Hucknall Town hearts were broken on the road as a late Aylestone winner denied them of a well-deserved point. The hosts had taken an early lead with two quick fire goals that were fought back against by two Joe Ashurst strikes, but a later header from a corner kept all three points in Leicester.

The hosts took an early grip of the contest with striker Aaron Nuttall blistering his way into the left of the Hucknall box to force a save from Louis Kinnerley with only three minutes on the clock.

It didn’t take much longer after that for the deadlock to break, with Louie Samuels rolling home to take advantage of a lapse in concentration at the back.

The lead was soon doubled from the spot by Nuttall who rifled home a penalty after Billy Brooks felled his man in the area right on the ten minute mark.

Yellows managed to restore some order from there, as Craig Westcarr saw his flick from a Connor Whiles corner cleared away off the line, before turning creator as his his right-footed rifle bounced back off the foot of the post for Ashurst to tap home, keeping his fine form in front of goal going.

Yellows managed to assert their presence in the game from there on, with Kieran Knight volleying on target from a tidy Aaron Lamb cross and Ashurst clipping the top of the bar with a hopeful effort from distance. Ashurst started causing the hosts more problems as he delicately collected a fine ball inside from Knight, rolling past three defenders before seeing his curled attempt blocked by a fourth.

Two good pieces of quality were displayed by Knight as a very encouraging half of a half drew to a close, first seeing his ball in behind cleared as far as Sims who tested the keeper with a well hit effort, before sending an effort of his own into his gloves after twisting his way past a couple of defenders.

The second half continued on with the same surprising level of dominance and control that Yellows had begun to show, with Lamb and defender Louis Tomlinson both flashing dangerous efforts across the face of goal early on.

The leveller should have arrived with 57 minutes played, as another lovely delivery from Whiles was kept alive by Westcarr, who fashioned a golden chance for captain Aaron Short who could only sweep the resulting shot into the keepers grateful arms.

Whiles continued the lethal set-piece deliveries, and Yellows again almost benefited from them as a dangerous free kick was almost reached by Sims and Westcarr at the back post, but to no avail.

The leveller came with 15 minutes left to go in the contest through Ashurst again, who was perfectly placed on the edge of the box to fire home into the bottom corner from a cut-back to deservedly restore parity.Yellows almost placed themselves into the ascendancy through Knight, who didn’t get the goal his performance deserved as his looping header from a Lamb cross was caught well by the keeper. Aylestone began to pile forward in search of a reply, and it seemed Yellows defence would hold firm as three stupendous tackles from Brooks and Short ensured the visitors were kept at bay.

Heartbreakingly, there was to be a winner for the hosts and it came from a firm header from defender Peace following a corner that snuck into the bottom corner of Kinnerley’s goal to shatter Hucknall hearts after a performance that the visitors can be truly, truly proud of.

Hucknall starting XI: Kinnerley, Crawford, Brooks, Short (C), Tomlinson, Sims (Wilson 70’), Whiles, Ashurst, Lamb, Westcarr (Thatcher 80’), Knight
Unused subs: Fin Whyte, Brad Lathall, Oli Brown

Man of the Match: Joe Ashurst

Report by Louis Wheeldon