Sunday 12th February 2012 (Leeds Combination AFL Division One):

  Swillington Welfare v Horsforth Fairweather postponed.

  Other league games: Beeston St Anthonys v Crooked Billet; Morley Celtic v Morley Cricket & Sports; Old Tree v JB Celtic; Pudsey Liberal Club v South Leeds United; West Leeds Whites v Young Guns - all postponed.

Sunday 5th February 2012 (Leeds Combination AFL Division One):

  Old Tree v Horsforth Fairweather postponed.

  Other league games: Beeston St Anthonys v Pudsey Liberal Club; Morley Cricket & Sports v Crooked Billet; South Leeds United v West Leeds Whites; Swillington Welfare v JB Celtic - all postponed.

Sunday 29th January 2012 (Leeds Combination AFL Division One):

Horsforth Fairweather 1

Beeston St Anthonys 4

Team: Postle, T.Low, Herron, Horton, Sedgwick, P.Smith, Aifa, Harvey, A.Smith, Robinson, Gough. Subs: Vernon, Newsome, Jones; unused subs: Monaghan, Rayner. Scorer: A.Smith. Cautioned: Low, Robinson.

  Reverting to the usual 3-5-2 formation, and almost spoilt for choice now for defensive talent, Horsforth were able to recall Tom Low and Steve Sedgwick into the back three alongside Phil Smith. Andy Gough was moved out to right-wing-back with Dean Herron continuing down the left. Noureddine Aifa, Jake Harvey and Richard Horton made up the midfield, Richard retaining the armband despite Sedge's presence, and Scott Robinson was also recalled to partner Anthony Smith up front.

  The first half was a well-balanced affair between two well-matched sides. Horsforth lived a bit dangerously at the back at times, and were grateful for Jonathan Postle's safe hands on a few occasions, but struck the opening goal around the 25 minute mark, when Scott's corner was half-cleared and the lurking Anthony fired in a superb volley from distance. We were clearly not going to have things all our own way though: Tom was suffering from a chest infection, and struggled from the start. His sequence of mistimed tackles, while they drew words of admiration from the watching Tim Vickerman (and I don't mean that a compliment!) also had not escaped the referee's attention. A caution for the latest one was inevitable, as was his substitution, with Jon Vernon, immensely unlucky not to start, a more than adequate replacement. Scott followed him into the notebook quite quickly, and the first half ended with Horsforth, deserving praise for a spirited opening to the game, well aware of the task we faced in the second period.

  It didn't take long for things to go wrong. We'd been conceding free kicks in dangerous positions all game, and after 15 minutes of the second half Beeston chipped one into Pos's top corner. Ten minutes later, another one from out on our left was swept round the wall and in at the far post. Still well in the game, Horsforth brought John Newsome into a three-man attack, and gambled on the veteran striker snatching yet another late equaliser, but it was not to be. We had our chances, no denying that, but we never dominated the game in the midfield areas, and the Beeston lads always looked capable of creating chances, especially as our defending became stretched. Finally, desperately chasing the game in injury time, we conceded twice more as the away side exploited our lack of numbers at the back, and so, whatever we say about the overall balance of play, the result went down in the record books as 4-1.

  Regular readers, I hope you know me well enough to acknowledge that when we're bad I tell you we were bad. I've witnessed many poor performances by HFFC over the years, sad to say quite a few of them this season. In my opinion, this was not one of them. Over the 90 minutes, I would admit that Beeston were the better side, but I felt the margin of their victory flattered them more than a bit. We have ended up chasing a result in each of our last three games, and on two out of the three occasions, thanks mainly to John Newsome, we have got the reward our enterprise deserved. If today the gamble failed, I guess that is the law of averages coming into play, but I must say the performance of our own players was, on the whole, pretty good, we lost to a good team who rode their luck when they needed it and took the chances when they could, and if they deserve respect for that we deserve some too for contributing to what was overall a very good game of football. Don't misunderstand me, we made plenty of mistakes, we have plenty of areas of our game to work on, and you all know Woody and I will never be happy when the team loses, but I must say I didn't think today's performance was anything like as bad as the result suggests.

  Other league games: JB Celtic 1, Young Guns 1; Morley Celtic 6, Old Tree 5; Pudsey Liberal Club 6, Crooked Billet 0; Swillington Welfare 3, Morley Cricket & Sports 4.

  Sanford Cup: West Leeds Whites 7, South Leeds United 3.

Sunday 22nd January 2012 (Leeds Combination AFL Division One):

Horsforth Fairweather 4

FC Crooked Billet 4

Team: Postle, Vernon, Herron, Horton, Gough, P.Smith, Aifa, Harvey, A.Smith, Newsome, Wriglesworth. Subs: Robinson, Monaghan, Rayner. Scorers: Aifa, Horton, Own Goal, Newsome.

  I try to avoid recycling cliches for these match reports, but if ever the old chestnut about a game of two halves was appropriate to a game, it was to this one. Horsforth reverted to a variation of 4-4-2, not so much out of choice as through it being judged the best formation to accommodate the available players. Jon Vernon was back in the side at right-back, Dean Herron switching to the left and Phil Smith starting alongside Andy Gough in the centre. Nounou played down the right hand side of midfield, Tom Wriglesworth the left, with Richard Horton and Jake Harvey central. John Newsome got the nod up front, Anthony Smith playing alongside him, though the latter also spent much of the game out wide.

  Given the six-week gap since last we'd kicked a football, some rustiness was perhaps inevitable, and it would be easy to pull our first half display to pieces. Though Horsforth had far more of the play in midfield, we failed to convert more than a fraction of our possession into clear-cut chances, and the defence looked ill at ease against a very straightforward counter-attacking plan from the away side. We went behind on 18 minutes, when the Billet tore up our back line for the first time, and goalie Jonathan Postle was forced into bringing down a striker who was through on goal, and the penalty duly converted. Our overall dominance notwithstanding, we contrived to concede twice more in the last couple of minutes before the break, punished for over-reliance on a fragile offside game and a general lack of covering defenders. Having changed formation a few times over the course of the season, it could perhaps stand repetition that 4-4-2 does not necessarily mean playing without a spare defender, in fact it should really make it easier for defenders to cover each others' mistakes, but whatever the reasons the system had gone badly awry for a few minutes and we were left with the proverbial mountain to climb, 3-0 down at the break.

  And, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, the mountain got even higher a couple of minutes into the second half, when quite the worst error of Pos's career thus far presented the away side with a four-goal lead they could surely only have dreamt about. But at this point, Horsforth began to dig a bit deeper, and crucially the comeback started early. Very quickly, the hardworking but disciplined Noureddine, our best attacking option for much of the game, steered the ball into the net for 4-1, then Richard took a superb free-kick that seemed to sprout wings and fly into the back of the net - and there were still 35 minutes left to play. The Billet lads, sensing the tide had turned against them, battened down the hatches for a long rearguard action, and for a while their doggedness looked like paying off. Horsforth, our defence now superbly dealing with everything that was thrown at them, were winning the ball easily all over the field, the midfield was gaining ever tighter a stranglehold on the play, but the score remained 4-2. Midway through the half, the referee sent off the Billet no 7 for tangling with Phil: he'd had a few warnings (though not the yellow card), but an earlier foul had put Jake out of the game so I honestly feel there could be no complaints about the decision. Horsforth, gambling now, replaced Jake with a third striker in Scott Robinson, and finally brought Marc Rayner and Lee Monaghan into the game. With Dean Herron asked to defend against the Billet's breaks more or less single-handed at times, we needed a couple of moments from Pos to keep us in contention as the clock wound down, but the screw was turning now, and the away side's goal was under siege. The ball across the 6-yard area was turned in by a defender for our third goal on 42 minutes, and the scene was set for the game's major talking-point which arrived two minutes into injury time. We'd had one good shout for a penalty turned down when Jon V was sandwiched between defenders neither of whom got much if anything on the ball, and in the next collision in the box it was almost impossible to pick out who had fouled whom. The referee gave nothing, the ball broke to Richard out on the left wing, and his accurate cross was headed home from point blank range by John, with the away side shouting for a foul and some on our own touchline still asking for the penalty. A controversial moment, and a sickener for the Billet lads I'm sure, but I felt the draw was, to say the least, no more than we deserved, and, if the manner of our last-gasp equaliser was a bit unorthodox, there could be no doubt about the goal itself.

  Well, I can't imagine anyone from outside the club will look at this result and be impressed. But the way we achieved it said so much about the spirit of our team that I'd like to think overall this day should go down as one of our better ones. Mistakes were made, no question, there is still much work to be done and many lessons to be learnt, and this game could so easily have ended up lost with no one but ourselves to blame. Yet, in a strange echo of the previous game at South Leeds six weeks ago, our team's spirit and attitude salvaged a point right at the death, and if we're doing that we must be doing something right.

  Other league games: JB Celtic 5, Morley Celtic 3; South Leeds United 1, Morley Cricket & Sports 8; Young Guns 9, Beeston St Anthonys 5.

  Sanford Cup Round 3: Belle Isle WMC 1, Swillington Welfare 0; HT Sports 2, Pudsey Liberal Club 0; Main Line Social 1, Leeds Lions Seniors 4.

Sunday 15th January 2012 (Leeds Combination AFL Division One):

  Horsforth Fairweather v Morley Cricket & Sports postponed, pitch frozen.

  Other league games: JB Celtic v Young Guns; Morley Celtic v Old Tree; Swillington Welfare v Pudsey Liberal Club - all postponed.

  Sanford Cup Round 3: West Leeds Whites v South Leeds United.

Sunday 8th January 2012 (Leeds Combination AFL Division One):

  Beeston St Anthonys 0, Swillington Welfare 3; JB Celtic 4, West Leeds Whites 3; Morley Cricket & Sports 8, Morley Celtic 0; Pudsey Liberal Club 2, Old Tree 1; South Leeds United 1, Crooked Billet 3.

  This page last updated 11/02/2012.