SPORTS SPLIT RESULT WITH HADJUK

I am not usually given to writing match reports for friendlies but the performance we put in on Sunday warrants a brief mention at least.

We anticipated that our annual pre-season encounter with Hadjuk would see us under the cosh and struggling to get a result, especially with a lot of experience resting injured or resting on a beach somewhere!

However, we were excellent from start to finish, with just a wobble in the middle when we got greedy and tried for a third and over-extended ourselves.

Youth prevailed and after only 3 minutes Liam put Kian in behind the Hadjuk defence and he advanced before finishing cooly at the far post beyon Matt Cleere in the Hadjuk goal. A bit of nip and tuck followed and both keepers were called upon to make decent saves. Then on 20 minutes, Liam repeated his pass beyond the back line, this time for Louis to finish very neatly, 2-0.

Things were surprisingly comfortable, until they weren't. With the game approaching half-time we over-extended and gave the ball away in their box, only for Hadjuk to break away with an overlap that we had no answer to, leaving Harry helpless, 2-1. We then gave the ball away again just a few minutes later, with a similar result and we suddfenly found ourselves brought back to earth, 2-2, on the stroke of half-time.

By then we were tired as everyone had pretty much given their all. We were down to 10-11 able bodies but despite tired legs, a steely determination not to lose saw us knuckle down to deny Hadjuk many scoring chances and these were dealt with by Tom Beesley in goal and a fine defensive performance from MOM Aaron Hunter, not to mention those around him.

We could have nicked it on the hour when George Colborne hit the bar from distance, immediately follwed by Liam McKinney's free kick also hitting the woodwork. But a draw was a fair result against one of the best teams locally, and a game in which everyone who participated played a full part.