Hempnall FC

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Phew, if anyone thinks there are any easy games in this league, then they should have watched our game against Dersingham on Saturday.

We played against a side third from bottom with nothing realistically to play for but they battled for every ball and pushed us to the very limit, in a game that kept people on the edge of their seats (or in our technical area!!) to the very end.

We again had changes with Greg Devlin, Martin Addison & Lee Devlin unavailable but in came Carl Harwin & Neil Renaut to plug the gaps.

From the off Dersingham were in our faces , chasing every ball & picking up much of the second ball, despite pre match warnings of being ‘up for it’ we just didn’t start well. So, it was some what against the run of play when Frankie smashed home a 20 yard dipping volley that gave the Daniels no chance.

This did signal a minor uplift in our play but Dersingham continued to have the lion’s share of the ball and looked certain to equalise when we were carved open down the left. Scott Berry had what looked like an open goal but a brilliant recovery from Man of the match Neil Forsdick saw him dive to the left and block the shot.

So we entered the half time team talk feeling some what lucky & asked (politely!!) for the boys to ‘wake up before it was too late.

However, the whole ‘mindset ‘changed 5 minutes into the second half when a potentially ‘season changing’ decision by the officials resulted in a penalty for the visitors & then Hunter being sent off.

The excellent Jason Chapman failed to appear for the 2^nd half following a knee injury & young Tom Balfour took over.

The new official originally deemed a tackle from ‘last man’ Hunts to be legal, signalling he had got the ball as it went out for a corner. Then after consultation with his lines man who was much further away and not positioned to see the clear change in direction of the ball, following the tackle, gave a penalty!

With us going down to 10 & planning as to how we could adjust to get another goal, up stepped big man Forsdick to pull off a match winning save to keep our noses in front.

This did seem to finally wake us up & the character, effort & teamwork shown to compete though numerically inferior was brilliant. Some tactical changes with the hard working Neil Renaut being dropped in beside skipper BP, gave us a more secure look as striker Willimott was sacrificed.

Dersingham continued to push us hard, with players from both sides trying to use their greater experience to influence the young referee.

Things were tense & last ditch tackles a plenty but we held on to gain 3 valuable points.

In a disjointed performance Foz was a clear man of the match but Franky, BP & Browny in particular worked theirs ‘nuts’ off!!

We now enter a much needed week of recovery to rest aching limbs & patch up injuries as the heavy match schedule & hard grounds have taken their toll on many!!