Hucknall opened their GCE Hire Fleet United Counties Football League Premier Division North campaign with a 3-2 win over Skegness Town, and there is a quick turnaround as they turn their attentions to Newark Town on Wednesday night. Kick-off is 7.45 pm at The RM Stadium. Newark also began their league campaign with a win, beating Hinckley 2-1.

Speaking after the game, the coaching staff caught up with Terrance To Ink Media’s Bevo to reflect on the win, Gabriel Ebede’s standout performance and Wednesday night’s opponents, Newark Town. Rudy: “They were in the play-offs last season, and will have a decent side as well, but we will be well prepared. Hopefully people will turn out in numbers again and see what we are about, and we will keep believing in the players, and they believe in us and if that works throughout the season, then happy days.”

A crowd of 416 saw Trev Lindo open the scoring after Rawson’s delivery was headed back across goal by Orange for Lindo to finish, and Rudy was pleased with the side’s performance. “I thought we were outstanding today. Make no mistake, Skegness are a very good side and at times they had us under the cosh, but we went into half-time leading, and we made one or two rearrangements, but 30 seconds into the second half we conceded a goal. After that we turned it on again, Gabriel scored a couple of goals which were outstanding“,

JD Added “I just want to echo what Rudy just said, you expect perfection first game of the season, always cagey affairs and it did take us twenty – thirty minutes to really get into to it, then we had a really good spell in the game, where, apart from them scoring we really stamped our authority on the game, we stuck to the plan, players like Gabriel and Callum got on the ball more. But as we said, Skegness are a good side, and we did expect them to come back at us, which they did, but we stood firm and made last-ditch tackles near the end. All in all, everyone associated with Hucknall can be proud of the game today.”

Rodger was also pleased. “I am pleased we got through a really good side; we had to battle and I am really proud of them.

The star man in Yellow and Black was Gabriel Ebede, whose brace added to the three goals he scored in pre-season. The management team were clearly pleased with Hucknall’s new signing. “To be honest he is the most quietist lad you can ever imagine”, Said Rudy, “but we keep on him on training, you need to do this, you need to do that, after all my years as a manager I have never kissed a player on his cheek, today I did” JD Added “He is unpredictable, and unpredictability can be a good thing and it can be sometimes something you need to work on, as the players don’t know what you are going to do. If he can start to listen to the three of us, Rudy adjusted his position at half-time, ever so slightly, told him to come inside a bit more, and he got his two goals”.

Ebede restored Hucknall’s lead in the 74th minute after a good run down the right-hand side, before scoring the goal of the game in the 81st minute. After his first shot was blocked, Ebede let loose with a sublime finish that the Skegness keeper could not get near, lifting the roof off the stands. Hucknall faced a nervy finish when, in the 88th minute, a Skegness free-kick beat Alfie low to his bottom-left corner, but the Yellows held out for the final two minutes and five minutes of added time.

Photos by Ste Cooling