Saturday 28th April 2012
YEL Division 2
On the last weekend of the season Hucknall Sports entertained
Wollaton Hall knowing that only a victory would do to keep the team in with a
chance of promotion to Division One.
Once again Sports played an adventurous formation with Dylan Smith moved into midfield after his wonderful Man of the Match performance in the previous week. From the first whistle Hucknall swarmed all over the Wollaton goal and created chance after chance. The opening goal came from ‘Super Striker’ James Hallam who headed in at the far post from a well taken free-kick by Ryan Towle. In fact Towle had another three free kicks from similar range and very nearly scored on each occasion. Then he showed pure class with a defence-splitting pass to put in Ollie Bowley who scored neatly with a shot to the bottom corner. Charlie Blatherwick was unlucky to see his fabulous run and shot narrowly evade the far post and Hallam’s fantastic run and cross begged for someone to put it into the net by was cleared by some last gasp defending by Wollaton. Sports attack were definitely on top but much credit has to go to the defenders in Hucknall’s team who showed the intelligence and composure to drive the team forward. Ellis Evans, James Stenson and Joe Newton played wonderful football to see Sports pass their way from defence through to attack rather than simply ‘booting’ the ball and hoping for the best. Sports Keeper Kal Orton was a spectator for the entire first half, but knew that the second would be busier with the visitors playing with the wind at their backs.
Half time: Hucknall Sports 2 Wollaton Hall 0
Playing up the slope and with the wind in their faces Sports introduced wingers Jacob Barlow and Dante Diriso with instructions to play ‘wide’ and attempt to turn the Wollaton defence around. Both boys carried out their instructions to the letter and Barlow put on a master class of wing play and finishing by smashing two wonderful goals and narrowly missing out on his hat-trick when the opposition goalie made a wonder-save. Harry Saxton dropped into the left back position and showed what a great footballer he is by taking his lead from the other defenders to drive his team forward. One of his many runs and passes will live long on the memory when he broke from the back, beat three men and set Diriso free on the right-side with a wonderful cross-field ball. Sports confidence was sky-high and the football was scintillating. Appropriately, the final goal of the season belonged to James Hallam who smashed his 21st goal to see his team home. Wollaton did get a consolation goal very late on but today was well and truly Hucknall Sports day.
Many of the boys contended today’s Man of the Match award and special mention has to go to Jacob Barlow and Harry Saxton for putting in great performances. However, the award went to Rylan Towle for his midfield-masterclass. Towle had a hand in just about everything and whilst he was disappointed not to get on the score sheet this should take nothing away from a brilliant performance – well done Ryan.
Sports smashed in 13 goals in the last three games of the season and finished as the form team of the league. But ultimately paid the price for two sloppy performances when losing to teams that they really should be beating and as a result have missed out on promotion by 1pt.
The boys have showed that they are more than capable of competing with the best the county has to offer. Hucknall are the only team to have beaten the runaway Division winners Hyson Green and were unlucky to lose in extra time to Mansfield Division One winners and County Cup finalist Ashfield. So we go into next season with the confidence that we can do well once more.
Thanks to Michael Dawson for celebrating the end of the season with the boys and thanks for a great season boys.
Once again Sports played an adventurous formation with Dylan Smith moved into midfield after his wonderful Man of the Match performance in the previous week. From the first whistle Hucknall swarmed all over the Wollaton goal and created chance after chance. The opening goal came from ‘Super Striker’ James Hallam who headed in at the far post from a well taken free-kick by Ryan Towle. In fact Towle had another three free kicks from similar range and very nearly scored on each occasion. Then he showed pure class with a defence-splitting pass to put in Ollie Bowley who scored neatly with a shot to the bottom corner. Charlie Blatherwick was unlucky to see his fabulous run and shot narrowly evade the far post and Hallam’s fantastic run and cross begged for someone to put it into the net by was cleared by some last gasp defending by Wollaton. Sports attack were definitely on top but much credit has to go to the defenders in Hucknall’s team who showed the intelligence and composure to drive the team forward. Ellis Evans, James Stenson and Joe Newton played wonderful football to see Sports pass their way from defence through to attack rather than simply ‘booting’ the ball and hoping for the best. Sports Keeper Kal Orton was a spectator for the entire first half, but knew that the second would be busier with the visitors playing with the wind at their backs.
Half time: Hucknall Sports 2 Wollaton Hall 0
Playing up the slope and with the wind in their faces Sports introduced wingers Jacob Barlow and Dante Diriso with instructions to play ‘wide’ and attempt to turn the Wollaton defence around. Both boys carried out their instructions to the letter and Barlow put on a master class of wing play and finishing by smashing two wonderful goals and narrowly missing out on his hat-trick when the opposition goalie made a wonder-save. Harry Saxton dropped into the left back position and showed what a great footballer he is by taking his lead from the other defenders to drive his team forward. One of his many runs and passes will live long on the memory when he broke from the back, beat three men and set Diriso free on the right-side with a wonderful cross-field ball. Sports confidence was sky-high and the football was scintillating. Appropriately, the final goal of the season belonged to James Hallam who smashed his 21st goal to see his team home. Wollaton did get a consolation goal very late on but today was well and truly Hucknall Sports day.
Many of the boys contended today’s Man of the Match award and special mention has to go to Jacob Barlow and Harry Saxton for putting in great performances. However, the award went to Rylan Towle for his midfield-masterclass. Towle had a hand in just about everything and whilst he was disappointed not to get on the score sheet this should take nothing away from a brilliant performance – well done Ryan.
Sports smashed in 13 goals in the last three games of the season and finished as the form team of the league. But ultimately paid the price for two sloppy performances when losing to teams that they really should be beating and as a result have missed out on promotion by 1pt.
The boys have showed that they are more than capable of competing with the best the county has to offer. Hucknall are the only team to have beaten the runaway Division winners Hyson Green and were unlucky to lose in extra time to Mansfield Division One winners and County Cup finalist Ashfield. So we go into next season with the confidence that we can do well once more.
Thanks to Michael Dawson for celebrating the end of the season with the boys and thanks for a great season boys.
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