With only eleven players available to choose from, team selection was pretty straight forward. Will Rimmer was missing at the back and injury forced Luke Walker and Warren Cheng out. This meant starts for Tom Robertson and the brothers Hare. James Plant, Rich Paine and Luke Walker made for a good looking bunch on the touchline but sadly they all only had a linesman’s brief.
Kick off was delayed as Athletico Forest waited for a player to turn up to give them 10 and with an outfield player in goal, their problems were even more stark then Hobnob’s. However they started well and actually had the better of the midfield battles. That didn’t really result in much by way of chances though with only one effort of note just clearing the angle of the goal. In fact it was Hobnob who looked the more dangerous on the break. Cross almost got very lucky when his ball in clipped the bar but they were beginning to exploit the space behind the defenders well. Phillips played a lovely crossfield pass behind the right back which Dan Hare showed great commitment and strength to win. His ball into the box found Cross who thought about shooting before squaring to Pulfer who showed his usual composure slot in the opening goal. Athletico’s chances were mostly limited to set pieces with a number of free kicks around the box. With a refreshingly unusual amount of dominance though, Hobnob were never overly troubled by them.
Having spent the first half shielding their eyes from the sun, the players had to contend with a hail storm second half and it wasn’t the only bombardment. The turning point was an injury to Terry about 15 minutes in. The Hobnob player/manager uted a fantastic last ditch tackle to prevent the forward going clean through but in doing so damaged his knee. This forced a reshuffle and the side didn’t look the same. From somewhere the 10 men of Athletico started finding space and the Hare brothers at centre half had to be on their toes a few times to stop attacks. Robertson made a challenge very similar to Terry’s before and it began to look like when, not if, Athletico would get their equaliser. But Hobnob stayed strong and could possibly have doubled their lead on the break. Cross forced a great save from the stand in keeper whilst Davies will be disappointed he didn’t do better after cutting in from the right. Right at the death Athletico had their golden chance. Having taken the ball round Chapman the ball was rolled across and in the words of their striker “he’d already started celebrating” before Robertson slid across with a crunching block to ensure the clean sheet.
This was the definition of a hard fought win for the Nobbers with not one player coming off having not put their bodies on the line. They were all battered and bruised and whilst the quality of the play perhaps wasn’t as good as it has been in the past, it was a valuable first 3 points of the year
