Nettleham FC 2 v Harworth Colliery Institute 0 - PSF

Tuesday 31st July 2012, at Mulsanne Park
Pre Season Friendly
Nettleham (0) 2 - C Dye, B Munroe
Harworth Colliery Institute (0) 0
Ouch! Flying, hungry, blood sucking insect alert ... attracted by the floodlights and the temptation of vulnerable flesh to nibble, the little feckers were rampant.
Anybody who was at Mulsanne Park tonight will have the scars to prove it.
If Nettleham, formerly of the Central Midlands League themselves, are typical ofhow sides in the Lincolnshire League play, then it must be of a fairly decent standard.
Harworth had the better of the opening exchanges, with David Cornthwaite, playing out of position on the left flank, offering them a few extra options.
Paul Burns also had a good game for the visitors.
Inside the first 25 minutes, Harworth had five chances that they should've broken the deadlock with, but the Nettleham goal led a charmed life.
As the first half came to a close, Nettleham were now seeing more of the ball and it had turned into a fairly even and open game by the time the half time whistle sounded.
The second half continued in the same vein, until about 15 minutes in, when the floodlights along one side went out.
There was a ten minute delay while the problem was rectified, though in my opinion, it was probably still light enough to have carried on with the game ... but I guess that was at the ref's discretion and he had to consider what the consequences would've been if anything untoward had happened while the 'artificial luminance' wasn't working at full capacity.
After the stoppage, with the lights back in full working order and the mosquitoes getting more savage by the minute, Matt Smith stormed forward for Harworth, but his path to goal was cut out by the Nettleham keeper, who played the ball up the pitch and triggered a counter attack, which saw Nettleham take the lead. 2 minutes later, Munroe fired home from the edge of the box to make it 2-0 nil.
Smith, the Harworth Under 19's striker, chased every ball down and never gave it up as a lost cause, he's a real grafter and he impressed during his 45 minutes on the pitch.
The floodlight's were switched back on but some of the Harworth team needed a couple of minutes to recharge it would seem.
David Cornthwaite ran through two defenders to latch onto a well weighted through ball and grabbed a goal back for Harworth.
But the linesman's flag went up and the goal was harshly ruled out. Maybe he'd seen another player in an offside position, because Cornthwaite definitely wasn't when the ball was played and his run was timed to perfection.
Late on, Gaz Sides struck a shot from the edge of the area, but Nettleham's goalkeeper turned it away.
Full time: Nettleham 2 v Harworth Colliery Institute 0Thanks to Simon Stones for the lift tonight.
Typically, on the first night this season I didn't drive myself, the bar was closed ... just my luck!