Hempnall FC

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In any game where you are 2 goals to the good and let the lead slip, it is inevitable there is an element of disappointment. However, upon reflection the 2 goal lead came with an element of good fortune in that both goals contained deflections.

Plus a very good North Walsham side placed us under much pressure and at the end may be counting themselves unlucky not to have won it.

So honours all square which didn’t really help either side and the real winners on the day were the fellow challengers who obtained the maximum 3 points.

We travelled to League leaders North Walsham without the influential Martin Addison (wedding) but included the returning Carl Harwin and Ben Cudden, both unavailable last week through work.

Tom Halliwell continued his rehabilitation by starting on the bench, as did new signing Neil Renaut whom we welcome to the club.

North Walsham have been going through a sticky patch of late, so we felt it important to start well and this we did with some early dominance which produced rewards.

Firstly a swift turn and shot from Millsy was assisted past a helpless keeper by a wicked deflection that spun the ball into the corner.

Wenham also had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for an alleged push by Mills.

Ten minutes later some neat football resulted in skipper Ben Player being teed up on the edge of the box. A good strike again cannoned of a defender and span into the same corner, giving us 2 fortunate goals.

This really signalled the end of our dominance though, and North Walsham came much more into the game but couldn’t really find a break through as our defence stood firm.

Greg Devlin gave way to new signing Renaut at half time as a late but not malicious tackle left him in pain for the last 15 minutes of the 1^st half.

The 2^nd half became even more Walsham dominated but a mixture of good defending and missed chances kept the 2 goal margin intact until the last 20 minutes.

Finally the pressure told as we failed to clear our lines well enough and a loose ball was lashed home.

10 minutes later a second arrived from similar circumstances as North Walsham’s barrage of our goal continued.

Matt Lown had been a thorn in our side all day and as another lofted ball came into the area his presence caused us issues for the umpteenth time.

The loose ball was lashed home despite Carl Harwin’s desperate lunge on the line which only diverted the ball into the roof of the net.

The game really opened up now, and Browny was brought down when it looked as if his run was going to take him free of the defence.

Walsham continued to push and had the better opportunities but it ended all square.

Despite the game being one of total commitment from each side, I felt it was played in good spirit with no quarter given and none asked both on and off the pitch (particularly when I was left carrying Mr Chase on my back after his exuberance took him into our Technical area lol)!

Was it 2 points lost or a valuable point gained, only time will tell?

Finally, congratulations to Wroxham FC on Reaching Wembley, well done guys have a great day out.