Pelican put Sports to the sword

U16's Saturday Division 1

Hucknall Sports 1 Pelican 6

3/1/15

Sports first game back after the Christmas break saw them take on Pelican. In their only previous meeting Hucknall considered themselves unluckly to lose after playing well and failing to take their opportunities to score.

After recent snow the Goosesale pitch was heavy but perfectly playable and Sports started reasonably well and were unlucky not to take the lead when Hallam's shot was well saved by the Pelican keeper. Sports appealed for a penalty for the late challenge on Hallam before he got his shot away but it was waved away by the official. Hucknall players seems to be finding the conditions more difficult than their opponents and time and again Sports players seemed to be slipping over. Pelican took the lead with a well taken goal and extended it further when a speculative shot to the near post crept in. Late in the half Sports had another goal scoring opportunity denied when Pelican's keeper made another terrific save. That said, Sports considered themselves still in with a shout despite being two goals down at half time.

Half-Time: Hucknall Sports 0 Pelican 2

For the second game running Sports were almost unrecognisable in the second half of the game. Sure they lost Mitch Davies from midfield by there was still plenty of quality on show to mean that this should not have been crucial. However, Pelican ran riot and notched up another 4 goals to put the match well beyond the reach of Sports. Adey Lang did managed to grab a consolation goal to take his seasons tally to 15 but this was scant reward.

Full-Time: Hucknall Sports 1 Pelican 6

This was another disappointing result for Sports. We need to learn that there is more to winning a match than football ability alone. Sometime it is the things that you do without the ball that really have a effect.

Joe Newton MOM

Today's Man of the Match was Joe Newton who was commanding at the heart of defence for Sports. He also took the opportunity to drive his team forward and showed some real fight and determination - well done Joe.

Final word goes to Pelican for a really nice style of football that was very pleasing on the eye unless you were an Hucknall Sports supporter.