U13's
Saturday Division 2
Hucknall Sports 3
Carlton Town Blades 1
21/1/ 12
The previous week saw
Sports spurn the chance to go top. This week Hucknall welcomed Carlton
Town Blades to Goosedale Lane. Carlton are littered with Division One players
and only languish mid-table due to being three games behind everyone
so Sports knew that they had to be on top form from the kick-off.
Dante Diriso and Jacob
Barlow started as the strike-partnership and last weeks Man of the
Match Owen Everton moved forward to play central midfield. Carlton got the
first shot in from a long range free kick that Sports were happy to see fly well
over the cross bar. Hucknall's tackling was adjudged too strong on a
number of occasions and more free kicks followed by the back line of Dylan
Smith, Joe Newton, James Stenson and Harry Saxton all dealt with
the pressure particularly well. Whilst behind them, goalie Kal Orton
snapped up everything.
It is fair to say that
Hucknall were unusually slow to start and all too often they played the
ball long rather than their normal passing game. This meant that
strikers Barlow and Diriso were, through no fault of their own, living on
scraps. Ryan Towle showed great industry on the right side and managed to
get around the back of Carlton's defence to help create the opening for
Sports first goal. The ball broke in the box to Dante (New Boots) Diriso and he
smashed the ball into the back of the net. True to say that Sports hadn't
really got going but as we saw in previous weeks this division is all about
taking your chances. Hucknall's centre-half pairing of Newton and Stenson were
rarely troubled and showed fantastic confidence to build from the back even
when under pressure rather than simply 'booting' the ball away. Tom Eastwood's
run and shot late in the first half could have taken Sports further ahead but
he was unlucky to see it drift over the bar.
Half time: Hucknall Sports
1 Carlton Town Blades 0
Ollie Bowley and James
Hallam took on the strike partnership role for the second half and looked to
have got Sports a second when good work from Towle caused panic in the Blades
back line who did just enough to clear the ball. Carlton lashed the ball
forward and a bad bobble saw it evade the hands of Kal Orton to present
Blades with an easy equaliser. As a result of equalising
Carlton's confidence rose and they really got into top gear. Sports
defence were relieved to see a cross evade everyone and go begging at the
far post. But Sports rode out the storm and midfielders Charlie Blatherwick,
Tom Eastwood and Mitch Davies started to wrestle the possession back to Sports.
A great ball from Blatherwick saw Eastwood burst past the Blades left back and
send a sublime looping shot into the back of the net. There cannot have
been a better goal than this scored all season long across all divisions.
The Sports 'simple' football returned and Towle, Hallam and Bowley started to
create openings on the right side. It was Towle who setup the final goal with a
training ground move the saw Blatherwick swivel and smash in his own contender
for goal of the season. Still time for Bowley to see his smart turn and
shoot blocked and Captain Fantastic Mitch Davies brilliant run and
shot just evaded the goal. With Sports on top the final whistle blew to
spark celebrations as Hucknall climbed to top of the Division 2.
Full
time: Hucknall Sports 3 Carlton Town Blades 1
Sports didn't play their
best football but were clinical in front of goal and that is what won them
the game. Ryan Towle had a strong game on the right side and brought the
training ground moves into the game which is always great to see. Tom Eastwood
really put in a brilliant performance and his goal will live long on the
memory.
However today's Man
of the Match goes to Hucknall Captain Mitch Davies. This was a game that
needed someone to get a hold of midfield by the scruff of the neck and he
certainly did that. He inspired his team to believe that simply football will
win games - a real Captains performance, well done Skipper.
"We are top of the
league, said we are top of the league!"
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