A TIGHT game resulted in City of York Hockey Club men's thirds slipping to a disappointing 4-3 defeat at home to Leeds Adel 2 in Yorkshire League division two.

They began well, dominating from the push back, and Mark Little scored the first after Hugh Richards had found Craig Ferguson in space in the middle of the pitch.

He drilled the ball into the D and Jonathan Kilmartin hit the ball on to Little's stick, who deflected the ball home.

But during a scrappy passage of play, York were hemmed in by a high pressing Adel side. Outnumbered in midfield, they conceded two goals.

With half-time approaching, Rob Prentice found himself three yards out and his tame shot only found a defender's foot on the line.

He stepped up to take the resulting penalty flick but the keeper saved his effort.

York changed their formation at the break and began the second period pressing the Adel backline.

The visitors won a penalty corner, though, and scored their own penalty flick after a goalbound effort struck a foot.

York got themselves back in the game when Charles Norman deflected the ball beautifully past the Adel keeper only for Leeds to restore their two goal advantage when a player slid in at the back post.

The home side did not stop battling.

Craig Ferguson, filling in at central defence for the injured Sam Baker, surged into midfield and batted down an aerial into his path. He ran at the heart of the Adel defence and fed Kilmartin, who span his way out of some hefty challenges and forced the ball home.

York camped in the Adel half for the last ten minutes. They sacrificed a defender to try and find an equaliser but, despite plenty of goalmouth action, they couldn't force the leveller.

Despite a wobbly start, City of York 4 soon took control and went into the break 3-1 up at Ben Rhydding 3 in division two.

They kept up the pressure in the second half to win 5-2. Greg Sykes and Matt Todd got two goals each and Josh deSilva the other. The win sees York in second place going into the Christmas break.

City of York 5 solidified their mid-table position in division four north as they beat Harrogate 2-0.

They were generally the better side in a tight game but struggled a little with fluency at times as they were hampered by numerous and regular changes forced on them by a high number of subs.

The first goal came as York began to assert early pressure and, on the third of a close sequence of short corners, Keith Wilson profited.

The deciding goal was scored with 15 minutes to go when Andy Thomson linked up with George Good to pass around the keeper and the latter was on hand to finish off from close range.

City of York 6's promotion push in division five north suffered a setback as they were beaten 5-0 by a talented Bradford team.

Bradford played very good hockey and York, producing their worst performance of the season, spent much of the game chasing shadows.

CITY of York Ladies 2 held a Leeds side, which had only dropped two points all season, to a 1-1 draw in the Yorkshire League premier division.

York began strongly and created several goal scoring opportunities in the first 20 minutes as they piled on consistent pressure, pressed strongly and attacked quickly from midfield.

Leeds began to find their feet in the first half and had multiple short corner attempts which the York defence and goalie, Anna Vessey, dealt with superbly.

York started the second half the better and were rewarded with a goal from Celia Wright following an impressive triangle passing movement between herself, Tamsin Collinridge and Corinne Wray.

They continued to attack but were caught out by Leeds, who managed to snatch a controversial equaliser at the cost of injury to defender Amanda Blacker.

She took a high stick to the mouth while attempting to prevent the shot.

York continued to create opportunities and were relentless in attack but they found themselves down to ten men in the last ten minutes following a yellow card for Blacker. They took on a more defensive approach to hold on to the draw.

City of York 3 went down 2-0 at division one leaders Airedale.

They began the better, Steph Pearson and Rebecca Kearney putting the Airedale defence under pressure but the forward line could not get a shot on target.

Faith Civico and player of the match Emma Bennett kept control of the centre of the pitch but a breakthrough from the hosts, five minutes before half-time, saw a mis-hit shot beat the defence.

The second half was end-to-end hockey with the York defence kept busy.

An injury saw Pearson taking on a defensive role but a short corner for the hosts found the bottom corner.