AFC Hucknall played well against high flying Basford the other weekend, so we went along to Watnall Road to see if they could play as well against another of the League's top teams, Sutton Town AFC.
It turned out to be a decent enough game, and although the Yellows lost 1-5, they performed very well against a very experienced Sutton outfit.
The visitors front line looked particularly potent - Andy White and Craig Mitchell - two ex-Stags strikers from few years back....
Mind you, some of the other team members weren't exactly novices - Jay Edwards, Chas Charlesworth, Reg Hollingworth, Danny Tighe: add James "Topps" Whitehead to the mix, and that gives you a talented line-up.
Walked into the ground and said hi to Heanor Town aficionados Tony Squires and Lee Spurr. Had a chat to former Snipe Dean Hadley, who was at the game with Anton Lancashire and better half!
Mind you, some of the other team members weren't exactly novices - Jay Edwards, Chas Charlesworth, Reg Hollingworth, Danny Tighe: add James "Topps" Whitehead to the mix, and that gives you a talented line-up.
Walked into the ground and said hi to Heanor Town aficionados Tony Squires and Lee Spurr. Had a chat to former Snipe Dean Hadley, who was at the game with Anton Lancashire and better half!
We went to the stands for a sit down, and former Hucknall and Carlton boss Tommy Brookbanks came and had a few words. Tommy is currently managing Stamford FC, and is very happy with life at the P K Arena. His current charges lie 5th in the Evo-Stik Div 1 South, and are realistically aiming for at least a play-off place.
The Yellows did well to keep out White and Mitchell for the first half hour or so but when the two combined on 32, White's persistance saw him keep possession before playing the ball into MITCHELL, who made no mistake from close range. Five minutes later, MITCHELL was again on the mark, this time a superb ball out of defence picking out the no. 9, who collected with style before racing at goal and firing home. H-T 0-2
The Yellows did well to keep out White and Mitchell for the first half hour or so but when the two combined on 32, White's persistance saw him keep possession before playing the ball into MITCHELL, who made no mistake from close range. Five minutes later, MITCHELL was again on the mark, this time a superb ball out of defence picking out the no. 9, who collected with style before racing at goal and firing home. H-T 0-2
Saw Dean agian at the break - he told us about how another former Snipe, Danny Simpson, broke his ankle the other Sunday. One of the few local games that took place on that freezing morning, and with a rock hard pitch, Danny apparently picked up the injury when he jumped for the ball and landed very heavily. Best wishes and speedy recovery, Danny.
Grabbed a word with AFC boss Dan Pheasant just after the break - he was a little surprised at how strong the Sutton line up was, and he must have wished he could put out a team containing the likes of Mitchell, White and Whitehead!
MITCHELL completed his hat-trick on 71, firing into the top corner from the corner of the box. AFC never gave up, and did play some good stuff, and when their no. 9 lobbed the Sutton keeper seven minutes later, they might have thought for a while that the late fight-back was on..... not to be though. The Sutton 14 shirt, CRAIG BUCHANAN grabbed their fourth shortly after, then with a couple of minutes left, DANNY TIGHE fired a low free-kick past Hadlee Dunn to give the scoreline a rather unfair look to it!
AFC are a heck of a lot better than they were earlier in the season, but with the impressive Sutton line-up, this game was a case of men v boys. Will definitely be watching the Yellows again before the season ends. Might be a trip to the Fieldings in the near future as well! F-T 1-5
Admission £3
Programme £0.50 ( long time since I've seen an A4 programme)
Attendance 30
