Hempnall FC

Hempnall Reserves have, under Dan Roche, shown enthusiam for the game, and whilst they have not had good results lately, the lads are enjoying their matches, and this was no exception.

They played second in the table Mariners at Bungay Road, but their best player of the week before, Brian Forbes, injured his hamstring and Hempnall missed his influence in attacking midfield.

For the first half, Hempnall played pretty well, and were well in the game despite not really showing the thrust necessary to beat what was a tall but not especially mobile defence.

Batterham was as always covering every blade of grass, the manager’s comments that his performance for the team was outstanding is echoed by the Secretary. ‘If we had 11 Jordies in the team, we wouldn’t go far wrong’ was the message from the Manager.

He wasn’t a one man team by any means, there were a few hardworking perfomances, but most of the lads ran out of steam towards the latter stages, understandable given a lack of confidence after a difficult season, but they kept going until the end, a a bit more thrust and perhaps the score would have been more reflective of the true nature of the game – Mariners were better, but not by a 5 goal margin.

A few mentions – Nick Talbot was again Mr. Excellent in midfield, also covering much of the pitch and getting injured in the process, Tom Leeder,when he gets back to full fitness and has more games under his belt, will be an influential player, he too showed moments of class. Aaron Bradley looked determined and aggressive, and Danny Elton had a decent game up front but the support sometimes wasn’t quite there. The Manager’s son at centre back is a young player with a lot of promise, another one for the next season.

A word for the referee, Ivan Powell, he was terrific, controlling the game without fuss, in fact, the Hempnall manager scored him a maximum 100 despite losing the game 0-5.