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Match Report |
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Blue Square Prmier - 22nd
March 2008
At Nene Park- Att 1,423 (140 York) |
Report
Every mile and a half seemed to bring a change in the weather:
bright sunshine, snow showers, heavy rain, back to sunshine.
His cheap supermarket shades were on and off often. The one
constant was the wind that buffeted the car around and forced
him to concentrate hard on just keeping it in a straight line.
In fact, he almost missed the turn-off for the A14.
45 minutes into the match, he wished he had done. It was all
Rushden and any time the ball was cleared up to the front two
- Richard Brodie
and Onome Sodje
this week with Martyn
Woolford dropping into midfield to cover the absence of
the injured Nicky Wroe
- it was coming back just as quickly. And yet Rushden couldn't
carve out any clear-cut openings despite dominating possession.
Mark Robinson cleared off the line early from Charles Ademeno.
The sense of gloom only deepened when Darren Kelly limped out
of the game to be replaced by Darren
Craddock. Ademeno and Jon Challinor were running the City
rearguard ragged and only a wayward Woolford shot provided any
respite.
Perhaps he was mistaken in wishing he was elsewhere as the wind
swirled around Nene Park and the intermittent snow storms lashed
this outpost of Midlands football, he thought when, early in
the second half, Ben Purkiss swung in a lovely cross that Brodie
met on the run to score a goal that looked as unlikely as Boris
Johnson standing for the Liverpool mayorship. The relief was
palpable, but quickly dispelled when Rushden hit back through
their skipper Chris Hope who had a free header at the back post
from a Marcus Kelly free-kick.
And that was that really as the game reverted to type. Rushden
huffed and puffed as City chased shadows. A switch to 4-4-2
made little difference, although Simon Rusk limping off with
a knee injury made it an expensive draw. It could have been
worse as Brodie clashed with Challinor off the ball, the Rushden
front man left prostrate on the floor and seemingly complaining
about a stray elbow. That it was a draw was thanks in no small
part to Hope failing to hit the target when he was again left
free in the box with only seconds of stoppage time remaining.
With coat collars turned up against the bitter wind, he headed
back to his car, desperately hoping that the heater that had
provided little more than a comforting breeze on the way down
had enough juice in it to thaw out his hands enough for him
to be able to grip the wheel. Heading back north, he had time
to reflect that sometimes you just had to accept that football
is like that and every club is going to have a game where it
just doesn't happen. City haven't had many lately, presumably
why he was so disappointed by this one.
Ref: R Whitton
The Teams
Rushden: Roberts; Osano, Hope, Corcoran, Howell;
Burgess, Shaw, Woodhouse, Kelly (El Kholti 74); Challinor (Platt
84), Ademeno (Rankine 69).
Subs (unused): Gulliver, Gooding
Booked: none
York City: Evans; Parslow, McGurk, Kelly (Craddock
15); Purkiss, Elliott, Woolford, Rusk (Lloyd 89), Robinson (Panther
79); Brodie, Sodje.
Subs (unused): Mimms, Fortune-West
Booked: none |
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