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Tuesday 7th September 2010
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Matches played Saturday 13th September 2008
These are for you, Dave
Pinefleet Wolfreton’s players felt that Secretary Dave Hopkin, who worked tirelessly for the club over many years, and who tragically passed away during the week, would want his club’s opening games of the season to go ahead, and both sides were determined to dedicate the matches to his memory, by recording victories.
Pinefleet’s senior squad travelled to meet newly promoted Blackburn Leisure and started slowly and an enthusiastic Blackburn side caught them cold, opening the scoring inside five minutes with a well taken finish, and came close to doubling their lead but were denied by an excellent save by Pinefleet keeper Darren Hemmings.
This sparked Pinefleet into life and Dave Laycock equalised the scores in the 12th minute after some uncertainty in the home defence.
The game was now being controlled by Pinefleet and they took a deserved lead when Andy Hemmings fired home after a fine build up between Dave Fee and Laycock, and a third soon followed when Fee fired home at the second attempt after some fine interplay between Laycock and Stuart Cook.
Blackburn were unfortunate to meet a side who are likely to be forerunners in their first game at Premier Division level, and were now struggling to contain a rampant side and a fourth goal followed when Laycock received a through ball from Gary Marsden and he beat two defenders to slot home.
Laycock then completed his hat trick when adding his sides fifth goal, rolling back the years with a virtuoso effort, outfoxing four defenders and the keeper with some superb close control and footwork, rounding off the type of win that, on this occasion, was important to the club.
Pinefleet Tigers were newcomers to Division 1, after achieving promotion, and faced newly named AFC Hull who enjoyed a bright opening 10 minutes before Pinefleet took the lead via a long ball forward, which helped on and put past Craig Lindley in the AFC Hull goal.
AFC Hull passed the ball well and dominated possession and created chances forcing several fines saves from the Pinefleet keeper. After 31 minutes Hull’s dominance was rewarded with an equaliser from midfielder Jason Watson who reacted to a high rebound on edge of the area to send a looping header into the net, leaving the scores tied at the turnaround.
The second half was much more even with both sides creating chances, Pinefleet going close hitting the post and the cross bar while AFC Hull striker Sam Nicholson saw his shot tipped onto the post in the 87th minute.
With just one minute remaining to the final whistle, a Pinefleet break brought a second goal, and their hoped for match result.
A friendly rivalry exists between AFC Preston and Eddie Beedle FC, with both sides knowing each other away from the football field, and the result is always a skilful, hard fought, yet enjoyable game.
The early exchanges saw both sides playing excellent flowing football, and a good standard was retained throughout, and the game remained in the balance, and heading for a draw, until Beedle nicked the points close to the end.
With the talent both these teams have, and as a little more sharpness returns, both sides should be challenging for honours at the business end of the campaign.
Last season’s Division 1 champions AFC West Hull started with a bang in their new environment, entertaining Sutton Fields Rangers, and deservedly took the lead with a goal from Mike Neylon, and took the advantage into the break.
Despite trailing, it was evident that Sutton Fields were coming more and more into the game, and were gaining the ascendancy. West Hull were hampered by injuries as the game progressed but this should not detract from the two quality strikes by Lee Jones and Jay Hall which sealed a first day win for Sutton Fields.
Raine FC were a late inclusion into the league and opened with a visit from The Lair (formerly Intrasource Mainbrace), and performed well in an entertaining game in which both teams played neat, attractive football, from which The Lair produced the better chances.
After applying concerted pressure, The Lair finally got their reward when a corner was swung in, and a header was cleared off the line but fell for Phil Matchett to acrobatically hook the ball over his shoulder and into the top corner of the net.
This success was quickly followed by an good individual goal from James Johnson who carried the ball from the half way line, and with defenders backing off, was allowed him to fire home from 20 yards.
Raine created a couple of good chances before the break but failed to capitalise.
Raine came out quickly when the game recommenced, and forced The Lair keeper, Mike Hamlett to make a couple of saves before a counter-attack, which produced a corner, extended their lead when a corner was swung in and a clean strike on the edge of the box by Liam Beardshaw saw the ball fly into the net.
Both teams continued to create chances but none were taken, but with 10 minutes remaining Raine got onto the scorecard when a penalty was awarded and Rob Murray neatly finished.
This score set up a period of sustained pressure from Raine but The Lair held out with solid defending and good goalkeeping and secured a 3 –1 success.
There were plenty of opening day goals at Pickering Park where SC Electrical entertained Quaddy Rangers, the initial goal falling to SC Electrical.
Quaddy picked themselves up and settled down and pulled the goal back and produced a good passing game which resulted in a 3-1 interval advantage.
The second period started well, with Quaddy apparently settling the game at 4-1, but it was as if someone pressed a button, as Quaddy suddenly went to pieces, and SC Electrical hit two quick goals, and at 4-3, 6 minutes playing time still remained.
Quaddy regrouped and tightened their defence and hung on to win – but certainly had had to play their ‘get out of jail card’.
AFC Preston 2nd entertained Geoff Wednesday in their inaugural Division 1 game, and the game proved to be a very even contest, but was decided by goals scored by Preston either side of the halftime interval.
Geoff Wednesday were plagued by injuries, losing Dan Milner with a knee injury, and while the centre back was off the field receiving attention, Preston scored from a Kev Fenton set piece.
A tackle from behind, saw Wednesday lose the services of previous broken leg victim Joe Fuller, and early in the second period Preston went further ahead when Fenton was gifted a second goal.
Bad luck continued to follow Wednesday when substitute Dave Chamberlain was himself replaced after a 10 minute stint, following involvement in a collision.
Paull Wanderers started the season with seven new players in their team against Hessle Sporting and started the game ‘on fire’ but somehow found themselves two goals down inside 18 minutes. The first setback followed a good counter attack inside five minutes and the 2nd was the result of a bad error by error when Paull keeper Liam Smith and defender Ronnie Phipps collided with each other, leaving Hessle an easy tap in.
Paull were left with a lot to do, but their task was made easier when a handling offence – denying Terry Thompson when he was through on goal – saw the visitors numbers reduced by a straight red card.
Paull were aware that they needed to score the next goal to have a hope of getting anything out from the game, and kept Hessle under pressure but when Hessle were awarded a penalty - after James Sexton was adjudged to have taken out a Hessle player – the game looked beyond Paull.
However, hope springs eternal, and when Hessle shot the penalty wide, Paull were given a lifeline, which was grabbed with both hands and they came back into the game and two great goals from Terry Thompson returning the scoreline to level pegging.
Paull Wanderers- and Thompson – spurned 3 or 4 more good chances before Hessle went 3-2 up with a cross that flew directly into the Paull goal.
Paull refused to give in, and levelled again in the last second of the game with a bullet strike from James Sexton – providing, overall, a fair result.
Swiss Cottage must be wondering how they came away from Newington Park and their game with Spring Bank Tigers empty handed.
The game was full of good football, and first on the scoresheet were the Tigers through Ardula Hajar, but this goal was cancelled out when Darren Hunter levelled for Swiss from the penalty spot. The first half was marred by a nasty hand injury to Spring Bank’s Bestun Ahmad, which resulted in hospitalisation.
Early in the second half, a second penalty, which was a somewhat harsh decision, provided Hunter with an opportunity for a second goal, but agile keeper Karaman Sahid guessed correctly and dived to his right to pull off a super save.
The game continued to ebb and flow, until midway through the half, Swiss’s Ben Bassett released a rocket shot from around 25 yards which fizzed into the Tiger’s net.
They say that a team is vulnerable after scoring, and this proved the case for Swiss who allowed the Tigers to interpass from the restart, through their defence, and Azad Hassan had equalised within seconds.
The Swiss side were rattled after this setback, and lost some composure, complaining at times to referee Simon Stevenson, as they failed to recognise his attempts to play the advantage rule.
Another neat bout of passing saw an excellent winning goal scored for the Tigers by Aso Hama Amin, whose shot swerved neatly inside the post giving keeper John Scott no chance.
Division 2 newcomers, Skippers FC played the first 45 minutes of their game against AFC Humber (formerly Greatfield) like a team of strangers, and simply could not string passes together, and the half ended scoreless. AFC Humber, however, saw the half differently and considered that the teams were evenly matched.
Skippers responded to a half time grilling by manager Andy Exelby, and played more freely. Humber lost the services of Mike Cundy, and made positional changes that caused disruption, and fell behind controversially after 10 minutes to a free kick taken by a quick thinking Lee Spicer who lobbed the replacement keeper from 35 yards while he organised his defensive wall.
A second soon followed from Sean Lyon, and suddenly Skippers were in complete control. A great ball by Lenny Hardy, put Lyon through, only for him to be brought down in the box. Jon Paul Wright stepped up, and calmly slotted the ball home.
Skippers were now enjoying themselves and some great passing and movement ended with a stunning volley by Jon Spicer, which was followed by a brace from midfield maestro Jason Paddison, and a further goal by Lyon rounded off Skipper’s victory.
AFC Piper took twenty minutes to settle into the new season, and get used to each other again after the summer break, but passed the ball around well against The Courts AFC, using the wings with great success.
Goals started to come after 20 minutes of patient play following great link up play between midfield and the forwards and Piper held a 4-0 advantage at half time.
The second half saw only one further goal recorded from numerous chances created, but Courts showed improvement in form from last year and potential for the season ahead.
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Match Reports
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24th April 2010
17th April 2010
10th April 2010
3rd April 2010
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