2005/06 season match No.25
Nationwide North
Monday, December 26th , 2005
Alfreton Town 1, Hucknall Town 1
Match report by Gordon Foster (Mansfield CHAD) and Pics by Phil Lucic


ALFRETON Town and their fans must be asking themselves ‘Who killed Cock Robin’ after coming within a matter of seconds of recording their first league win since September on Boxing Day.
It was utter heartbreak for the Reds and their supporters when, in the third minute of stoppage time after two had been indicated, Hucknall sub Gary Ricketts lashed home an unstoppable equaliser.
No-one would have felt that devastation more than man of the match Mark Turner. He had not put a foot or a head wrong throughout the match, but as Hucknall poured forward in the last five minutes in what looked a vain attempt to snatch a point, it was Turner’ headed clearance which, luckily or unluckily depending on which side of the fence one sits, struck the back of a yellow-shirted player’s head and fell kindly for Ricketts who blasted home from the right of the area, giving his former team mate Greg Smith no chance.
Smith himself was desperate to keep a clean sheet against the club for whom he had been man of the match in last season’s FA Trophy final, but it was not to be.
That equaliser was one of a number of talking points from the match, many of the rest of which focused on referee Paul Thompson’s peculiar sense of priorities.
Assistant manager Darron Gee opted for diplomacy on that particular topic, but said: “All you ask of referees is some consistency. Too many times horrendous tackles were going unpunished, and then players were booked for petty, niggly things.”
One particularly nasty challenge by Steve Palmer on Jon Stevenson, which ended Stevenson’s involvement in the match and maybe the next few weeks, certainly demanded a card and probably a red one at that, but all the benign Mr Thompson thought that was worth was a mild rebuke for the Hucknall skipper.
On the match itself, Gee added: “We deserved to win, we worked tirelessly and created much the better chances, especially in the second half, but when you are down there you don’t get that bit of luck that you need.
“The gaffer shook hands with every one of the players afterwards, and told them to get their heads up, because if we go on playing like that we’ll soon get out of the bottom three.”
One interested spectator was former Reds boss Dave Lloyd. It was last season’s home defeat by Hucknall on New Year’s Day that probably marked the beginning of the end of his reign, and certainly the 4-0 hammering in the reverse fixture hastened his departure.
But it seemed as though his return to the Impact Arena for the first time this season had brought a measure of good luck – until Ricketts changed it all.
Alfreton’s regular potential match winner Chris Bettney had been fairly well subdued by the Hucknall defence on this occasion, but in the 76th minute the winger – turned striker in an emergency – produced a bit of magic in the box. Receiving Steve Woolley’s low cross, Bettney created himself a couple of inches of space with some nifty footwork and beat keeper James Lindley all ends up.
The goal was just reward for Alfreton’s second half performance. The first half had lacked some of the verve one may have expected from a local derby, but the Reds had gradually got on top after the break and deserved their lead.
Phil Rowland volleyed over fro Hucknall in the fourth minute, but two minutes later Bettney sent Ryan Clarke – restored to his favoured right back berth – on the overlap. Clarke was cynically brought down, Bettney’s free kick was cleared only to player-manager Gary Mills, whose tremendous volley struck Turner and flew upwards. As it dropped, Emeka Nwadike got in a header which Lindley held well.
For the rest of the half it was honours even with defences on top. Neil Ross replaced the injured Stevenson, but the substitute could not quite manage a touch after Peter Duffield laid off a Bettney cross.
And Gary Sucharewycz just managed to poke Mills’ pull back from the by-line for a corner before Nwadike could finish from inside the six yard box.
Hucknall’s best chance of the half came midway through, when Mark Ward curled a free kick around the defensive wall, but Smith was alert to save at the foot of his post.
Smith denied Rowland with a one-on-one save in the opening seconds after the restart, following good build-up play by Palmer and Rob Gill.
Ricketts made his appearance in the 57th minute, and five minutes later Ross had to be helped off with an apparent hamstring pull, Bettney switching to partner Duffield while Woolley went wide.
Duffield and Matt Fisher both had efforts cleared off the line in the 64th minute as Alfreton stepped up a gear, then seconds later Duffield saw another header well saved.
After Mr Thompson’s earlier benevolence – the challenge on Stevenson had been the worst of three or four by the visitors – he decided that an innocuous foul by Mills on Gill in no man’s land merited a caution in the 69th minute.
By this time Lindley was becoming Hucknall’s man of the match. The keeper pushed over a wicked cross from Lee Featherstone, tipped another Duffield blockbuster aside, and then managed to turn Turner’s towering header onto Bettney’s pinpoint cross over his bar.
A goal had to come, and it was Bettney who provided it with 14 minutes to go, as this time even the heroic Lindley was given no chance.
But Hucknall sounded a warning two minutes later when Ward flashed a shot just wide from the edge of the area.
The visitors pushed forward in the last five minutes, and as the match entered stoppage time Smith fell on the ball well at his near post to cut out a dangerous Ricketts cross.
That save seemed to wrap up the three points, but then came the sting in the tail, as Ricketts lashed home his last gasp, heartbreaking equaliser.
ALFRETON: G. Smith, Clarke, Featherstone, Blount, Turner, Mills, Bettney, Nwadike, Duffield, Stevenson (Ross 28, Woolley 62), Fisher. Subs not used: Powell, Hume, Tasker.
HUCKNALL: Lindley, Asher, Beech, Rowland, Timmons (M. Smith 66), Cooke, Groves (Ricketts 57), Palmer, Ward, Gill, Sucharewycz (Robinson 75). Subs not used: Nangle, Carter.
REFEREE: Paul Thompson of Chesterfield.
ATTENDANCE: 564.
SCORERS: Alfreton – Bettney 76. Hucknall – Ricketts 90+3.
CAUTIONS: Alfreton – Mills 69 (foul on Gill). Hucknall – Ward 75 (foul on Clarke).
REDS MAN OF THE MATCH: Mark Turner.