Chester Men 1 vs Leeds Uni 1

Chester Men 1 vs Leeds Uni 1

Chester 1 Leeds 3

Leeds travelled to Chester for the final game before the Christmas break having won all but one of their games so far this season. Chester were missing several players for the encounter with Andrew Murray suffering a recurrence of a shoulder injury and Duncan Langston being called up to train with the senior Welsh men's team. Adam Cliffe came in as a direct replacement for Duncan as grumpiest man in the team. It was Leeds who started brightly and they had the ball in the goal within the first two minutes of the game, however the goal was quickly disallowed due to the Leeds attacker striking the ball with the back of his stick. Chester had the next clear chance as James Nairn found Adam Cliffe unmarked in the dee who was unlucky to have his low reverse stick strike smartly saved by the Leeds goaltender. Leeds had the majority of possession in the opening exchanges and made this count with two deflected goals scored in quick succession around 20 minutes in to the game. Chester threatened again towards the end of the first half when a ball flashed past the back post without the finishing touch it required. Chester goalkeeper Joe Laws made several impressive saves from Leeds penalty corners following the restart and it took a scrappy short corner which was squeezed in at the far post by Leeds to breach Joe's goal and make it 3-0 to Leeds. The remainder of the game was dominated by Chester with the Leeds goalkeeper now excelling to maintain their clean sheet, saving well from a close range strike from the bearded Simon Jones. Adam Cliffe finally got the goal he deserved when an excellent reverse stick cross from Brett Dempster was touched in at the far post. The goal came too late for Chester to seriously threaten a comeback with the game finishing 3-1. The season resumes on the 7th of January when Chester face Alderley Edge in an away fixture.