Men's 3rd XI Vs Nottingham Players 3

South Nottm started the stronger with a couple of half chances until the deadlock was broken by Elliott Dixon.  A pass from South Nottm’ captain Stuart Croston bounced its way over two defenders’ sticks to Elliott Dixon, with the Players’ keeper advancing on him fast. Elliott Dixon deflected it smartly round the keeper, to make it 1-0 to South Nottm.

Another South Nottm attack followed, with a lovely weighted ball from the top of the D by the midfield dynamo Owain Gunn, neatly slotted away by lurking predator Stuart Croston, 2-0 to South Nottm.

South Nottm defence consisted of Andy Wallace, Brian Blackmore, Neil Batty and James Brydon protecting Alex Heron’s goal. The midfield unit of Craig Bingham and Owain Gunn held the centre while youngsters Tom Brackenbury and Will Bingham were flying down the wings. Ben Ryder & Andy Jenkins assisted from the bench to ensure South Nottm stayed fresh, dealing capably with any new tactics that Players threw at them.

South Nottm’s 3rd goal came from lovely work from midfield, who smoothly passed the ball out to Stuart Croston on the Players’ 25. He drove the ball into the D with a lovely through ball to Elliott Dixon.  Elliott slid it sideways back to Stuart Croston who surged in at speed to tap it in. 3-0 South Nottm .

A slight loss of concentration by South Nottm just before half-time saw Players pull one back. 3-1.

Second half started with Elliott Dixon ending up in the D unmarked, after a lovely through ball from young Will Bingham. Elliott made it 3-1 to South Nottm with no hesitation.  Undaunted, Players fought back and rifled one in, to make it 3-2.

This seemed to re-invigorate South Nottm. Once again, with great interplay, this ended with Will Bingham firing a ball across the D for Stuart Croston to tap it in at the far post for his hat-trick. 4-2 to South Nottm.

Shortly afterwards, young Tom Bingham won the ball in the Players 25. With some tight control and close passing, this allowed Stuart Croston to slide a pass across to Owain Gunn on the back post to score Owain’s very first League Goal 5-2.

South Nottm effectively finished off their opponents with a lovely penalty corner flick from Ben Ryder across the keeper’s pads and into the bottom right hand corner. 6-2 to South Nottm.

Then the final act from what can only be described as a fantastic Team Goal that saw Andy Wallace from defence placing a lovely weighted ball into the Players’ D, to lurking Elliott Dixon. He slotted it past the keeper to make the final score 7-2 to South Nottm.