2005/06 season match No.41
Saturday, March 4th, 2006
Nationwide North
Alfreton Town 1, Hinckley United 1
Report by Gordon Foster (Mansfield CHAD). Pics by Phil Lucic.


MICK Godber’s sublime stoppage time equaliser preserved a deserved point for Alfreton and lifted them another place up the table and away from the drop zone.
On a day when most of the Nationwide North programme was snowed or iced off, this was effectively the Reds’ last game in hand as they caught up with the clubs around them in terms of matches played.
And another valuable point, which could so easily have been three, took them up to 16th on goal difference above Gainsborough Trinity.
A draw was a fair result though from an absorbing match in which both sides lost the half in which they had been the better team 1-0.
Hinckley had gone in for the break a goal to the good courtesy of a highly contentious penalty award, but Alfreton went for broke at the end with four strikers on the field at the same time – again no defensive shells here - and the gamble paid off.
Assistant manager Darron Gee said: “We played very well in the first half and we were disappointed to turn around a goal down, especially in that manner.
“We felt hard done by over the penalty, the lad fell over his own feet, but then they could have had one a couple of minutes earlier.
“We’d created chances and were very positive in the dressing room at half time, but in the second half it didn’t quite work for us. However, the equaliser was justified for our first half performance.”
After by far Town’s best result and display of the season on the previous Tuesday night against high-flying Harrogate, their fans were expecting more of the same. And to a large extent they got it, although the cutting edge of four days earlier was maybe a little less sharp.
Despite the excellent result from that earlier match, Gary Mills left himself and Emeka Nwadike out of the side to make way for the returning Dave Robinson (suspension) and Lewis Brooks (England U18 duty).
Alfreton bossed the midfield for most of the first half with Matt Fisher and Chris Howard working hard and to good effect – Howard looks to have been a real find and, the Redditch game apart, it is perhaps no co-incidence that results have improved since he has been in the side.
Alfreton have never been short of midfield ball winners but, unless Mills himself has been on the field, they have tended to lack a playmaker in that key area of the park, and Howard looks to have rectified that deficiency.
A lively opening set the pattern for the afternoon with both goalkeepers in early action. Simon Rayner, who always looks confident for his young years apart from his one-clanger-a-match average, got it out of the way inside two minutes, and got away with it.
His attempted clearance of Ryan Clarke’s back pass struck Andy Brown who had closed in quickly. Mercifully the ball rebounded out of play for a goal kick.
Midweek hat-trick hero Jon Stevenson was foiled in the 16th minute after a super ball through from strike partner Godber. Seeing Danny Haystead off his line he tried a deft chip over him, but the keeper managed to stretch up and hold the ball.
Howard and Chris Bettney both had shots blocked by Haystead’s legs after the Reds’ best move of the half which also involved Godber and Fisher.
But Hinckley took a 31st-minute lead against the run of play. Skipper Carl Heeley went down in the area and although there looked to have been no contact the referee pointed to the spot. Justice seemed to have been done when Rayner got down superbly well to save Brown’s spot kick at the foot of his right hand post, but he couldn’t keep hold, and Matt Lewis was first to the free ball to stab home.
Twice towards the end of the half Stevenson was stopped by ‘professional’ fouls just outside the area, but Fisher and Godber hit the respective free kicks off target.
However, it took a well-timed challenge by Clarke on livewire Owen Story to prevent Hinckley from snatching a second goal as the half drew to a close.
That would have been a real injustice, but Story had done enough in those 45 minutes to show that he was a potential source of danger, and that continued after the break with some eye-catching and troublesome runs and crosses.
At the other end Haystead was beginning to annoy the home fans with some blatant time-wasting tactics which brought no reproof except to Stevenson for trying to hurry him up on one occasion.
In an attempt to regain the initiative Mills put himself on just after the hour for Lee Featherstone, but Story was on fire by now and he shot wide after a fine run in from the left, then set up Brown who should have done better than put a free header straight at Rayner.
Surprisingly Story was withdrawn with 11 minutes to go, as was Ryan Clarke who made way for striker Peter Duffield – the first time Clarke has been substituted this season.
Story’s replacement, Dorryll Proffitt, continued where he had left off, and three times in as many minutes he engineered chances for Brown, who spurned the lot.
Alfreton threw caution to the winds for the final few minutes and sent on a fourth front man, Michael Rankine, in a gamble to save a point.
And the attacking formation paid off a minute into overtime. Godber picked out Mills on the left with a slide-rule pass, met the return, and unleashed an unstoppable shot past Haystead from just inside the box.
Gee added afterwards: “It’s all about confidence. We’re on a good run now, confidence is flowing through the side again, and the consequence is that we are getting forward to better effect.
“It’s never been our policy to be defensive, but sometimes when things aren’t going right for you there is a tendency for players to be over-cautious because they fear making a mistake.
“We seem to be over that now, but the job is still a long way from finished.”
ALFRETON: Rayner, Clarke (Duffield 79), Brooks, Robinson, Turner, Howard, Bettney (Rankine 86), Fisher, Godber, Stevenson, Featherstone (Mills 62). Subs not used: Nwadike, Smith.
HINCKLEY: Haystead, Lewis, Platnauer, K. Storer, Heeley, Piercewright, S. Storer, Jackson, Brown, Story (Proffitt 79), Shilton. Subs not used: Wade, Manship. Lavery, Gundelach.
REFEREE: Phil Bramley of Leeds.
ATTENDANCE: 344.
SCORERS: Alfreton – Godber 90+1. Hinckley – Lewis 31.
REDS MAN OF THE MATCH: Chris Howard.