Thurlow Nunn First Division North, Friday October 11th
I decided to take up an offer to go and watch the Haverhill derby for the very first time with three other friends of mine so jumped in the car to head North and venture to The New Croft in Haverhill for the first derby of the season in what was a Thurlow Nunn North contest.
Now tonight's 'hosts' were Borough, both sides share The New Croft these days and although both sides had that similarity, their starts to the league campaign were anything but, nineteen points and fifteen positions separated them in the table, Borough were down in 16th spot and only two places above the drop zone, although they were eight points clear of that.
That's three wins, four draws and five defeats in their twelve games ahead of this contest, whereas in stark contrast Rovers sat top of the pile having won ten of their twelve games so far, drawing two and having not lost a single game in the division, so on paper at least it was not a contest was it?
Well no, because this is a big derby in these parts and form and league positions go out of the window, and a healthy crowd of 500 turned up, which for a step six game is pretty special, to see which side would claim the bragging rights of this Suffolk town, well it was hard to see who was where in the division in the opening forty five minutes in a tight and competitive first half, as expected.
It looked as if the half would end goalless as well as chances were at a premium, but in first half added on time Rovers edged ahead in the contest when Clinton Frank made space with a run out to the right, allowing Kai Nicholls, who had only been on the pitch a few minutes, thread a ball into Luke Lindsay, and the latter fired a lovely effort into the bottom corner and the visitors had a slender half time advantage.
The match had been played in a rather decent spirit for a derby is this size, but that all changed early in the second period, Rovers were reduced to ten men after Frank had been fouled on route to goal just outside the box, but his back chat to the ref saw him sin binned just two minutes after the break, Borough defender Jonny Tully was booked for the challenge, and he was to be involved in the melee that ensued ten minutes later.
Tully and an opponent squared up to each other and Tully pushed him to the ground, sparking a melee which saw Rovers goal scorer Lindsay knock someone to the ground himself, the result was a second yellow to Tully in ten minutes or so meaning he was off, and Lindsay been shown a straight red for his violent conduct, meaning both sides were a man light for the rest of the evening.
Frank did return to the pitch a few minutes later and the game then settled down again after that spark, and with around twenty minutes of the contest to go, Borough grabbed a leveller when after Micky Cipriani had seen an effort blocked, he managed to find the net with a second attempt after the ball had come back to him, so the game was nicely poised heading into the latter stages.
Rovers made their final changes with fifteen minutes to go, one of those coming on was Ryan Twinn, and he was to be the match winner as eight minutes after he entered the field of play, he managed to nod a wonderful cross from Nicholls back across goal and into the far corner despite Borough keeper Zac Tuvey getting his fingertips onto the ball in a desperate attempt to prevent it finding the net.
That proved to be the winning moment and saw Rovers take the bragging rights although they were made to work very hard for the points against a Borough side who would have been disappointed to have lost such a tight game, it means Rovers are now five points clear at the top with eleven wins from thirteen games, Borough remain 16th but it's a sixth loss in thirteen now in the division for them.
Full time Haverhill Borough 1 Haverhill Rovers 2
No comments:
Post a Comment