Nottinghamshire FC

Marcus Hall
Daryl Rose

26 Seconds Of So Close But Yet So Far

Semi-Final day and everybody arrives on time the students nowhere to be seen, just like students.

Then at about ten past one the keeper turned up and got a security guard to open up the changing rooms.

Colin got Mitch to collect all the subs first and then spoke on how we were going to tackle this game even young Speno gave us a message as well. So we all got changed and took a steady walk to the pitch. When we got there the goal nets hadn't been put up and there was a puddle in the goal-mouth.

Anyway the game kicked off and Trent applied the pressure first with their winger missing an open goal then Notts midfield realised that Trent had five in there midfield and sorted the problem out.

After that Notts was getting more of the play and Swannell played a beautiful thru ball for Marcus to run onto Marcus ran after the ball got full control of it and a defender was bearing down on Marcus. Just as Marcus was about to shoot the defender pushed Marcus over in the box and the ref gave nothing and said that Marcus tripped, even there keeper was laughing at that decision the ref gave.

Trent was passing the ball around well a carved out another chance, which Dave saved and Mitch cleared. Notts got Willo into the action with a lovely thru ball, which he brought down sweetly and megged the defender but shot wide.

Again Trent came back again and ran thru the midfield into the eighteen yard box and took a shot and Dave did a tremendous save in his top right-hand corner. The pressure was on Notts but they were handling it well then a late tackle on Andy Dickinson left him injured with a twisted knee so he was subbed for Chris Westerbury.

Dave Edward was called into action again after some silk skills from Trent and a shot that Dave could only tip over the whistle blew for half time.

Colin was happy with the progress from the first half and said that we were unlucky not to get a penalty but we still need to improve. We had our oranges, water and juice and we still believed that we could win the game.

The second half started and Trent tried to apply the pressure straight away but Notts were more compact and dealt with the pressure. Notts started better and after about 10 minutes Atko went thru and squared the ball to Marcus who at full stretch got the shot away and scored a controversial goal when the keeper caught the ball behind the line 1-nil Notts.

Trent felt cheated and were calling the ref and the linesman and Notts. After that Trent started to press even harder to get an equaliser and after some pressure they did. But, not before there keeper and defender stopped Marcus from getting a second after the keeper saved with his face and the defender blocking the rebound.

The Notts midfield failed to clear the ball and Trent shot and the ball went thru a crowd of players into the back of the net one all.

After that the game was played very tightly and there was not much action the ref blew for full-time.

Extra time loomed and Colin made a sub he swap Atko for super sub Ole Gunnar Rose.Colin was expecting extra time and was confident that we could still win Trent.

The first half of extra time started and both team were playing tightly and there was not much action. In the second half of extra time that was where all the drama was especially in the last minute of the game just before penalty shootout.

Rose tackled a Trent defender and scored one of the best goals this season from about 30 yards out he just simply curled the ball into the top right-hand corner of the goal as the Trent keeper just watched from his 18 yard box 2-1 Notts.

There where 26 seconds left when we kicked of and Trent pressed straight away and the ball ended up in Dave Edwards hands he went and kicked the ball but a Trent attacker was blocking Dave so the ref gave a free kick. Colin told Speno to take the kick so he did but, he missed kicked it and it went about 10 yards and straight to a Trent player, he skipped pass Speno and into the box and beat Dave at his near post.

Notts dream was over 2-2. Notts kicked off and the ref blew his whistle.