Honours Even in Local Derby

U15's Notts Youth League

Saturday Division 1 

Hucknall Sports 2 Rolls Royce 2

10/9/13

Hucknall Sports first home game of Division One saw them host local rivals Rolls Royce in a 6:15pm kick-off at Goosedale Sports Complex.

Injury to Sports skipper James Stenson meant a last minute reshuffle that saw Ryan Towle drop to centre-half and Maleek Batten partner Mitch Davies in midfield.

For the second game running Hucknall started slowly and looked considerably off the pace. Rolls stroked the ball around nicely without ever threatening Sports goal apart from a shot low to the right corner that Kal Orton saved comfortably.

However, Hucknall eventually found their passing game and started to find plenty of space out wide.

Sports took the lead when a short throw-in was nicely controlled by Batten who skilfully beat his man and swung over a cross that James Hallam smashed into the back of the net to open his account for the new season. Shortly after Sports were two up when Rolls keeper fouled Tom Eastwood and Towle expertly dispatched the penalty to the bottom right corner.  Rolls were fighting to stay in the game and keeper Eddie Ridley made a number of outstanding saves.

Half time: Hucknall Sports 2 Rolls Royce 0

Hucknall started the second half really well and got forward at every opportunity. Batten hit the post, Hallam forced good saves from the Rolls keeper and Danny Darlow had a chance to put the game out of site but just missed with a brave header at the far post. Sports knew that the next goal was going to vital and they looked odds-on to score until Rolls nicked on one the break through Trevell Lindo.

This gave Rolls renewed hope of victory and they worked hard to try and get the equaliser with a serious of Wimbledon-like long throws.

A full 6mins into injury time Rolls were awarded an indirect free-kick and in the ensuing scramble the ball was bundled into the back of the net with the last kick of the game.

Full time:  Hucknall Sports 2 Rolls Royce 2

Poor officiating certainly affected the outcome of this game and quite where that amount of injury time came from when the trainer was on the pitch only once in the second half we will never know. The award of an indirect free-kick was baffling given that Sports keeper Kal Orton was caught with a late challenge after gathering the ball but the referee obviously didn’t see it.

That said, Sports will know that they had the chances to put this game well beyond their opponents and need to be more clinical in front of goal.

We are all disappointed but will use this to strengthen our resolve to do well in this division.

James Hallam

Today’s winner of the Man of the Match Award was James Hallam for an outstanding performance at centre forward where he was almost unplayable at times. He ran the Rolls defence absolutely ragged – well done James, awesome.