Hempnall FC

It was great to welcome football back to Hempnall, albeit the leagues have been abandoned in favour

of Cup games, and this was the very delayed second round of the Primary Cup for Hempnall Reserves

against a team in their league, Wensum Albion.

This was a substantially changed side from when we last saw them, and we welcomed the return to

Hempnall of Tom Radford and a number of his former team mates. Due to the unavailability of

manager Docherty and assistant James Bennett, Radford took the reins.

With a new goalie in place, the team looked strong enough, but were having to settle into it, and for a

time, Wensum played the better football, but it was clear there was unlikely to be much in the game

between the teams.

A few chances came and went at either end before Ryan Cullabine finished for 1-0, and there were a

few half chances which either went begging due to wayward finishing or keeper interceptions, and at

the other end, the Hempnall goalkeeper was looking very secure and impressive.

He had no chance with the equaliser, and as predicted, the game was looking as though it could go

either way.

At half time, Jack Thompson entered the fray, and he changed the team dynamic, the team looked as

though they were going to win, and indeed, a penalty was awarded, duly dispatched by Cullumbine-

Mann, and towards the end of the game, a screamer from Hanwell looked as though it had won the

game for Hempnall.

Then the wheels came off. No blame attached to the referee, but he was having a difficult few

minutes with some players, and he sent off one then another of the Wensum players; the game

became disjointed and the players could not maintain any rhythm.

When it resumed with ostensibly a minute remaining, Hempnall simply didn’t see the game out and

the referee felt he had to play a minute or so extra, but in fairness, the goal Wensum scored was also

a ‘Worldie’ that no keeper would have saved.

We went to penalties, the Hempnall keeper saved one, and again, it looked as though it would be

Hempnall’s match but the opposition keeper saved a couple for 5-6 and out of the Cup went

Hempnall. All very disappointing and Hempnall will be wondering how they managed to lose this

game, as they were 3-1 up with 5 minutes to play, and the opposition had been reduced to 9 men

through two dismissals.

All of the players performed fairly well, I thought Cullabine worked hard up front, the defence put in

last ditch tackles, the midfield competed well, Thompson looked particularly good and the front

runners put the opposition keeper under pressure well, but for me, the MOM was the keeper,

Macauley Ryan.