Hucknall Sports U9's Sunday 6 Aslockton Cranmers 1

Sunday 6th November 2005

YEL CUP PRELIMINARY ROUND

This could have been a potential banana skin of a tie for Sports, against a hard working and well organised Aslockton side.

The match got off to a rather scrappy start, with only glimpses of Sports usual slick passing on display. But with the slope in their favour and the wet surface causing problems for the defenders it was Kieran Sheppard who opened the scoring with a customary cool finish from close range. Jack Henry Williams almost doubled the Sports advantage after a neat one two on the edge of the box, but his shot lacked the necessary power to beat a very talented Aslockton keeper. Josh Pickering did made it 2-0 with a typical strikers finish from two yards out in a heavily congested and muddy goalmouth. Jack Henry gave the keeper no chance, when he expertly guided his shot into the corner for goal number three. Aslockton hit back immediately though, to keep the game within reach. They broke forward from midfield forcing Thomas Howarth to put his last ditch cover tackle out for a corner. The delivery was good and although Carter Newton did well to flick the ball off the head of the striker he was left powerless to stop the follow up shot from going over the line. With half time approaching Sports were awarded a corner of their own and although they had plenty of players forward, the ball zipped past everybody into the back of the net leaving the corner taker Kieran Sheppard to take the plaudits.

                                                                                                                                                                Aslockton were playing with the slope in the second half, causing Sports to increase their defensive workload dramatically. Carter the cat Newton was simply outstanding in his role of shot stopper / sweeper but even he was pipped for the Man of the match accolade by the mightily impressive Jack Henry Williams who displayed time and time again his willingness to track back and help, despite wearing some rather girlie looking leggings. Asa Shelton, Thomas Howarth and Tom Shaw all showed why they have memberships for the meanest defence in the league with some top class tackling and it was this sound defensive platform that allowed Sports to ride out the storm and score two more goals. McCauley Walker bagged the first with a ferocious shot into the roof of the net that gave the keeper no chance and it was 6-1 to Sports when Josh Pickering won the ball out wide and put over the type of cross that Jack Henry simply doesn’t miss.