Thurlow Nunn First Division South, Wednesday 10th January
I decided to brave the cold weather and head out to New Lodge, Billericay, for a Thurlow Nunn South contest between two sides who are looking to grab promotion to Step Five and continue their rise up the pyramid, Hutton of course are having a decent first season in Senior Football, whereas Cannons Wood are looking to build on last season's solid ninth place finish and be right in the play off mix at least.
Hutton sat in third place in the division, six points behind leaders Clapton Community, with three games in hand, so they knew that a win here would really put the pressure on them and second placed Harlow Town, in fact Hutton would climb into second with maximum points, however the hosts had lost back to back home games (this was their seventh straight home game!!!) against promotion rivals Harlow Town and Dunmow Town so three points would be a hard thing to achieve against another top side.
Cannons Wood themselves were currently on the outside of the play off spots looking in with interest, they were in seventh and just two points outside so maximum points in this one would propel them into the top five so that was in itself a big incentive to win this one, although they were winless in four games themselves after victory over leaders Clapton Community back on December 8th, however they had drawn those four games, with three of those coming against fellow promotion rivals Benfleet, Harlow Town & Wormley Rovers, so, just like Hutton, it had been a tough run of games which continued here at New Lodge.
Both teams did see openings in the opening forty five minutes, but the visitors certainly created more and probably had the better of the half, and two minutes into first half stoppage time they grabbed the lead when Samuel Adetiba broke down the right hand side, and with the hosts claiming offside, the flag didn't come (it did look tight but I could not see from my angle if he was on or not) the visitors forward cut into the box before rifling a lovely finish in off the crossbar, and hand his side the half time advantage.
Adetiba was a constant threat to the hosts back line, and his pace was allowing him to have the chance to run onto balls over the top, on a couple of occasions hosts keeper Jamie Grossart misjudged the bounce of the ball but on both occasions the hosts managed to clear their lines, Adetiba also lobbed just wide with another attempt, and a cross from the right also struck the cross bar too as Cannons Wood looked to seal the game.
Hutton though dug in and kept plugging away, and weren't without their chances too, Andrew Webster headed a ball towards the far post which was millimetres from finding a teammate, and another cross was somehow headed over from point blank range, so although the visitors felt they should have been further in front, they had to keep their concentration at the back to make sure Hutton were not allowed in.
And it looked like the visitors would end that run of four successive draws and boing into those play off spots, that was until the 97th minute when Hutton pounced to end their run of two defeats at home when Jack Griggs, on as a second half substitute, nodded home from close range and deny Cannons Wood the win right at the death.
It was only Hutton third draw of the entire league season so far, and that point keeps them third but they fail to go second and are behind Harlow on goal difference, for Cannons Wood it's a tenth draw in twenty seven games, and five in a row now, too many draws you feel, this is why they are not right up there instead of being just in the mix and still sitting just outside the top five, if they could turn some of those draws into wins then things could be very good for them that's the sure.
Full time Hutton 1 Cannons Wood 1
No comments:
Post a Comment