Witton v Hucknall part II

First Team On the Park
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Neil I’m working tonight so can do updates if required.

From the guardian website;

Witton v Hucknall: FA Trophy preview
By Andrew Simpson

Witton Albion v Hucknall Town (ko 7.45pm)
FA Trophy Third Qualifying Round replay
Venue: Wincham Park
Winners’ prize fund: £3,000
Previous meeting: Hucknall 1 Witton 1

Witton (from): Kennedy (GK), Ellison (GK) Coo, Spearritt, Pritchard, Kearney, Brownhill, Dillon, Dave MacPherson, Lloyd, Brodie, Peers, Crowe, Warlow, Thornley, Rutter, Kyle Wilson
Doubtful: none
Injured: Brown (knee), Royle (ankle), Barras (knee), Craven (hamstring)
Suspended: none
Last year in FA Trophy: Round Two
Form guide (last six away): W W W W W L
Top scorer: Adam Warlow (14)

Hucknall (from): Reid (GK), Smith (GK), Timmons, Bobby Wilson, Asher, Sucharewycz, Cooke, Cullingsworth, Robinson, Mayman, Saunders, Bacon, Kistell, Howell, Thorpe
Doubtful: none
Injured: Ricketts (hamstring), Dempsey (knee)
Suspended: none
Cup tied: Dan MacPherson
Last year in FA Trophy: Third Qualifying Round
Form guide (last six home): W W L L L L
Top scorer: Danny Mayman (5)

Match pointers
WITTON have a perfect home record in the league so far this season, racking up eight successive wins. However, they have lost twice in the cup in front of their own fans against Prescot Cables and Altrincham respectively.

Jim Vince is likely to pick an unchanged team from the one that shared the spoils at Watnall Road on Saturday after his whole team came through unscathed. Alex Brown (knee), Tony Barras (knee), Chris Royle (ankle) and Dean Craven (hamstring) are all still out.

Hucknall have rattled in six goals in their past two away games - victories at Boston United and Stalybridge Celtic. Before that though they had lost the previous seven on the road.

Yellows boss David Lloyd can call on keeper Arran Reid despite his sending off in Saturday’s game. His ban had not listed by the FA yesterday, Monday.

Both teams know there is the reward of a home tie awaiting them in the first round proper after they were paired with Tamworth in yesterday’s draw. Not only that but the victors will cash a cheque for £3,000.

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Will be watching the updates with interest from the Big Apple - come on the Albion!

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Team news

Kennedy

Coo
Brownhill
Pritch
Spearitt

Macca
Lloyd
Brodie
Peers

Warlow
Thornley[br][size=1]Posted on: November 27, 2007, 07:41:49 PM[/size][hr]And Subs are

Kearney
Dillon
Wilson
Rutter
Ellison

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Come on lads!

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0-1 down Neil says it was a Pritch og

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And it’s that man Peers with another belter from outside the box to make it 1-1 ;D

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get in peersy you little ripper 8)

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1-2 down a pen for Hucknall[br][size=1]Posted on: November 27, 2007, 09:28:10 PM[/size][hr]Peers has been sent off

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Was Peers’ a straight red or two yellows? Just thinking about the length of suspension?

Can’t be long left now?

Come on Albion!

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finished 1-2

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Gutted. Concentrate on the league etc etc.

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Peers was a straight red, Spoke to pencil he said that we didn’t play well at all tonight well below out usual standard and on the night the best team won.

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Well we can’t win them all, its all about how we react on Saturday now.

With Fleetwood having a tricky trip to Guiseley we could have extended our lead at the top of the table by 5:45pm.

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Bummer, didn’t see that one coming. Thought they would be there for the taking. But it looks like we missed our chance on Saturday big time. :cry:

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On the subject of concentrating on the league I noticed we were 1-2 odds on to win the league the other day, which interestingly makes us the only team in the country odds on to win their respective league.

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Very poor display tonight, never got going. Lets get that out of our system and crack on with the next game.

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It has to be said that we didn’t deserve anything from the game tonight. Having got back into the game we had an opportunity to up our game and offer more of a threat - it never came!

Hucknall had only one approach and that was to thump it up into the box whenever they had the ball near the half way line. Their front men played for any free kick they could get and every set piece was lumped up high to their big front pair. Even the throw-ins were long into the box. They created pratically nothing on the floor in the entire 90 minutes. Credit to them in some respect as they would have been outplayed in footballing terms and they knew how to to beat us. In every other sense it was just lousy, there is no way you could go and watch that every week. If that is the Blue Square North than at the present time I would prefer to miss out on goal difference and stay in the Unibond. We will have to go out and buy half a dozen 6’4" physical players who we can hoof it up to!!!

Over the two games we were not good enough, which is a shame as we are capable of playing much better. The truth is at times we stood off them too much, if we had cut out the balls into the box we would have cut out the problem. As it was we found oursleves and indeed put oursleves under pressure that we could have gone some way to avoid.

I thought Peers lost control of the ball and lunged out to reach it, you can see why the ref produced a red even though I could not see how much contact was made. Their player did not appear to have aany problems running back on to the pitch!!!

I think Jim has a point with regards to the swearing and behaviour issue. I am not taking a moral high ground or pretending to be an angel. Football is a passionate game and a working class game at that, you will NEVER alleviate swearing at football grounds, it will not happen and is an unachievable objective. It is about balance and certain chants in certain places are innappropriate. Abusive chants in opposing team social clubs are not necessary and I think it is a case of considering the time and place. I don’t think the issue needs to be blown out of proportion. I thought the message could have been delivered better and timed better, I think more emphasis on the quality of our support with a ‘by the way cut out some of the abusive chanting’ would again have been a more balanced message.

We need to get back on track on Saturday and give NFU the full force of our football.

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What a horrible night! Another very disappointing home defeat in an important cup competition. Although the ref was, once again, a disgrace, that wasn’t really the point - Hucknall deserved to win and we deserved to lose.

With regard to Jim’s criticism of supporters, he’s entitled to express his opinion, and I accept that his comments were made with the best interests of the club at heart. I agree with Rabbit that some of the behaviour on Saturday failed to meet the high standards we have been setting this season; on the other hand, I also agree with Stu - the match programme is not the right forum for such a debate. No wonder the support from behind the goal was somewhat muted tonight.

All very sad - let’s hope it can all be blown away on Saturday.

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are we going down the same old road lack of investment one eyed wittoners thinking they are going to win the trophy. we wont win anything without investment and we havnt got that

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Thanks Billy for those wonderful words of optimism and encouragement.

We were not good enough tonight and that’s why we were beaten. We remain top of the table and in a better position as a club than we have been in years. We have to continue making progress!