Kelly gets his eye in as Hucknall battle for a point

 HUCKNALL TOWN 1 WISBECH TOWN 1

UCL PREMIER NORTH

SAT 29TH JULY 23 5 PM KO

MATCH REPORT

TEAMS

Hucknall Town: 1 Mitch Leivers 2 Jamie Crawford 3 Kieron Lane 4 Sam Sims 5 Aaron Short (capt) 6 Billy Brooks 7 Brad Lathall 8 Kai Wilson 9 Niall Towle 10 Joe Ashurst 11 Louis Czerwak

Subs: Brown, Rawson, Whyte, Kabongo, Kelly

Wisbech Town: 1 Charlie Congreve 2 Sisa Tuntulwana 3 Owen Howard 4 Archie Wallace 5 Lee Briggs 6 Danny Brooks 7 Arun Jones 8 Cenk Acar 9 Rob Conyard 10 Toby Allen 11 Amir Ward

Subs: Perkins, Kacirek, Glusko, Kortua

Officials: Luke Thorn, Gavin Rice, Lawrence Chapman

Attendance: 688

An equaliser from debutant Nathan Kelly earned Hucknall a share of the spoils in a tense encounter with a resilient Wisbech Town

A big crowd boosted by being part of the UCL ground hoppers weekend saw the Yellows kick off their Step 5 campaign at the unusual kick off time of 5 pm.

Hucknall started with debutant Mitch Leivers in goal on loan from Long Eaton and another debutant at number 11 Louis Czerwak. £ new players were also on the bench. Nathan Kelly, Dillon Rawson and Emeraude Kabongo.

Hucknall started the brighter withLathall whipping in a cross early doors but no one was there to capitalise. Towle then put the ball over when played through by Brooks. 

Wisbech had their first sighter on goal when Allen shot wide of the home goal from 25 yards and the same player put the ball wide from close range on 16 mins.

Hucknall went close when Ashurst's shot was deflected narrowly wide for a cornerwhich came to nothing. 

22 minutes brought the opening goal and it went the way of the visitors. Conyard went through on goal and the referee decided to award a penalty adjudging that the home keeper had brought the Wisbech player down. Conyard got up and converted the spot kick.

The goal buoyed the visitors and Crawford had to head off the line from the lively Allen.

On the half hour mark home captain Short and goal scorer Conyard were booked after an altercation. Kai Wilson saw yellow on 38 for a late tackle on Acar as the game threatened to get nasty.

The referee had his first big decision to make on 42 minutes as Archie Wallace was only given a yellow when bringing down Lathall with the keeper stranded. The home crowd looking fora red to be shown. The resulting free kick from Towle lacked power and was easily saved.

Jamie Crawford joined the yellow card club just before half time for a late tackle on Ward although he appeared to win the ball cleanly.

What ever was said in the Wisbech dressing room at half time certainly had an affect as the visitors had their best period of the game. Leivers made a great save from Allen and then the same player had a shot deflected just wide.

Manager Andy Ingle made his first change taking off Sims and bringing on Kabongo. 

The visitors had the ball in the net but the flag had gone up way before the ball hit the net. 

Towle and Czerwak were replaced by Kelly and Rawson on 70 minutes and this proved to be inspired as all 3 substitutes made a difference to the Yellows attack. 

Rawson immediately got a good cross in from the left which eluded everyone but was a sign of intent. That intent bore fruition when the move of the game saw the hosts equalise. Rawsons fine cross was collected by Kelly with his back to goal who turned and smashed the ball home from 8 yards.

With 15 minutes left the home crowd were up for it and sensed a victory but in fairness it was the visitors who came closet to a winning goal with Conyard lashing over and Jones hitting the ball into the side netting. Broooks also went close near the end but Leivers dealt with his free kick. 

In the end Hucknall were satisfied to get a point on the board whilst the visitors will feel a tad unlucky not to have claimed all 3.

The yellows next league game is away to Belper United at Eastwood's ground this Wednesday night.

Hucknall Open New Campaign At Home to the Fenmen

 HUCKNALL TOWN V WISBECH TOWN

UCL PREMIER DIVISION NORTH 

SATURDAY 29.07.23 5 PM KO

MATCH PREVIEW

Hucknall begin life at step 5 with a home encounter against Wisbech Town which I believe is our first encounter with the Fenmen who face a long trip from Cambridgeshire for a slightly unusual kick off time of 5 pm thanks to the fixture being included in the UCL's ground hop weekend.

Wisbech finished in 11th spot last season with a record of 

played 38 winning 16 drawing 5 and losing 17 and a goal difference of minus 21

Wisbech have had a very similar Pre season to the Yellows in winning their first fixture but then failing to win again. Of course it's really difficult to put any value on these games as what matters is the performance on the opening league game.

According to the squad section on their website they have 6 strikers to choose from including Chris Assambalonga the brother of ex Forest striker Brett.

Hucknall go into the game on the back of a challenging pre season which has seen lack lustre displays and some really poor defending but has given the management team a chance to try out a few things and players ahead of this first league fixture.

There's no doubting that the Yellows have lost some quality players with Westcarr, Knight, Kinnerley and Tomlinson all departing to Sherwood Colliery. In the end Oli Brown has stayed which in my opinion is good news and we have a new goalkeeper on loan from Long Eaton United in Mitch Leivers.

Also joining are defender Dylan Rawson, Midfield/forward Louis Czerwak, Midfield Emeraude Kabongo (on loan from Carlton) and a new forward line on Nathan Kelly, Jon Jebbison and Niall Towle who was with us last season.

We welcome all the new players and hope they have a happy and successful time at the RM Stadium.

Unfortunately another new signing Ellis Evans has had to take an extended break from football due to medical reasons and Aaron Lamb is out for the season with an ACL injury picked up in the play off final victory. We wish both players well for the future and hopefully will see both players in a Yellows shirt in the future.

Anyway here's to a good game played in the right spirit as the roller coaster of another season begins.

HUCKNALL TOWN SEASON 2023/24 PREVIEW

 HUCKNALL TOWN FC

UCL PREMIER DIVISION NORTH

SEASON 2023/24 PREVIEW

Ten years after the club took the unpopular but necessary decision to drop into the Central Midlands League Hucknall return to Step 5 football. The penalty shoot out victories in the Division 1 play offs sees the Yellows in the UCL Premier South division for the coming campaign.

This is a big step up for the club and will see us up against some old foes from out East Midland Counties days. The likes of Sherwood Colliery, Heanor Town, Kimberley MWFC and Eastwood CFC plus Belper United from our Central Midlands encounters. 

Of these clubs last season Sherwood were the most successful finishing 7th and will surely be looking to finish higher than that this time around. Added spice our fixtures with them as all 4 players who left the club since the play off final have taken up roots at Debdale lane. Craig Westcarr, Kieran Knight, Louis Kinnerley and our fans player of last season Louis Tomlinson. Whilst it's disappointing to lose players of this calibre especially to a divisional rival that's football and we wish them all the best for the future.

Kimberley finished 10th in their debut season at step 5 and again I think they will be looking at a higher placed finish this time around.

Heanor and Belper finished 13th and 14th respectively and I'm sure both will be looking at higher finishes after a disappointing season last time around. Belper have a new home this season in sharing the facilities of Eastwood CFC and are indeed Hucknall's first away fixture of the season.

Eastwood will surely do better than finishing 16th and will have no intention of flirting with relegation this time around and I think they could be the surprise package this season if they can keep their players happy.

The placings of our local rivals gives an indication of how tough this league will be because they all have good squads and yet the teams from outside our local area had the upper hand league wise last season.

A very good Anstey Nomads side won the title by 11 points and were promoted to Step 4 alongside Quorn who finished runners up 

Loughborough Students finished third after starting off well but faded away at the end. They will be up there again as will Melton Town, Sleaford Town and Boston Town who all finished above Sherwood. 

Newark and Sherwood finished in 8th. Last seasons Notts Senior Cup winners are my tip for the title and Hucknall face a very difficult looking FA Cup game at Collingham on the 5th August.

Everyone at Hucknall were waiting for the Skegness Town away fixture date and though it's January 6th there will be a good Yellows following for that one.

Skegness finished just above Kimberley in 9th and Hucknall's first visitors Wisbech Town finished just below Kimberley in 11th.

Wisbech are a team I know very little about and I will do a separate match preview for our opening game. 

Making up the 18 teams in the division are other old rivals in AFC Mansfield who finished just above the relegation zone last season in 18th and Lincoln United who were relegated from the NPL Div 1 East last season. Pinchbeck united, Deeping Rangers and Promoted Ashby Ivanhoe are the other teams involved.

Where will we finish? I personally will be happy with a mid table finish. Pre season has been a bit of a mixed bag where we have not been great in all honesty giving away some really sloppy goals. The need to tighten that defence up will be paramount to where we finish. There really are no whipping boys in this division and goals will be fewer than recent seasons. We need a solid start and the fans can do their part in getting behind the team. There will be set backs and we may well suffer some heavy defeats along the way and it's how we respond to those that may be key. I still think we have the makings of a decent side with the new players coming in but I don't think they have totally gelled into a unit yet and better is to come. Only one team gets relegated and I honestly believe we are better than that.

Anything above half way would be a bonus in my humble opinion.

Anyway here's to a good season and hopefully some good performances from the Yellows.