Sports end Rolls winning run

U13's Saturday Division 2 

Hucknall Sports 1 Rolls Royce 0

3/3/12   

Hucknall Sports welcomed high flying Rolls Royce to Goosedale Sports Complex for a top of the table clash between two great local football teams. Rolls arrived with a record of 9 consecutive wins and Sports knew that they had to win to try and keep some distance between the two teams in the league table.

Hucknall started slowly and looked rusty after not playing a competitive game for over a month. But their defence found a good shape and although they were put under some pressure in the early stages Rolls would no doubt be disappointed that they weren’t able to force a clear opening on goal. It was Sports who created the clearer chances and Hucknall thought they had taken the lead when James Hallam’s shot beat Rolls keeper only to rebound back off the cross-bar. Tom Eastwood and Mitch Davies both had long shots that narrowly missed the target and on the right-hand side Ryan Towle eventually managed to find space to get his crosses into the box to create more danger. But Sports just could not find the goal and the half time whistle blew with the scores level.

Half time: Hucknall Sports 0 Rolls Royce 0

Playing with the breeze at their backs Sport started the second half much better and looked much more composed. Defenders Ellis Evans, James Stenson, Joe Newton and Dylan Smith were solid as a rock and dealt well with Rolls long balls over the top. These defenders can also play a bit of football and it was great to see them passing the ball out of defence and through midfield rather than simply ‘booting it’ long. Sports now had Dante Diriso playing wide on the right and he showed his class to round his marker on a number of occasions but was unlucky to see his shots beat the keeper but also miss the target. On the left side Jacob Barlow found space in the penalty area and beat Rolls keeper but could not believe his luck when the ball come back off the post. Sport were wondering if the goal would ever come. Then a wonderful move initiated by Hallam saw him find Diriso wide on the right. Diriso’s cross picked out Barlow unmarked in the six yard box to smash the ball into the back of the net. Initially, it appeared that the goal had been ruled out by the linesman flagging for off-side but the referee overruled and correctly awarded the goal.

Rolls pushed hard for an equaliser and did hit the cross-bar but late on Diriso almost made it 2-0 to Sports only to see his wonderful run and shot hit the side netting.

No matter, the final whistle blew and Sports celebrated a well earned victory.

Full time:  Hucknall Sports 1 Rolls Royce 0 

Sports players really wanted this result and worked their socks off to try and get a victory. Much credit to the entire squad of players who all played a part in securing 3 points.

Today’s Man of the Match award went to Dante Diriso who put in a terrific display of football that included speed, skill and pin-point crossing to setup his teams winner. Well done Dante and we look forward to seeing much more of this in the remaining games.