The weather cannot decide what Month it is for the Middle of November it was more like a spring day, clear blue sky and warm sunshine. The pitch was in a fair condition, the kick off was delayed until 11.05am to enable the players to observe the minutes silence at 11.00am.
Hadcroft knew that this was going to be a hard match as it proved to be but was overshadowed by the opposition’s actions at the end of the match. The first half was a battle with both teams creating a few chances each but the turning point of the match could have come 5 minutes before half time when MOM Sean Gray beat the defence and only had to side foot the ball into the net but scuffed his shot and saw the ball go past the post.
HALF TIME 0 – 0
The second half started in a similar fashion to the first a good strong battle. The dead lock was broken on 57 minutes when a corner was not cleared properly by the Hadcroft defence and a low volley from just outside the area saw Malt Shovel take the lead 0 – 1. Hadcroft kept battling and created a few chances but as with last week this was not going to be their day and so it proved on 68 minutes when Hadcroft keeper under no pressure turned the ball into his own net at his near post 0 – 2. Hadcroft made a double substitution on 75 minutes bringing on Chris Reade and Luke Smith and taking off Ian Whittaker and Chris Smith to see if this could change things. A foul by Daniel Shakespeare on 81 minutes and the retaliation from the Malt Shovel player saw 2 cards produce Red for the Malt Shovel Player and Yellow for the Hadcroft player, but this was the incident that sparked of the disgusting reactions from Malt Shovel at the time and then well after the final whistle had gone.
FULL TIME 0 – 2
Next match at Home against Waggon in the Dudley Guest Cup round 3 KO 10.30.
