Hempnall FC

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The A team entertained their Horsford counterparts in the 1st round of the Shoe Trades Cup looking to build on some positive performances of late. 

Missing from the line up was Kev Oakley who is in the middle of a 5 match suspension, Ben Upton who was away, and Andy Talbot still suffering from a bad hamstring. 

The team was helped out by the introduction of Paul Kemp and Richard Leather who were dropping down from the Reserves.

Also there was new signing Ryan Moss making his debut in goal, who is a product of our youth system, and a return to the team of Jamie Austin after a spell on the sidelines.

The game started at a fast pace with both sides trying to gain the early advantage, but we had the better chances mainly coming from the front pairing of Leather who was running the Horsford back four ragged using his pace and great first touch and Stephen Kemp who is improving every week after his return to the side.

We took a well deserved lead on the quarter hour mark from a header by Ben Ling after a looping ball in to the box by S Kemp following a clearance from a corner.

Horsford then applied some pressure in search of the equaliser and came close when a effort just flashed past the post and minutes later a forward was through on goal only to find the young Moss on hand to pull off a good save.

The back four of Ling, Oli Pointer, Jon Osborne and James Daniels worked well to prevent the visitors coming close again after that nervy spell. Ten minutes from the end of the half S Kemp went on a mazy run only to be stopped by a last ditch tackle from a defender which forced a corner, from which S Kemp scored his first goal of the season with a powerful header to stretch our lead.

In the second half a battle in the centre of the park occurred between both sets of midfielders with P Kemp and Austin winning a lot of tackles and supplying the wingers Chris Easton and Laurance Seaman with some near perfect passes.

Seaman in particular worked well on the right and beat his man many times to set up chances for the front line.

Leather finally got the goal he deserved when he turned his marker on the edge of the box and fired the ball into the back of the net and scored by far the goal of the game.

With everyone putting in so much effort, with 20 minutes left the legs started to go and the hard working S Kemp and Daniels were replaced by Matt Oakley and Mike Manser with Seaman pushed up front.

Horsford still tried to pull a goal back but the new look defence held firm and kept them at bay.

In the final 5 minutes Easton beat the defence and with only the keeper to beat he slotted the ball home to make the score 4-0.

In the dying seconds of the game Seaman had a good chance to make it five but his effort just missed by a whisker.

This was a very pleasing performance from the boys and the hard work put in over the last few weeks has paid off and we got a win which due.

Man of the match was Ben Ling who gave a captains performance at the back helping the team to keep a clean sheet and also scoring a goal.

This was also Ling's final game for the club as he has been asked to play for Wortwell who play in the Anglian Combination Division 2. We would like to wish Ben all the best at his new club.

Matt Oakley