoped for the football club

The game, which both teams had been building up to all season, started with a bang when from kick-off a sprayed ball out wide dissected the York defence and a cut back across the box was blazed over by the Lancaster striker. Williams was forced off two minutes later when a high through ball was almost converted. The opposition keeper came to clear the ball but resulted in smashing the striker's jaw and sending the player to hospital, with the referee only rewarding a goal kick.

However, the brighter start from Lancaster was capitalised on almost five minutes later when a pinged ‘Hollywood ball’ was missed by the two York centre-backs, and the ever-vocal Henderson brought the striker down. The penalty was converted with a smart finish into the bottom left corner.

York tried to assert themselves upon the game but the class of the opposition was beginning to shine through, along with the vocal support of the Lancaster crowd and abuse of several York players. Lancaster football have a different selection policy for university football in that university footballers are not able to play for their college but the university 3rd team is a 'who's who' of college football. This had proven successful with results including a victory against their 2nd XI and a draw against their 1st XI in warm-up matches and the quality of their team ultimately showed despite York’s best efforts.

There were occasional glimpses of technical class displayed by Brennan and Omarov which threatened to get York back into the game but with five minutes of the first half remaining, a Lancaster striker worked some space on the edge of the box to squirm the ball into the net. Calls of offside were rebuffed after the referee explained that the four other Lancaster players in offside positions were not interfering with play.

The always inspirational, goatish Broadhurst tried to rally the troops, but chances created were few and far between. A drab second half was brightened when a deep free-kick from York caused confusion amongst the Lancaster defence, with the Lancaster centre back nodding over to clear.

The third Lancaster goal came about when York were pushing men forward in search of an equaliser. A bouncing ball was struck by the Lancaster forward over Henderson's head from 30 yards and resulted in heads dropping from the York players and thus, the end of the game. A successful season for the thirds marshalled by Will 'monkeyboy' Broadhurst, was only slightly tarnished by this result but the players will all know that this result is ultimately what their whole season was building up to.

Their season finishes on a low but the recent news that next year they will be led by the inspirational James Loftus will surely have put a bit of spring back in the 3rds players' step.

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