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Tuesday 7th September 2010
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Matches played Saturday 11th April 2009
Sutton Fields title hopes take a double dive.
Despite a weekend of inactivity on the league front, Crown FC, who had been distracted by midweek involvement in the ERCFA Intermediate Cup semi final – from where they successfully progressed to the final thanks to four goal hero Rob Pierce, but in what was by no means a one man show – found their grip on the Premier Division title tightening as the results of games between their main rivals all conspired to assist their cause.
Pinefleet Wolfreton, with a mixture of youth and experience and a number of second team players making their debuts, inflicted a deserved victory over long term front runners Sutton Fields Rangers in midweek.
Playing against the wind and sun in the first half, Pinefleet were content to defend and try and hit Sutton Fields on the break, and whilst the visitors enjoyed territorial advantage, they created very little and Shaun Drury in Pinefleet’s goal was only called into action to deal with crosses and free kicks.
Somewhat against the run of play Pinefleet went in front when Liam Stafford coolly finished after good work down the right hand side, and lead at the break.
After the turnaround, with the elements in their favour, Pinefleet started to cause problems for the Ranger’s defence and should have increased their tally on several occasions, and their failure to do so encouraged Sutton Fields to redouble their efforts to grab an equaliser.
Twenty minutes from the end Stafford scored his, and Pinefleet’s second, when took advantage of a poor clearance from the keeper Liam Walker and shot home from 15 yards.
Sutton Fields pushed more men forward in a desperate attempt to get back into the game, but the home defence stood firm with Graham Waudby and Shaun Miller outstanding.
Gary Marsden scored a third for Pinefleet when a swift counter attack saw him round the keeper and slot the ball home. Sutton Field got a consolation goal in the last minute when Lee Jones converted from the penalty spot, but their title hopes were severely dented as a result of this defeat.
If this difficult game had not been enough, Quaddy Rangers were waiting as their next opponents and were looking to bounce back after two heartbreaking last minute defeats.
The game started at a fast pace with some good, honest hard tackling by both teams, and early chances were created – but not converted - at both ends of the pitch.
Sutton Fields broke the deadlock with Robert Brockwell shooting his side into the lead, but Quaddy squared matters following a corner which Sutton Fields failed to clear and when the ball fell to John Laverack, he smashed the ball into the Sutton goal through a crowd of players.
The quality football continued as the second half got underway, and Quaddy wasted chances before the ever-reliable Dave Bettney squeezed the ball into the net.
A team is always deemed to be vulnerable after scoring, and Sutton Fields highlighted this fact by attacking at pace down the right wing and Lee Jones whipped in a perfect cross to the head of Brockwell who powered the ball past the helpless Quaddy keeper Mark Foster, stunning their opponents with the rapidity of the response.
Memories of previous games which slipped away, and last minute reversals came flooding back for Quaddy, but with ten minutes remaining a long accurate, but speculative cross to the far post was sent over by Mike Newdick, where Dave Bettney soared like a ‘salmon heading upstream’ to nod the ball past the keeper and defenders, and secured an overdue, but deserved win for Quaddy, and while Sutton Fields must now accept their title hopes are at best, faint, they can at least reflect on their contribution to a quality contest.
Eddie Beedle were another side putting together a late run of good results and mounting a late title surge, but came up against an AFC Preston side who have recently played some very attractive football but which has not maintained over 90 minutes.
This time they did! and high flying Eddie Beedle had no reply to the attacking skill, composure and all round organisation of Preston who are responding well to the excellent coaching of ex-England international Gary Chilton and demonstrating a renewed optimism and lease of life, and superbly taken goals from Craig Crane, Mark Rogers, and the Wilson brothers, Lee and Darren, made sure the result was never in doubt. Preston are looking to build on this result in the remainder of the season and cause a few upsets on the way…
With Pinefleet Wolfreton accepting that they had too much ground to make up to be still in the title frame, their game with The Lair was played with an ‘end of season’ attitude and once again Pinefleet started slowly and found themselves a goal behind early on.
Pinefleet started to get a foothold in the game, and should have equalised but Liam Stafford missed an open goal from 8 yards out, but this was only a temporary setback as Pinefleet were awarded a penalty and Gareth Monkman coolly converted from the spot.
Gary Marsden almost gave Pinefleet the lead but a good save by the Lair keeper Jon Watts prevented this, but Marsden was not to be outdone and moments later he put his side into the lead.
In the dying minutes of the half the Lair equalised when Pinefleet failed to clear a corner.
The second half was as open as the first and Pinefleet were awarded another penalty, but this time Monkman saw his kick saved, but Pinefleet soon did retake the lead, after the Lair failed to clear a corner, and Phil Welsh picked out Ryan Thompson who finished well.
The Lair pressed for the remainder of the game and eventually grabbed an equaliser with two minutes remaining, to take a share of the spoils.
AFC Hull were hoping to finally be crowned Division 1 champions, but despite a nail biting win over Paull Wanderers still cannot dismiss the attentions of Hull Athletic.
The game provided an excellent advertisement of amateur football, and though Paull were merely completing their league programme, they were also intent on preparing for their forthcoming League Cup semi final and played at a high tempo.
Paull was soon in there stride and it only took thirty seconds for the first chance to fall to James Sexton but his left foot effort went a inches over the bar.
Paull and AFC Hull then showed some neat passing movements, but it was Paull who edged into the lead following a great solo run from play maker Michael Ward who ran from his own half and into the Hull area before hitting a low shot past the keeper Craig Lindley.
This goal upset the Hull’s composure and concentration and Paull scored a second goal with 10 minutes of the half remaining after Terry Thompson had found himself on the right wing and over-hit his cross, but the ball was retrieved by Liam Frazer who put the back into the AFC Hull six yard box and found free scoring Tommy Donnelly who rifled the ball home to give Paull control of the game - but you could not write off Hull, and with the last kick of two minutes added time, Hull got a lifeline when a well crossed corner by Mark Friston was headed in by Jason Watson.
The game seemed to be slipping away from AFC Hull when, seven minutes into the second half, Paull added a third goal, when a Terry Thompson cross found strike partner Tommy Donnelly in the twelve yard box and he again hit the ball sweetly into the back of the net.
At 3-1 down, AFC Hull had it all to do to win the game, but that is just what good teams do and after Paull’s third goal, Hull had almost all the play, putting lots of pressure on their opponents goal and left Paull to feed off scraps.
Hull used a long throw-ins from the right which Paull failed to clear, leaving Mark Friston to score and Paull from this point were looking to hold on but Hull got back on terms after 63 minutes after a Jamie Gascoigne shot was parried by the Paull custodian, Liam Smith, but the ball fell to Rio Buckley who scored AFC Hull's 100th league goal of the season from close range.
After recovering to get back on terms, AFC Hull looked the stronger and fitter team and put the icing on the cake after eighty-four minutes when a long Alex Albrow throw found the head of Jamie Gascoigne, who directed the ball past keeper Smith to round off the scoring but still the title celebrations remain on hold!!
Five of the Geoff Wednesday football team returned to their old stomping grounds at King George V, Hessle, where they played for many seasons under the banner of AFC Darleys, to face a Hessle Sporting side who have recently hit a bad run of results.
Wednesday took the lead when a cleared corner landed back with the taker, Danny Munro who fired it into the goal over every one from the edge of the box.
The game stayed very tight until 20 minutes into the second half when full back Paul Tamm somehow strayed forward into the dizzy heights of the opponents 18 yard box and coolly side footed the second goal.
Mark Williams was on hand extend Wednesday’s lead even further before Darren Welsh registered a solitary reply for Hessle with ten minutes left.
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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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