Tonight's line ups, courtesy of that nice Mr & Mrs Knight of Retford.L to R, Retford United - Hucknall Town
Pre Season Friendly
Hucknall Town (0) 0
Retford United (1) 2
(Nathan Millington 12, Bradley Wells 75)
Admission £5, no programmes or team sheets issued
Attendance 60
Times are hard at Hucknall Town, damn hard going by the comments made in an official club statement yesterday. I wouldn't imagine a turn out of 60 hardy souls on a Thursday night will make a damn bit of difference towards the money the club owes the Inland Revenue, or that the Club Shop 'Every item just £1' fire sale is going to raise much either. It's not my place to comment on how the club got into such a perilous mess ... but I *really* hope they find a way to claw themselves out of it, somehow. It is a good job that virtually half of the crowd had travelled down to support Retford, or the meagre attendance would've looked even poorlier. Come on you people of Hucknall, your local team needs you, NOW, while you still have a club to support.
Club Statement 13th July 2011
The club can confirm that the offer made to HMRC has been rejected. The club is putting in place plans to pay its tax debts in full. At a meeting held on Monday 11th July, budgets were presented to the committee which clearly illustrated that there would be no budget available to pay salaries to either players, coaches or the football manager. The decision was made to operate as an amateur football club for the forthcoming football season in order to secure the long term survival of the club. Investors were informed of the news at a meeting held last night; none of the investors that attended the meeting withdrew their support for the share sale scheme. Any shortfall in funds needed to pay the remainder of the tax bill will come from surplus funds generated by the social club, sponsorship, gate receipts and other events that would have otherwise generated the football budget. Tommy Brookbank’s and his team are being given time to consider their position and to talk to the squad they have assembled during the closed season with a decision expected from them by Thursday as to whether or not they feel they are able to continue in their roles. The club will compete in the Evostik South League in 2011/2012 season and the pre-season friendly against Retford on Thursday 14th July will go ahead K.O. 7:45pm.
I'm sure I felt my car tugging to the right as we crossed Ollerton Roundabout and headed south along the A614 towards the Burnstump Hill, Papplewick, Linby corridor towards Hucknall and Watnall. I must've forgotten to turn that auto pilot set with the co-ordinates for Teversal off.
Retford started off the liveliest of the two sides, which is hardly surprising given the air of doom and gloom that is hanging over the Watnall Road club at present. On 12 minutes Nathan Millington, unmarked on the edge of the box, hit a tame shot towards Hucknall's goal. The effort seemed to take James Lindsey in the Hucknall goal by surprise as it nestled apologetically into the back of the net and he responded far too late to do anything about it. But they all count!
United were by far the better team in the first half, taking the game to Hucknall down the right flank in particular and nullifying any creative play the home side had to offer effectively and swiftly. Not that Hucknall had very much to give in that department. They look a poor shadow of even last term's relegated side already and given all of the woes at the club, they appear to be onto an hiding to nothing this coming season.
In the second half Hucknall picked up a bit, but never really troubled Retford where it mattered, in front of goal. And on 75 minutes when Bradley Wells cut in from the left flank to power home the Badgers second goal, the game was effectively over as a contest.So Brett Marshall, Retford United's manager, has his first win on his return to the club under his belt. He'll be well aware that United will face stiffer opposition in the coming months than they came up against tonight, but you can only beat what is put in front of you ... and once the Badgers had set out their stall there was only going to be one winner here in down town Hucknall tonight.
One of those other bloggers was present at the game, but he seemed reluctant to court publicity, so I won't say which one it was.GOOD LUCK HUCKNALL TOWN ...
they're going to bloody well need it.
Jon Knight's match photos --> http://jalbum.net/en/browse/user/album/1008597/
On The Road view of the game --> http://ontheroad2011-2012.blogspot.com/2011/07/hucknall-town-0-2-retford-united.html
Elsewhere, Maltby Main beat Pinxton 2-0, with a goal in each half, in the penultimate fixture in the Teversal Tournament.
