YORK Trojans got their act together against Ramgharia in division two of the Northern Premier Hockey League to run out 4-0 winners.
Ramgharia began strongly and dictated terms for the first ten minutes but Trojans rode it well and then began to match the visitors for initiative and power.
Eventually, Trojans' pressure paid off with a goal as a Phil Clark shot from close to goal was deflected in by Gawaine Hogg.
Geoff Pritchard, making his debut, added Trojans' second with a firm shot from just inside the area and from then on until half-time the York team had further chances to go ahead but found the Ramgharia 'keeper in excellent form.
After the break the game began to deteriorate as Ramgharia became frustrated and tempers flared.
With a player sent off, Ramgharia lost a lot of their cohesion and it became only a matter of time before Trojans added to the score.
The third came from a short corner when Hogg injected the ball to Mark Little who held it just long enough to draw the defence before slipping it back to Hogg who had no trouble scoring.
Trojans' fourth came from another short corner when Luke Griggs received and hammered the ball home.
Players of note in Trojans' ranks were Chris Nichols, who had yet another excellent game, James Flint and Jason Bemrose, but it was Hogg, marshalling the midfield and making the plays, who won the man of the match accolade.
Strugglers York put in a forceful performance for the second week running at Lytham St Annes in an attempt to make amends for the 5-0 home defeat suffered earlier in the season.
And after resisting long periods of pressure they came home happy with a 1-1 draw.
Despite some promising counter-attacks by York, Lytham took the lead in the first half.
York began the second period with more attacking play and Alex Gutteridge levelled within ten minutes.
Lytham continued to pressure York, who were forced to draw on all their reserves of energy, skill and determination to hang on.
York only broke out of defence occasionally and could not force the home side into a second error to hit a winner.
In division three of the Pritt Roller Yorkshire League, unbeaten leaders Acomb were given a shock when opponents Hull opened the scoring after 15 minutes following constant Tangerine pressure.
Acomb were then reduced to ten men, after a yellow card offence, but almost immediately broke down a Hull short corner, went the full length of the pitch and scored through Nick Linfoot.
When Acomb's full strength was restored, John Cooper finished off a fine passing move when he flicked the ball past the on-rushing Hull 'keeper to give Acomb a 2-1 half-time lead.
After the break the Tangerines took control of the game forcing the Hull custodian into several outstanding saves.
But when Hull were reduced to ten men Acomb hit them hard scoring three goals in five minutes, two of which were 25 seconds apart, to take the points 5-1.
Mark Gibbons scored one and Linfoot hit two to record his hat-trick and Hull never came back after such devastating finishing.
York Trojans II fell to a heavy defeat at Huddersfield II's picturesque ground.
Trojans made a shaky start with a re-arranged team and were two goals down within the first few minutes.
After 20 minutes, Trojans got into the game when a Sam Blackburn free-hit was deflected in by Pat Birch to make the score 2-1 but Huddersfield restored their two-goal advantage a minute late.
Trojans again pulled one back when Lee Page passed to Phil James who cracked in the York side's second.
Before half-time, however, the home side hit their fourth of the day when a loose ball was not cleared by the Trojans' defence.
After the interval Trojans were down to ten men for ten minutes, following a yellow card offence, but managed to soak up the home side's pressure.
Page should have scored when he created a glorious chance but Trojans' third came when Graham Guffick passed through a melee of defenders to unmarked captain Steve Prankett who made no mistake.
But almost before Trojans had time to congratulate themselves, Huddersfield went down the other end to make it 5-3 and then hit a sixth in the dying minutes.
York II hosted Wakefield at York University and the visitors went ahead early on through a well-rehearsed short-corner.
York responded with some confident and controlled play which led to Mark Cliff firing in an equaliser.
Wakefield regained the lead through a second short corner before York's Neil Reader levelled again.
Moments before the final whistle, with Wakefield faltering, York mounted a last assault in which Reader forced a defensive error and Robin Gordon scored from a narrow angle to clinch the points.
In division five, York Trojans III had a good tussle with Slazengers II in an end-to-end 0-0 game that was hard-fought by both sides.
Neither team was prepared to give an inch and all initiatives were cancelled out throughout the game with no one able to score.
Acomb II went down 2-1 at Sheffield Bankers in a very physical game which saw five players (three from Sheffield) spend time in the sin bin after yellow card misdemeanours. Acomb also saw Richard Wilks leave the game through injury.
The goals all came from short corners with Bankers netting first.
Acomb levelled through Mike Brown but when he saw yellow in the second half, Sheffield hit the winner.
Chris Fairburn was the other Acomb man to be sin-binned five minutes from time when he retaliated following an extremely rash challenge by a Banker.
In division six, Acomb III won 4-2 at home against Bradford III to maintain their push for promotion.
Bob Dickenson, Brian Roberton (2) and Mike Jones, making his return following a long absence through injury, were the scorers in a game that Acomb could have won by a much bigger margin.
York Trojans IV went down 2-1 to Rotherham V in division seven after controlling the first half when they should have scored more than once.
A fast break by Mark Lambert down the right was followed by a cross which found James Dixon coming in from the left and his shot gave the 'keeper no chance.
After the break, Rotherham reorganised themselves bringing their first XI coach into midfield where his influence and superior skill proved devastating as the home side pulled level then went ahead.
A hard-working York IV earned a point with a 1-1 draw at home with Adel.
Mike Howard, playing with a dislocated finger for much of the match, was outstanding in midfield while Mark Burn in goal pulled off several crucial saves. The York goal was scored by Tim Wilson from a short corner.
In a friendly fixture, Acomb IV won 1-0 against Huddersfield VI with Jones scoring the winner.
Special mention has to go to Acomb's 63-year-old veteran and keen runner Brian Latto.
On Saturday morning he ran a half-marathon, then played a full game for the fourth team and was then on the substitute's bench for the third team where was pitched into the action for 20 minutes of the second-half. A super-fit example for any youngsters coming into the sport.
Bob Dickenson was Acomb Veterans' goal hero on Sunday but his brace was not enough to prevent Acomb's exit from the Veterans Cup to Hull.
Acomb went behind early on but pulled level when Dickenson got on the end of Sam Gould through-ball.
And Dickenson gave his side hope when he latched on to a cross from speedy winger Dave Ward.
But Hull, whose tempers frayed when underdogs Acomb went into the lead, recomposed themselves to level from a short corner and then hit the winner from the penalty spot just before the final whistle.
York Trojans Under-12 Boys 'A' competed in the Yorkshire Cable 'A' competition and reached the semi-finals by beating Bradford 2-1 (scorer Simon Casterton), Chapeltown 3-1 (Casterton 2, Luke Ramli), Rotherham 4-0 (Casterton 2, Ramli 2), and Doncaster 1-0 (Ramli), In the semi-final the steam ran out and Trojans went down to Halifax 1-0.
In the Under-12 'B' competition, Trojans 'B' drew with Ben Rhydding Reds 0-0 and with Wakefield 'B' 0-0, beat Almondbury 1-0 (Thomas Sorby scoring on his debut), and lost to Ben Rhydding 2-0.
In the semi-final Trojans lost to Ben Rhydding Whites 2-0.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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