The Arrow opened their home fixture list with what turned out to be a comfortable 3-0 win over Real Hucknall.
As always we turned up Sunday morning and played the weekly game of ‘who’s too pissed to play’. The casualties of a heavy Saturday night this week were Dave Warner, Saunders and Walshy, with only Warner able to muster the strength to kit up.
Having not played this Hucknall team before nobody knew much about them but with them winning their league easily last season and beating Burton Joyce in their season opener we expected a tough game.
The Arrow started strongly and had a couple of half chances through Franny at the back stick and Cory beating the offside trap but not being able to get the ball before the gk.
The midfield and defence looked strong (it probably helped that we played a formation we actually understood) and showed the kind of neat passing which deserted us against Nottingham United. It was this passing that opened up the defence for Cory to put us 1-0 on about the half hour. Just after this Chris Muldoon decided to fuck about with the ball on the edge of the area allowing the Hucknall striker to go through 1-1 but Raz made a good save at his near post (to amend for a couple of dodgy handling errors he made early!) Franny then had to clear the ball as it flashed across the 6 yard box with a striker closing in.
Half time 1-0
Hucknall came out strong second half and put pressure on the Arrow goal for the first 10 minutes but the defence stood firm with Spenno and Macca diving in to tackles. Saco dropped in to midfield with Danny pushing forward to support Cory and it paid off straight away. Danny slid in and won the ball off the last defender and went through to round the goalie and put the arrow 2-0. Within a few minutes the game was over as Cory went through with the keeper to beat, his first shot was saved but the ball rebounded back to him and he slotted it in to kill the game.
After the 3rd goal went in the game went a bit flat until Jack Payne came on for the last 5 minutes. His first (and only) touch was a quality little lay off (if he meant it) and then he just ran about like a Labrador until the final whistle whilst shouting for the ball regardless of whether he was being marked by 2 men or not, can’t fault the enthusiasm.
3 points and a clean sheet set the Arrow up nicely for Burton Joyce next week.
