Hempnall FC

Hempnall, again away, this week travelled to face East Tuddenham in the second round of the junior cup.

The game was almost not played with the state of Tuddenham’s pitch, grass the length of a foot and non existent lines, safe to say the worst pitch we’ve played on this year.

Despite this, Hempnall looked ready for this game and were ready for the test.

The game started slowly for Hempnall (nothing new) as we struggled to play our usual football with the ball getting stuck in the long grass, but despite this we created the first chance of the game a short corner was played out to Sam who took one touch and forced the keeper into a fine save.

Hempnall were having a lot of joy through wingers Fisher and Kelly, who were being found with ease by the midfield 3 of Melton, Robins (Ronaldo) and Craske.

It was through those 3 that Kelly was set free and, like on Saturdays, his finishing or final ball left a lot to be desired.

Hempnall kept pushing and created chances through Melton, Fisher and Cullum all calling the home keeper into action.

This wasn’t without a threat from the home side who were created a few too many chances on the break which were dealt with by Bailey in the Hempnall goal, either parrying the ball away or playing sweeper.

We went into the break level.

Hempnall made a change and this was swapping Cullum for Ellis who had recently come back from holiday, instantly this had a positive effect on Hempnall as they had more of a focal point now.

After an exchange between Reynolds and Fisher, Reynold’s hopeful ball was chased down by Ellis who beat the defender and was taken down for a penalty. He dusted himself down and coolly rolled the ball into the bottom corner. 1-0

We really had our tails up now and we started using the ball better, finding even more pockets of space with Robins seemingly holding off the team on his own bringing others into play.

It was from good pressure from Ellis that his second goal came around, he chased the keeper down who missed his kick and left him to tap into an empty net, 2-0.

It seemed like Tuddenham gave up after that as Hempnall assumed complete control finding space wherever they liked it seemed.

But it was as if we became too confident. A long ball up field wasn’t dealt with and was finished by the striker who had ran through unmarked. Game on, 2-1.

Tuddenham had their confidence now, and started pressing, winning corners and throw ins, nearly finding the equaliser after a man was left free from a throw in and volleyed through the crowd, only for Bailey to make an excellent save to keep us in the lead.

From this corner, Tuddenham pushed players forward, but it wasn’t a very good corner, the rebound fell to Kelly who sprinted the length of the pitch to find himself in on goal, only to roll the ball across to Ellis who finished to complete his hattrick. 3-1

The game petered out as we ran out 3-1 winners and progressed through to the next round of the Cup, where we will welcome local neighbours Woodton United. UTH

M.o.M today goes to Alex Robins for me, he broke up everything and it was a nightmare for the opposition to get the ball off him.

Well done lads.