Hucknall Sports U16's 2 Burton Joyce 2

Saturday 20th March 2004

This scrappy affair was certainly not a match for the feint-hearted, as both sides physically contested every loose ball in conditions that were far from ideal for football.

The gale force wind, blowing straight along the pitch, moved the football around in all directions, seemingly giving life to this usually inanimate object, as it careered randomly about the pitch.

Sports captain and hero of last week Anderson won a vital toss, so Sports were playing with the wind in the first half, which prompted a formation switch, meaning a three pronged attack was employed in place of the usual two.

Sadly, Sports failed to use the wind to their full advantage, and despite having the territorial advantage, they wasted lots of balls with passes that were far too strong. Even so, Joyce hardly deserved the lead a well struck free-kick brought them.

Jonny Hallam limped off injured shortly after, and with Sports still struggling to adapt to the unusual conditions, things looked grim. Thankfully though, one or two players, most notably Ross Billyeald finally got to grips with the conditions, and eventually they equalised through an audacious fifty yard chip from Matt Booth.

Despite this, many would have fancied Burton Joyce as favourites in the second half with the wind, and indeed in the first five minutes Sports were besieged in their own half.

They did manage to sally forth however and penetrate the line of besiegers, which lead to Nikhil Dhiri curling home from 15 yards.

It was desperate defending from then on, and helped by stand-in centre half Anderson and superb defensive work from Ross Billyeald, they came so close to holding on and claiming their first ever Division Two scalp.

It was not to be though, as a minute from time Sports failed to clear the box from a corner, and after an effort came back off the crossbar, the Joyce forward was left with a simple tap in.