Balcarres Home

Amberswood started the game very brightly with Carl Stocks and new signing Adam Corfield causing major problems down the wings, but it was Balcarres who drew first blood with the impressive centre forward Gary Ode going on a mazey run past two or three players putting the ball past keeper Danny Hilton.

Amberswood soon had a glorious opportunity to equalise, after Adam Corfield exposed his defender in a one on one situation and raced past him got to the byeline and cut inside before pulling the ball back to Antony Whitton, who took one touch to control it before putting the ball wide. Antony Whitton had a second chance to equalise when he beat the offside trap, but failed to make the keeper work as he passed the ball straight into the keepers hands. Next opportunity was Carl Stocks who went past his fullback with ease and isolated his centreback just inside the box and used his trickery to knock the ball away from the defender to put himself clean through on goal, but was taken down, but the referee failed to see this and waved play on. Amberswood were forced into a substitution after winger Adam Corfield limped off with a hamstring pull and was replaced by Chris Gregson. There were missed opportunities for both teams in the rest of the first half with centre forward Gary Ode causing Amberswood most problems.

As the second half started, much in the same way as the first, it was mostly down the Amberswood right hand side that the attacks were being created as Carl Stocks seemed a lot quieter, this half and Balcarres were getting more and more confident, by playing about with the ball at the back, but substitute Chris Gregson pressurised the fullback and dispossessed him and advanced towards goal, but slowed down and crossed the ball into the box, but put too much on it, and it was a wasted opportunity. Just after this Amberswood were forced into a second substitution as Chris Gregson, started to feel unwell and was replaced by Shane Clark who strengthened the midfield and released Paul Stringer into a more attacking role. Amberswood had a second claim for a penalty denied when John Warburton was chasing a ball played through, but was ankle tapped just inside the box and unbalancing the striker, allowing the keeper to come out and claim the ball. As the game came towards the last quarter of an hour Amberswood centreback Darren Ainscough started to get more and more frustrated with the lack of creativity and started to carry the ball out of defence time and time again, but he got caught with the ball in a fifty tackle with which the ball flew towards the Amberswood defence, but Shane Clark attempted to stop the ball making progress, but could only cushion it downfor the centre forward to fire the ball past a helpless keeper for a Balcarres second goal. It was in the end Darren Ainscough carrying the ball out of defence and passing the ball wide to the attacking fullback William Hoey which created the consolation goal for Amberswood as William Hoey advanced down the wing before squaring the ball to Antony Whitton, who this time controlled the ball before firing the ball into the net.

Final Score Amberswood 1 Balcarres 2 A game that Amberswood should have won, other than a couple of refereeing decisions.

Man Of The Match Darren Ainscough who was as equally important at attacking as he was defending and was very comfortable at carrying the ball out of defence.