Hempnall FC

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Saturday was a good day all round at the club what with our 2- 0 victory over Brandon, the Reserves getting a creditable draw at league leaders CEYMS & the A team winning 3-2.

Also discussions with Lee Devlin after his Thursday operation revealed the operation had been a complete success with the problem identified, corrected & he hopes to be back in light training in 3 weeks time.

The victory for us was our 4th win in 5, in a period that has only seen us concede 2 goals. However the win wasn’t as clear cut as many people might have expected what with the visitors being rock bottom of the league & had lost 8 games on the bounce.

Much credit must go to Paul Wright and his men who came with a competitive & surprisingly well spirited performance, making us fight all the way.

Our squad was the strongest it’s been for several weeks with BP, Carl Harwin, Iain Mills & Ali Shearer all returning, given the management team the nice position of having decisions to make on the starting line up.

After a fairly even start in which Cud had be at his best in a 1 to 1 situation with a Brandon striker, it was Carl Harwin (see the photo in the gallery) who opened the scoring. Rising high to power home a header on the far post, following an excellent cross from Paul Hunter.

This saw no visible dent in Brandon’s confidence & they continued to be competitive being unfortunate not to equalise when they struck the bar.

The game was fairly open, but for our part we lacked the cohesion of previous weeks & many passes went astray. Credit though must go to Brandon who were battling for every ball & on this performance it is difficult to see how they have been on the end of some high scoring defeats recorded to date.

So at halftime we took the positives of being in front whilst not at our best but knew we needed to be sharper whilst showing patience. 3 points was the goal & we were on track.

The 2^nd half was much the same as the 1^st with a competitive approach required, earning the right to play. This requirement was typified by skipper BP & sidekick Neil Renaut, who won our man of the match award.

On the hour our 2^nd goal came when a loose ball in the box was slammed home by Ali Shearer.

As with the 1^st goal this did not kill off the visitor’s confidence or appetite for the game, I would think they felt a little unlucky to leave with no points or goals for their efforts.

Substitutes were introduced & Shaun Flint made an instant impact making several good runs down the left, one ending with a clever flick that hit the bar.

Brandon had good appeals for a penalty waived away & we then comfortably saw out the remainder of the game for 3 hard earned points.

Congratulations to Acle & Spixworth who reached the final of the Mummery Cup on Saturday. The latter is our next fixture, 2.30 KO away.

An interesting photo showing Ben Cudden with all his mates in the gallery lol !!!!

Finally it was good to see several members of the Committee there watching on Saturday. I had been invited to their last meeting, it was refreshing to see the energy & hear so many positive thoughts on potential actions to take the club forward.