High fives all round for Hobnob as the winning run continues with a 5-1 thumping of bottom of the table New England
Dan Hare’s withdrawal today denied manager Mike Terry a bit of a selection headache this morning as the returning Rich Paine was able to come in as a straight swap up front. Consistency is becoming a byword with Hobnob at the moment and the other 10 players were unchanged from last week’s victory against AC Winnersh.
Hobnob went into today’s game as strong favourites but that tag looked unfounded for much of the first half. The opening twenty minutes were dominated by New England who belied their lowly position with several periods of intense pressure on Chapman’s goal. Time and again the ball was played in behind the centre backs and there were several nervy clearances. After a succession of corners and long throws, New England finally made their possession pay when a corner was only half cleared and a rather speculative shot was parried by Chapman straight into the path of their striker who reacted quickly. The goal acted as something of a wake up call to the home side and they began to exploit the natural width of the side. Some good link up between Tiltman and Davies on the left flank resulted in a throw in prime Bolton territory. In came the big hurl, a poor clearance and Tiltman’s left boot. The ball was struck so sweetly that the keeper barely moved and all that was missing was the cry of ‘FOWLER’ to go with it.
The goal acted as a turning point and the next twenty minutes were the polar opposite to the first. Paine headed narrowly over from a Turner cross and that was all the warm up he needed. Some great closing from Dan Robertson led to a corner on the right and Davies’ inswinging delivery was inch perfect for Paine to give Hobnob the lead. There was still time before the break for the lead to be extended. Tiltman was pole axed just inside the New England half and Plant decided to ignore any subtlety and whacked it straight into the box. The ball was missed by everyone and was still rising as the keeper failed to get a palm to it. No doubt he’ll claim he meant it but it was a great strike that gave Hobnob a deserved two goal cushion at the break.
In the last few weeks one of the bright sparks of Hobnob has been the effectiveness of the kick offs. After wasting the first they made no mistake with the second. Straight away the ball was played threw to Paine who was virtually unchallenged as he made his way to the edge of the box. The ball was stood up to the far post were a gleeful Dan Robertson was able to nod in the fourth and kill the game off. Nobody was more surprised than the goalscorer that both strikers had managed to score with their head.
With the game finished with another 45 minutes still to play, Hobnob were able to coast through to the end. The second half was played almost entirely in the Hobnob half but New England’s wasteful use of the ball meant that Chapman’s goal was left unchallenged. That was until just after the hour mark when a free kick wasn’t defended properly, the oncoming forward knocked it into the top corner only to see the flying goalkeeper turn it around the post. After that, the referee may as well have blown the whistle. It was just as well for the bumper crowd that he didn’t as with five minutes left, Hobnob scored the goal of the game. Chapman’s goal kick was deftly flicked on by substitute Bargent to Dan Robertson. He used his skill to turn his marker and pulled back for Paine to tap into an open net. A confident win for Hobnob in a game that they rarely got out of first gear.
