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Photos: Tina Liao
York men’s water polo team cantered to two easy victories on Saturday evening over Liverppool and Chester to earn promotion from the BUCS 3B division.
The first match again Liverpool was nothing less than a thrashing. The tone was set almost immediately with York taking a very early lead, this was followed up almost immediately by a second goal.
From then on it was all one way traffic with York overwhelming a lacklustre Liverpool side. Gabriel Cramer scored the third goal and this was quickly followed up by a fourth from Mathias Molnar. The match continued in this vein and the first half ended with the score 6-0 to York.
The differences between the two sides were obvious, York attacked in unison, with purpose and with accuracy, and they seemed to have mastered long ball throws to a tee which set up many of their goals. Liverpool’s attacks on the other hand were limp and listless, lacking any sort of penetration and they often quickly fizzled out, they seemed completely disjointed compared to the well drilled York side.
The few Liverpool attacks that did get through were easily dealt with by Chris Snowden, who was an imposing presence in goal. York players expressed surprise with Liverpool’s lacklustre performance as they had recently played each other and had put in a good performance.
The second half began with Liverpool on the attack, unfortunately for them it didn’t last long as York scored on the counter to make it 7-0. Captain Joe Marshall followed this up to make in 8-0 before Liverpool were able to regain some dignity, scoring a consolation to make it 8-1. By this point York were cruising and Liverpool who had no substitutes, energy levels were close to zero, this allowed York in to score 3 more goals, the final score ending 11-1.
The second match against Chester was a tighter affair, although it would have been hard for it not to be. Chester took an early lead by were York quickly pegged them back with a goal from Jonny Ball. In what was initially an evenly-matched encounter which Chester much more comfortable in possession than Liverpool, it took a brilliantly set up goal by York which was smashed home by Mike Perkins to break the deadlock.
At half time the match was finely balanced at 2-1 but as the second half got underway the floodgates opened and York’s class began to show with York eventually coming out 5-1 winners to earn promotion.
Captain Joe Marshall was delighted by the performance and the event in general, the first men’s water polo match to be held in the new York Sports Village pool. He said: “I’m really proud, today has been the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people, Lancaster you have a lot to live up to!”