Kimberley MW Trojans 2 Hucknall Sports U12's Saturday 2

Saturday 26th November 2005

Improving Hucknall Sports Under 12 Saturday continued their rise up the league with a well deserved draw at Kimberley MW Spartans. 

Sports started brightly and within 30 seconds were 1 nil up as Danny Stenson cut back a low cross for the prolific Josh Leatherland to slot home. This great start inspired Sports and the next 10 minutes were one way traffic as the Sports midfield dominated the game and only some fortunate goalkeeping meant Sports held a narrow advantage. 

Mitchell Elson again commanded the defensive line and Billy Edwards playing up front for the first time battled well and held up the ball for the midfield to link up play well. 

Credit to Kimberley though as after their slow start they worked their way into the game and only some last ditch tackles from Howard Howells and Jack Bird kept Sports's advantage. However, as Kimberley continued to press forward they equalised after some good work from their front two left the Sports defence appealing for offside. The Kimberley striker calmly slotting in past Buster Simpson. 

A draw at half time was a fair reflection on an even first half and Kimberley started the second half brighter with a dramatic goal line save from Buster Simpson the highlight of some dogged defending. Kimberley’s pressure began to tell as the game progressed and midway through the second half Kimberley took the lead. 

Sports have shown a lot of determination this season and the Kimberley goal re-ignited Sports attacking instinct with Thomas Scarbro’s wide running and the determined forays of Danny Stenson and Josh Burton an equaliser seemed inevitable. With less than 10 minutes remaining a hopeful punt up field resulted in a high bouncing ball in the Kimberley penalty area and as others watched Josh Leatherland reacted quickest to bundle the ball over the line. 

Sam Watts replaced a tired Jordan Burch and Alex Shelton came on for Jack Bird as Sports continued to press for a late winner, coming close on a number of occasions. Kimberley also finished strongly with a couple of shots that flew narrowly wide. 

This was an end to end finish played between 2 well matched teams and the game was played in great spirit. 

At the final whistle a draw was a fair result although it was nice to see the Sports come off with a hint of disappointment at not being able to take all 3 points. 

Man of the match for Sports was Thomas Lambert who has started to develop some excellent positional sense to his pace and ability to tackle cleanly.