For what seemed like the millionth time this season Hobnob took to the field against Prince of Wales, this time buoyed by the good point away to league leaders SC United the week before. In fact it was the first game on their usual Palmer Park stomping ground since Dan Robertson’s farewell game back in October.
Team selection was a reasonably straight forward affair for a change (it often is after a good performance). Dan Hare’s decision to get engaged midway through the season opened the door for Rob Walker but otherwise the side was unchanged, the returning Joe Hare had to content himself with a place on the bench with Luke Walker and Tom Robertson, the latter of whom had come armed with a camera to capture what was sure to be a glorious performance.
After the success that Hobnob had last week in soaking up pressure and breaking at pace it’s perhaps not a massive surprise that it took a bit of adjusting to being the favourites going into the game. The change in mindset needed took a while to kick in and rather than countering the first half descended into a lot of ‘hoof ball’ as it was smacked down one end and then headed back until it began to resemble a big game of volleyball. Never being the best at dealing with the ball in the air some gaps did begin to appear for Prince of Wales but Chapman and Phillips were proving more than capable of nullifying them and restricting them to shots from range. Going forward though Hobnob were at their most frustrating, the lack of movement was making life difficult for Plant and Bolton and when players were finding space, either the shot was straight at the goalkeeper or the ball into the box wasn’t good enough to create much. As the half looked to be petering out it was down the left that chances suddenly came from. Firstly Tiltman’s cross was flicked on by Rob Walker and Pulfer smashed the loose ball against the bar. Just before half time the breakthrough finally came. This time it was Davies’ cross that Pulfer managed to get a toe on to poke the ball in over the goalkeeper. The home side had the lead at the break but it had been a poor half, something Mike Terry was keen to stress.
The stern words obviously had an effect on the side and they went out much more positively for the second half. Pulfer’s good work created half a chance for Walker who could only head wide as Hobnob were began to control the game and it was only a matter of time until the lead was doubled. When it did come it was worth the wait. Pulfer spotted the run of Paine and put in a lovely through ball which the Grimbarian controlled beautifully before going on a jinking run past three defenders. Just as it looked like Paine had gone too far he produced a lovely finish with the outside of the boot to tuck it inside the far post. A fantastic goal that would only have been made better if it had been recorded, sadly the camera had chosen just moments before to run out of battery, returning only intermittently for the rest of the game. Unfortunately for Paine it may have missed his moment of magic but it was in full working order to capture a rare misjudgement shortly afterwards as he somehow managed to contrive to backheel wide of the goal when only a few yards out. The camera never lies! The goal took the stuffing out of Prince of Wales and it soon became a case of how many goals Hobnob could score. Pulfer made it 3-0 with his 8th of the season when he turned in Plant’s deflected shot at the far post and Davies and substitute Hare both saw shots well blocked. By the time Robertson came on with 10 minutes to go thoughts were heading more towards keeping the clean sheet but there were still goals to be had. Finding himself with acres of space to run into Davies thundered forward and smashed a lovely effort straight into the top corner and in the dying moments Luke Walker refused to give up on a loose ball and charged down an attempted clearance from the goalkeeper to make it 5-0.
It was a good job all round for Hobnob and a record 5th clean sheet of the season (thanks in part to a man of the match performance from Jim Phillips) to go with the glut of goals that takes the goal difference into the black. Speaking of the league table the result now takes the Nobbers up to joint 3rd with FC Woodley, with a game in hand. There’s no team in the league that isn’t beatable and if the side can continue with the clinical finishing of the second half today then there’s no reason why promotion shouldn’t be a realistic aim. That said, the first half should serve as a warning that nothing should be taken for granted.
