Yellows Suffer Another Home Defeat

 HUCKNALL TOWN 0 SKEGNESS TOWN 2

UCL PREMIER NORTH

SAT SEPT 9TH 2023 3 PM KO

TEAMS: Hucknall Town

1 Alfie Smith-Eccles 2 Jamie Crawford 3 Dillon Rawson 4 Sam sims 5 Aaron Short (Capt) 6 Connor Whiles 7 Brad Lathall 8 Kai Wilson 9 Trevell Lindo 10 Joe Ashurst 11 Louis Czerwak

Subs: Callum Orange, Raife Poplar, Kieron Lane, Jack Smith

Skegness Town

1 Jake Lovelace 2 Adam Millson 3 Elliott Broughton 4 Conor Marshall 5 Nick Jackson 6 Bailey Dilley 7 Jonny Lockie 8 Scott Floyd 9 Declan Johnson 10 Ben Davison 11 Luke Raynor-Mistry

Subs: Harrison Ainsley, Stacey Cartwright, Gary King, Jamie Robinson

officials: Jack Hennell Alan Parker, David Henfrey

Att: 270

Skegness took the victory and the three points back to the seas side but at least the Yellows stemmed the flow of goals and put in an acceptable performance.

Hucknall suffered a big blow when big striker Niall Towle was ruled out with a hamstring injury picked up in the mid week defeat at Newark. This meant a starting place up front for Trevell Lindo. New signing Jacob Sturgess was also missing as was Billy Brooks and Nathan Kelly. Dillon Rawson returned as full back. Michael Banister has stepped down as assistant manager and left the club.

Hucknall started quite brightly with Czerwak having the first shot but it was straight at the visiting keeper.

After 10 minutes the home keeper had to save a Lockie shot from close range.

The visitors took the lead a minute later from a fabulous strike from distance by Declan Johnson. 

Before Hucknall could reset they fell two behind after a good move from the visitors broke down the Hucknall defence. Ben Davison's header from a right wing cross gave Smith-Eccles no chance and once again the Yellows had a mountain to climb. 

Smith-Eccles then produced a great save tipping a free kick over to keep the score down to 2.

The referee decided he needed to be in on the show and showed Aaron Short a yellow card for a challenge on the keeper which was nothing more than an unavoidable collision with both going for the ball.

Czerwak was then brought down in the box but to further enrage a partisan home crowd the referee waved the protests away. 

Then came a decision which needs some explaining. Lindo was tugged outside the box but the official played on with the Hucknall man goal side of the defender. The defender then fouled Lindo a good metre inside the box but to everyone's amazement the referee pulled it back for the original tug. The resulting free kick ended up with Short putting the ball wide. Czerwak also put a shot off target just before the half ended.

The second half saw Skegness content to defend and then break quickly. Despite a lot of Hucknall effort there was very little end result and a couple of quick breaks from the opposition nearly bore fruit with an unsuccessful penalty appeal of their own and a shot that was off target.

Lathall looked to be through on goal but was pulled back by Jackson taking a yellow for his troubles. Again the freekick came to nothing.

68 minutes saw Orange replace Lindo.

A lovely cross by Crawford was met by the head of Joe Ashurst but went straight into the keepers hands.

Ashurst then received a yellow for a bad tackle.

Orange was doing well since coming on but he was involved in a worrying piece of play. After a similar incident that saw Short booked in the first half the young visiting keeper was brave but was knocked clean out in the collision. Some of the home fans didn't realise how serious the situation was but the keeper was given a good round of applause when he was chaired off after a good amount of treatment. The MOM bottle was also given to him as a token of acknowledgement (hope his Mum enjoyed it)

The Yellows pressed in the time added on but the visitors ran out deserved winners.

Next game is a Notts Senior cup game at Southwell on Wednesday followed by a long trip to Deeping Rangers next Saturday.