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After two defeats a game against the league
leaders who had a 100% playing record was probably the last
thing Notts Reserves could have done with, but the game
was an opportunity to restore confidence against the best
team in the division and Notts can be proud of the account
they gave of themselves on the day, despite the result.
Notts were without Newton, Elmhirst, Lacey and Neil Buxton
and with long term casualty Paul Smith still unfit, the
squad was looking a little threadbare. Shaw and Culligan
were drafted in to bolster midfield and Scott Henson and
Nigel Buxton were drafted in. Notts suffered further blows
when two strikers, Pounder & Dickinson dropped out at
the last minute, although Stuart came along as ’emergency’
third sub (carrying his now well known flask of coffee!)
These changes meant a major re-shuffle with Matt Allen partnering
Marco Stasic up front, despite the protests from the bearded
ex-striker in the back three.
The game was played on an excellent surface at the Manor
Sports Complex and was an entertaining and closely fought
affair. FLL, sorry, Kirkby Autocentre, were the first team
onto the attack and they took the lead with less than ten
minutes gone from a penalty that was to decide the match.
A K.A. striker made a run down the inside left channel and
Dave Smith, fresh from his disputed penalty last week, made
no mistake on this occasion, mistiming his tackle just inside
the corner of the area to give the referee a fairly easy
decision in awarding the spot kick which was tucked away
neatly.
Notts responded with some neat football and they got their
passing together for the next 20 minutes and managed to
control possession without creating many clear cut chances.
Matt Allen fought well to hold the ball up and linked well
with Riley, Shaw and Culligan, but the final ball rarely
threatened the KA goal.
Notts best chances of the game came from a couple of set
pieces, a corner which was scrambled away and a Dave Smith
long throw which the tall keeper mis-punched and was cleared
spectacularly from under his own crossbar by a defender
who did well not to score a great own goal.
The second period saw Notts push forward and KA threaten
to make the game safe on the break. Keeper Colclough was
forced into two or three crucial stops and at the other
end, despite re-shuffling to push Paul Stevenson up front,
Notts failed to trouble the KA goal until the final furious
ten minutes.
With KA dropping deeper and deeper, Notts began to get
some dangerous crosses into the penalty area for the first
time in the game. Chris Buckland and Marco Stasic combined
well on the right flank to produce good crosses and Matt
Allen did the same from the left flank.
In the end it wasn’t to be. The players are to be
commended for putting in another great hard working performance
and with a little bit of luck, we could easily have come
away from this game with something.
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