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.