Claypole Warriors 3 Hucknall Sports Under 12's Saturday 0
Saturday
1st October 2005
Unlucky
Sports out of the Notts FA Shield
A long trip to the other side of
Despite fielding a weakened team due to
injuries to key players, Sports dominated the opening minutes only to find
themselves 1 down when a deflected header bounced off the Sports crossbar and
fell to the feet of the Claypole striker to shoot into an empty net. Worst was
to follow as a speculative long range shot was brilliantly stopped by Buster
Simpson only for Claypole to follow up and knock the ball in off the rebound.
Sports continued to attack and could have
done with some luck of their own. Thomas Scarbro ran for 40 yards only to see
his shot bounce of the underside of the bar and into the hands of the grateful
Claypole keeper and Billy Edwards long range effort skimmed narrowly wide.
2 nil down at half time, but Sports had the
advantage of a strong wind and a sloping pitch.
The second half was one way traffic and how
Sports failed to score remains a mystery. Jason Harris made surging runs beating
the Claypole defence but could not beat the keeper.
Josh Leatherland weaved his customary magic and thundered a right
footed shot again onto the crossbar, Thomas Scarbro nearly scored from close
range and the strong running Jordan Burch had a shot deflected into the side
netting. Numerous
shots were either deflected for corners or blocked as Sports keeper Buster
Simpson stood leaning against his post and watched as an onlooker.
Incredibly, following another Sports
onslaught Claypole broke up the pitch and scored a third to wrap the game up.
The lads can consider themselves desperately
unlucky and a 3 nil scoreline does not reflect the efforts the team put in.
Howard Howells was almost back to his best with some impressive
and decisive challenges,
Sam Watts and Alex Shelton had their first run out of the season.
Special mention should go to Thomas Lambert and Jak Craig who both played well in unfamiliar positions and Jack Bird who won the man of the match award for a tireless and much improved display.