Parkdale Football – Supporting and Promoting Hope Nottingham

 

A brilliant, nail-biting County Cup match today, at home to a very strong Radcliffe-on Trent Juniors side. Another good crowd gathered for this one and they were in for a treat. And no small amount of stress!

Radcliffe opened strongly and dominated the first ten minutes without scoring. We found our rhythm and got ourselves more into the match and even on top towards the end of the first half. It was hard work though and we had to really battle for it with resilience and determination.

Late in the first half, a snap chance fell to both Harry and Louis, who both swung at it. In it went. No one knows who scored it. Half each!

The second half followed a similar pattern, but we gifted Radcliffe a goal with a goal kick mess-up that would have been funny had it not threatened to cost us the game. Least said, soonest mended, but whoops! We’ll not be trying the flick-up and volley from our own box ever again. Ever. Once was too often, surely….  Nope. We tried it again 5 minutes later, causing even more stress on the touchlines!

Both sides had chances to win the match with great saves and the woodwork preventing any further scoring.

So… straight onto penalties and more stress. neither side deserved to lose. Best of three ended up 1-1. Sudden death. It stayed 1-1. Then 2-2. Finally, WIlliam managed to blast his penalty home after Radcliffe’s player had missed. A 3-2 win for us. A shout-out here to both keepers, Radcliffe’s and our own, Tion. Both made a couple of great  saves each

Both teams were fantastic; a credit to their schools, families and communities. A hard match, tough at times, but no nonsense. Not any easy one to keep up with, but brilliantly reffed by ex-Parkdale pupil Leia too.

Onto the next round for us then, which won’t be until after the Winter break…