Manor 4th 2 Hucknall Sports U13's 3

Saturday 5th February 2005

HUCKNALL COMEBACK FOR A WELL

EARNED SEMI-FINAL PLACE.

If you’re into U13’s youth football in this County, you’ll have heard of Hucknall Sports, and this Saturday they took their Nott’s FA Challenge Shield campaign a formidable step further, securing their spot in the semi final stage of the competition. 

30 minutes of consistent effort from both teams entertained the home and away supporters at the Mansfield Manor 4^th ground in a half where the run of play seemed to switch either way in 5 minute spells.  Hucknall had a few good chances on goal, the closest came when a Jan Westrik right foot volley was spilled by the ‘keeper into the path of the advancing Vijay Digpal who could not beat the recovering ‘keeper who squeeze it round the outside of the post.  Manor played well to return the pressure on the visitors’ goal and converted both their 29^th and 33^rd minute opportunities to secure a miraculous 2 goal lead at the half time interval.

A cunning restructure of the Hucknall layout 10 minutes into the second half had the desired effect.  Jones and Westrik were subbed for Featherstone and Wells to keep a strong back four, while releasing the might of Shaun Holmes into the front line to unsettle the Manor defence.  This strategy allowed Hucknall to bring the game into their opponents half, freeing up the wings to restore service to the attack.  The first goal of this astounding recovery came from a smart switch inside from Ross Lamb out on the left, to Sam Sims releasing Digpal to shimmy a one-on-one with the ‘keeper to coolly tuck it away on 57 minutes.  The equalizing goal came just 3 minutes later when yet another instinctive manoeuvre from Digpal brought the ‘keeper off his line for this natural striker to volley the ball over him and bulge the Manor net with tremendous pace and accuracy.

While Manor struggled to regain their strength and composure of  the first half,  Hucknall remained totally focused on the task in hand and  played conclusively to resolve the contest in standard time, pressurising the host defence and turning many of the ‘big-boot’ clearances into well constructed attacking opportunities.  The winner came from the persistent efforts of Shaun Holmes, when a Harry Beal shot was spilled to Holmes who buried the ball on his second attempt to clinch the game just 5 minutes from time.  While Digpal lifted the Man-of-the-Match trophy, his 4^th of the season, Holmes must be highly commended for his decisive influence on this superb result.