Hackney Wick 1 Holland 1

Thurlow Nunn Division One South, Wednesday September 22nd

Wednesday evening saw me back over at my old stomping ground and Spa Road in Witham for a Thurlow Nunn One South contest between Hackney Wick and Holland, and it saw the visitors claim a very hard earned point after seeing off a barrage of attacks by the hosts who really should have won the contest.

Wickers have had a pretty solid season so far, winning five of their eleven league matches and sitting in the top ten of the division, whilst Holland themselves had also won five league games too and were just two points behind their opponents in the table, so an intriguing contest was expected here.

The hosts certainly started the better and saw Shorten thwart them on two occasions, tipping over a long range effort before brilliantly saving a one on one situation as the hosts were denied once again, and then Holland managed to take the lead against the run of play on twenty five minutes when an effort from Ryan Mahan looked to have crossed the line despite it hitting one of his own teammates inside the goal, and although the referee did not give it initially, after some protests from the visitors he went over to check with his assistant who said it had crossed the line and the goal was given.

Wickers continued to have the better of the play but saw a long range effort thump against the post before another chance saw a header sent over the bar from point blank range at the back post, meaning the visitors somehow went into the break a goal up.

Wick's dominance was even greater in the second period but try as they might, they could not find the onion bag, Shorten had to make more brilliant stops to deny the hosts, and they even struck the post again from outside the box, and it looked like it would be one of those evenings for the home side.

With nine minutes remaining however they were to finally find the net as an unsighted Shorten was beaten at his near post by a wonderful strike by Brandon White from outside the area, and the question was if Wick could go on and win it?

They nearly did but from keeper Shorten making another crucial save for the visitors, with the follow up being fired into the side netting, and soon after the final whistle went and the visitors could breathe a sigh of relief, they had rode their luck in this one but dug deep to come away with a very hard earned point. Wick will be disappointed not to have won this game, but they did not lose it either and can take many positives from it.

Full time Hackney Wick 1 Holland 1