Not the start Hucknall Town would have wished for in their first New Year game, slipping to a home defeat against their bogey side Pinxton.

Town have only themselves to blame as they gifted two cheap goals to let Pinxton off the hook.

Town totally dominated the first half with Pinxton pegged in their own half for long periods but when chances and opportunities fell to them the end product was lacking and some resolute defending kept the score level at half time, wasteful shooting and trying to walk the ball into the net the major contributor to this on Towns part.

It took only two minutes for Town to take the lead, Niall Thompson’s low cross turned into the Pinxton goal by an unfortunate defender.

Rather than build on this lead and the dominance they had, Town stopped doing the things that they had been good at – midfield work rate and closing down and quickly winning possession back again dropped off which allowed Pinxton a breather and also give them some confidence boosting possession of their own.

Both sides failed to produce a noteworthy effort although Town looked dangerous when on the attack but the end product tame.

Pinxton were awarded a free kick on the edge of the Town box in a central position, Pete Stubley using all of his experience to cleverly draw a soft foul from Dave Leak. Unfortunately the Town wall was badly positioned even before they side stepped onto the Hucknall bypass allowing the Pinxton right back to smash the ball through the acres of space past a flat footed keeper.

This was against the run of play possession wise but worse was to follow when from a corner Stubley and his own centre back where left unmarked at the back post to force the ball over the line.

Town huffed and puffed and Pinxton ran the clock down at every opportunity, Cayne Maxwell was forced off which prevented Town making the changes they would have liked to have made and the game slipped away.

Andy Graves - We can only blame ourselves; we did not make the long periods of possession count and then threw away two goals from set pieces which they never looked like getting from open play. Our work rate dropped off when we scored and then we lost our shape after conceding and the game became open and we left some holes in midfield.
The free kick was a disaster as far as positioning, the guy only had the one option to shoot and we parted like the red sea side ways giving him a free shot into our net rather than stand our ground – very disappointing.

Their winner from the corner again preventable but we lost or discipline and our marking was poor.

Having said all of this with better decision making in the final third we could have run out more than comfortable winners but we did not press the advantage home and Pinxton are a quality side and will always hurt you if you don’t hurt them first.

Town: 4 5 1

Town MOM: Joe Atkinson

James Beddingham, Cayne Maxwell, Dave Leak, Joe Atkinson, Elliott Pitt, Josh Henry, Cameron Davidson, Leon Aikman, Myles Gorey, Ben Waplington, Niall Thompson

Subs Used: Aaron Evans – Gorey, Joe Ashurst - Maxwell

Subs Not Used: Adam Nelson, Montel Gatland