Saturday’s football action began at the Kirklington Road home of Rainworth MW, where Mansfield Town U18 were hosting Notts County U18 in a Youth Alliance League fixture. Watched the first half in the company of Arnold Town’s legendary photographer, Mick Gretton, and the second half with Heanor Town’s video guru Luke Thorpe and CML pressman Tony Squires.
The first half saw both teams playing neat and tidy football, with the Magpies going in at the break a goal to the good thanks to well placed Kion Etete header from an Alex Howes cross. H-T 0-1
The Stags fought back well in the second half and were rewarded for their efforts on 67 when Lewis Gibbons rammed the ball home from close range after the ‘Pies failed to clear their 6 yard box. Six minutes later the home team were ahead for the first time in the game – this time a corner met with a Gibbons header at the near post. That ended the scoring, but some of the football on show was superb – both teams playing their part in keeping the 80+ crowd entertained right until the final whistle. F-T 2-1
Home for a spot of lunch, then back on the road to Coronation Park, the home of Eastwood CFC. The eagerly awaited local derby took a while to get going, but not long for it to end!
Teams:
Eastwood: Walker, Conn, Short, James, Brooks, Hayes, Smith R, Charles, Betteridge, Smith J, Large. Subs : Webb, Mitchell R.
Hucknall: Beddingham, Maxwell, Pitt, Leak, Henry, Phillips, Crawford, Banister, Smith S, Danso, Ashurst. Subs : Nelson, Hubbard, Pedro.
Referee: Mr. Duncan Robertson
Assistants : Mr. Andy Harland, Mr. Richard Trinder
Admission: £4.00 / £2.00
Eastwood / Hucknall games are usually quite tasty, but for the first half hour, even though the teams played well enough, there was hardly any threat that the teams were going to add a lot to the Think Children charity pot. Danso had a decent chance early doors, but mis-controlled in front of goal allowing Walker time to collect the loose ball. On 13, Ashurst had a free-kick punched away by Walker, then seconds later, Smith played the ball across the goal to Danso, but his shot flew hopelessly wide.
With 22 played, Large saw Beddingham off his line and tried an audacious shot from the half-way line. Luckily for the visitors’ keeper, the ball flew just over his crossbar. That was that, really. Assistant Referee Mr. Harland had to retire with an injury, and although he was quickly replaced with a substitute, because the replacement was from the Hucknall camp, Eastwood objected and with no-one deemed suitable to take over the line, the Referee duly abandoned the game.
As most teams we watch are fairly local to our home base, it was a simple drive from Eastwood to Church Lane, Linby, to see the second half of their CML game with Keyworth Utd. On arrival we discovered that Jake Batty had given the home team a half-time lead, and as the second period progressed, Linby looked solid in defence, mopping up anything that Keyworth threw at them with some ease.
Linby doubled their lead on 62 when Will Horton stabbed home at the far post after a ball from the left into the six yard box wasn’t dealt with by the visitors’ defence. Keyworth’s number 6 was given a straight red on 69 after appearing to strike Horton as the players tangled in front of the Linby goal. F-T 2-0
As far as charity cash goes, the Stags game saw us add £0.90 to the fund, and then we decided to treat the Eastwood game as a 0-0, adding a further £1.00 to the pot. The Linby game we counted both goals adding a further £0.60. With Ash Ward’s kind donation, we are now approaching the £150 mark and have yet to see off August! Loving it!!
