|
|
Tuesday 7th September 2010
|
|
Matches played Saturday 28th February 2009
Wilson's pairing and Crane lift Preston.
Since Christmas, on the odd occasions matches have been possible, AFC Preston turned in improved performances, without achieving positive results, but the signs were that wins were not far away, and on a week with an abundance of players to select from, the Preston management of Nick Jackson and Simon Matson were keen to make the correct team selection against Kingburn Athletic Reserves and opted to re-unite the Wilson brothers in midfield for the first time in a few years.
Between the Wilson brothers, Darren and Lee and the ever-present Craig Crane, Preston ran the show, never allowing the experienced Kingburn players any time or space to play football but creating plenty of opportunities for themselves.
This resulted in Kingburn hitting constant long balls out of defence, which were well dealt with by Preston defenders John Cross and Paul Duffield.
As the game went on Preston regularly found gaps in the Kingburn defence and time and time again Mike Wardell was able to spray out an inch perfect passes for Simon Kew, Crane, Wilson and Jackson only for the chances on goal to be thwarted by good saves by Gary Blanchard and the scores remained tied, goalless, at half time.
Preston seemed to be asleep at the very start of the first half as Kingburn took the lead with a ball lofted into the box and bundled into the goal.
This provided Preston with a wake-up call, and their flowing football returned with two outstanding almost identical goals from Kew who used his pace and power to go clear of the Kingburn defence and strike two unstoppable shots to put Preston in the lead.
Preston did not rest on their laurels and kept on pressing as Kingburn became more physical, and playing some superb football recorded a third to seal the game, when Dan Richardson followed up on a good save, necessary after a great move, and neatly slotted the ball home.
Quaddy Rangers were full of praise for the contribution of referee Nick Hunt in their game against AFC West Hull, both for his general, much appreciated performance, and for his sensitive and sensible handling of the situation when West Hull’s Scott Cruttenden was badly injured, and the game was halted for a long period until an ambulance could take the player to hospital.
The game was a very close in the first half, Quaddy looking lost at times with West Hull playing some good passing football, but Quaddy’s defence remained strong and repelled everything which was thrown at them.
The introduction of Danny Thompson at half time into the Quaddy line up proved to be a master stroke, as he orchestrated Quaddy’s passing game, which previously had been largely ineffective.
Quaddy’s neat movements produced a corner, and when the ball came over Dave Bettney jumped the highest at the back post to put give his team the lead. With Quaddy now on a high, defender Rich Wilcox played a great ball over the top for Dave Bettney to get to and head the ball over the keeper.
The game was halted due to the injury, with 13 minutes remaining, and when the game started again Quaddy were cruising, perhaps understandably as the sort of injury suffered by their team mate disheartened the West Hull players, and in the last minute Simon Start, who had had a quiet game, chased a ball which was misjudged and bounced over a defender, and his speed was too much for the covering defender whom he left in his wake before skilfully rounding the keeper and gleefully smashing the ball into the net to make the final score a definitive 3-0 to Quaddy.
The Jekyll and Hyde team of Division 1, Paull Wanderers showed their better side when coming up against Spring Bank Tigers, erasing memories of a miserable display a week earlier.
Paull started the game really well, creating lots of chances but without breaking the deadlock until a good set piece was converted by Karl Smith who headed home Liam Frazer’s free kick.
Spring Bank survived all the other chances created by Paull in the half and would have been more than happy to go in at the break only one goal down, and were doubtless even more pleased when, two minutes after the restart, with Paull not really having switched back on, drew level with a goal from Shaho Hoosiny.
This seemed a devastating set back for Paull who had been without doubt the better team, but they remained focussed and were rewarded, and regained the lead with 25 minutes remaining when a Mark Rigione free kick found the head of James Sexton and his successful conversion put Paull back in the driving seat.
Paull finally put the game out of Spring Bank’s reach when Terry Thompson was pushed off the ball inside the area and Tommy Donnelly tucked the resultant penalty away.
Geoff Wednesday enjoyed an encouraging twenty minute opening spell against Hessle Sporting Club but their luck changed after throwing away the chance to take the lead, Dan Garside failing to convert a penalty.
This let off spurred Hessle on and Tomas Matyjasik scored to put the visitors in front and matters got worse when Wednesday keeper John Hawkes took out the opposition’s centre forward and conceded a penalty which was converted by Shaun Welsh.
Hessle rounded off a comfortable win when taking advantage of another mistake and another member of Hessle’s Polish contingent Jakub Skiba added the final goal.
Swiss Cottage continued their winning sequence with a convincing 4 - 0 victory over The Duke of Wellington, although Duke do play much better than their league position suggests.
Another hat-trick from the in-form Ben Bassett and a fourth from substitute Shaun Scotthorne sealed another three valuable points and keeps Swiss in third place in the league table.
The Courts have not had an easy baptism in the league in the last two seasons in Division 2, but the team has stuck to its guns and improved as time has gone on.
The game against AFC West Hull ‘C’ produced a milestone in the club’s short history, as a 5-1 win, with goals from Graeme Hoff, Chris Joplin (2) and Jamie Lamplough (2), secured the first double to be recorded by the fledgling side.
|
|
Match Reports
|
24th April 2010
17th April 2010
10th April 2010
3rd April 2010
|
Personalise
|
Personalise
this website to feature the division which you're most interested
in.
|
|
