Saturday 3rd December 2011
U13's Saturday Division 2
After a stunning victory to high-flying Keyworth Utd Sports had the chance to claim outright second in the league if they could secure victory against mid-table Cotgrave.
Hucknall made a blistering start to the game and did everything but score. Oliver Bowley's header narrowly missed at the near post and Tom Eastwood's run and shot was blocked at the last moment. Six Sports corners in the first 15 mins were scrambled away by Cotgrave's defenders and Hucknall's frustration at not scoring an early goal resulted in players starting to argue with each other instead of concentrating on the game.
A Cotgrave goal should have been enough to kick-start Sports into action but unfortunately all thoughts of good football and team play had gone by now. Routine control of the ball and simple passes to team mates were hard to find and at half-time Sports went into the break losing.
Half time: Cotgrave 1 Hucknall Sports 0
Harry Saxton, Dante Diriso and Ellis Evans came on as second half substitutes and all had a positive effect on the game. Evans midfield distribution of the ball settled Sports down and chances to cross from wide positions started to appear. But the final killer ball just would not come. Sports got wide time and again but failed to get the ball across and into the danger area.
Then a 'soft' free kick over the centre of Sports defence caught everyone napping and Cotgrave went further into the lead. With 20min left to go Cotgrave took advantage of more poor play from Sports and broke down the left to go 3-0 up.
Finally Sports got going when a great pass from Skipper Mitch Davies found James Hallam who finished well but it was too little too late for Sports and the final whistle blew all too soon.
Full time: Cotgrave 3 Hucknall Sports 1
Sports are unlikely to play this poorly again but football ability alone is not enough to win games. Todays result was down to bad attitudes in the warm-up being taken on to the pitch and a game that should have been comfortable for Sports turned into a nightmare. All the hard work of the previous weeks victory is now gone to waste.
There were some good performances from Ellis Evans and Harry Saxton in the second half and Mitch Davies gave everything for his team. However, today's Man of the Match winner was Tom Eastwood for never giving in and continuing to try and drive his team forward - well done Tom.
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