Rusty Sports crash out of Cup

U15's Cup

Hucknall Sports 1 Rolls Royce 3

9/11/13

  

After a five week gap Hucknall Sports U15’s at last took to the field in a cup match against local rivals Rolls Royce.

Sports had good possession early on and Danny Darlow went close to opening the scoring in the first 10mins when pushing an effort narrowly wide. Good combination play between Tom Eastwood and Kieran Green looked the most likely to create chances for Sports but Rolls defenders stood strong and did well. The lively Kieran Beales won a number of free-kicks in and around the edge of Sports penalty area but Hucknall keeper Kal Orton was more than a match and protected his goal well. Rolls were first to score when pulling a ball back from the goal line for Tom Dickin to drive home. With 10mins to go in the first half Mitch Davies received a ball from a throw-in level with Rolls penalty area and managed to find Ellis Evans who hit an absolute screamer to level the scores and set things up for a tense second half.

Half time: Hucknall Sports 1 Rolls Royce 1

Rolls took control of the game by scoring 2 goals in the first 20mins of the second half through Beales and an unfortunate own-goal by Maleek Batten when the ball rebounded of him and into the net from a corner. As Sports pushed to get back into the game they risked conceding further goals but keep Kal Orton was in great form and never looked like being beaten again. A great run and cross from Hucknall’s Green just evaded James Hallam and Matt Leivers at the far post. Rolls Keeper Eddie Ridley expertly dealt with long range shots from Ryan Towle. In the final moments Sports looked set to get back into the game only for Hallam to be denied by a good block and in the final moments Darlow’s wonderful run saw his lobbed shot land on top of the cross-bar.

Full time:  Hucknall Sports 1 Rolls Royce 3

Sometimes it is simply not your day and today was certainly not Sports. They had the majority of the possession but just could not get the goals to win this game. We looked rusty and chose the wrong option time and again. But all credit to Rolls who were worthy winners on this occasion and best of luck in the next round of the Cup.

Kal Orton

Man of the Match today was won by Kal Orton. Being a goalie  is a thankless task where any mistake tends to result in a goal. But today’s performance was faultless – well done.