Match Review

15th October 2000 Hucknall Sports 4 v 3 Burton Joyce (YEL Cup)
Scorers: Sam Smith, James Bird, Anthony Kefer

This always promised to be an entertaining game and it certainly proved to be the case with plenty of end-to-end play. BJ's goalkeeper, Jamie Gibbs, was tested early on but dived on the ball superbly. BJ took the lead soon shortly after when James Bird's shot crept past the Hucknall goalkeeper. Burton Joyce were happy to have scored first but Hucknall came straight back and would have equalised except for a marvellous saving tackle by Oliver Woodward. Unfortunately Hucknall equalised soon after as a result of a lack of communication between the goalkeeper and the defenders. Hucknalls very fast attack were causing BJ some problems, especially their No. 9. They broke again and struck a good low shot into the corner of the net making it 1-2 at half time.

The half-time talk was up-beat, we were still very much in the game. In the second half Anthony Kefer was brought on and had an immediate impact, hustling & bustling up front. BJ had a string of corners but the wide pitch was making it difficult to get a decent ball into the box, however persistence paid off and after a hectic goalmouth scramble Sam Smith edged the ball home to level the scores. Hucknall yet again hit back and a good move upfield resulted in a firmly struck shot hitting the foot of the post. Soon after they took a good chance to make it 2-3. BJ were awarded a free kick which Oliver Woodward headed just over the bar. Hucknall edged further ahead and made it 2-4 with a good low shot into the corner of the net. Another BJ corner was eventually converted into a good goal by Anthony Kefer.

With 10 minutes to go the travelling crowd from BJ (again equal to the home support in numbers) really got behind the team and Jamie Gibbs pulled off a string of saves, in fact everything stuck to his gloves all afternoon. Unfortunately, despite all our players efforts the final whistle beat us.

Verdict : A good performance all round. The boys were unfortunate to be on the wrong end of a gripping game.

Manager's Comment : "Surprisingly I am not too upset by this result. In my opinion the boys showed more skill than the opposition, we were just caught out on a couple of occasions by Hucknalls speed, they had some very quick players up front. All the lads came off tired which tells me they worked hard today."

Performance of the Week : awarded to Jamie Gibbs - has worked hard in training recently and had a brilliant game in goal today. Well done Jamie!!

To see a delighted Jamie with his award Click here

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