Hempnall FC

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The highs and lows of football have been felt to their full in a real roller coaster week. A good win at Loddon last Saturday, followed by a disaster at Watton on Wednesday, then our best performance of the season in smashing 4 goals without reply from a very good North Walsham side.

Would we have settled for 6 points out of nine at the beginning of the week? Probably!

Six changes were made to Wednesday with Cudden returning in goal, Ben Nichols, Gareth Downs & Barry Allard took their place in the starting line up, plus Andy Clitheroe taking a spot on the bench. Carl Harwin was given the captaincy as a reward for some outstanding recent performances, and other positional changes were made as we sort to put Wednesday's dire performance to rights, and how the lads responded.

Within 5 minutes a perfectly driven free kick from Simon Jackson who's delivery was superb all afternoon, was headed home on the far post by in the inrushing Mills. This set the tone for the match with Mills and Franklin dominating proceedings, using their power and abilities to good effect. Chances came a plenty and only good goal keeping and resolute defending kept us at bay as we set siege to the goal.

Half time came and my biggest worry was that for all our dominance we only held a slender one goal lead, much less than our play merited. North Walsham came out briskly in the second half and held the upper hand, as despite the warnings our heads still seemed to be in the dressing room. However, against the run of play up popped leading goal scorer Kelvin Willimott with his by now trade mark turn and ‘dink' to drop the ball in the far corner of the net to double our lead. This was his seventh in competitive play and his 10th overall, an excellent return from a player who joined us this year from a lower level.

This was the signal for the tide to turn again in our favour again. The dangerous Hinton left the field and we powered on adding a bullet free kick from Simon Jackson to effectively kill the game.

Barry Allard returning to fitness started to show signs of his best when he jinked past 3 tackles and Gareth Downs showed his class with consistently high ball retention throughout. Carl Harwin and Ben Nichols looked like they had played together for years.

However, the Coup de Gras came in the 86th minute when a ‘rolling back the years' Franklin powered past 3 defenders, before exuding the last of his energy to drive home the 4th.

This signalled the end of his day & further proof of our excellent youth policy materialised, when the crowd pressure forced my hand into introducing Marty Fuller for his 1st (and last I hope!!) appearance of the season.

In a good all round performance, player manager Paul Franklin picked up the man of the match award, with Ben Nichols and Kelvin Willimott equal second.

During the week I was critical of the referee, so to set the balance, I felt yesterdays referee Jamie Broughton was outstanding, using a common sense approach throughout the entire 90 minutes. Talking to players at the right time and allowing play to continue wherever possible. Well done Mr Broughton.

It was good to see Kristian Jones up and about following his operation, supporting the lads but a bit worried he is already getting frustrated!

Thanks to the Hempnall Lawn Mower Centre for sponsoring the game. ‘Oh' and thanks to Trevor, there are some excellent photos to go with this report.

Finally, a reminder to all to put something in your diary for the Christmas do (buffet & disco) at the Unthank Arms on Saturday December 19th, BP will be producing tickets shortly, plus the club reunion has now been set for January 30th at the village hall.