THE66POW: Gainsborough Trinity XI 0 v Hull City U21 4

Wednesday 3rd August 2015
Pre-Season Friendly
at the Martin & Co. Arena/The Northolme
Gainsborough Trinity (0) 0
Hull City U21 (1) 4
Will Annan 16
Johnny Edwards 61, 79
Dan Batty 82
Admission £8

One of the saving graces of working in Gainsborough quite often, ass I am wont to do, in fact probably the only one I can think of at all, is the positive vibe coming off of the feel good factor emanating from the local Nationwide League football club at this present time.
The chairman at the Northolme, one Richard Kane, is doing a great job of reaching out to the local community and delivering a whole range of incentives and innovative ideas to capture the imagination of Trinity supporters, the local business community and the population of the town, that was once the capital of England... go and check it out on Wikipedia yon doubters.

Trinity bootboys

While, if what I have seen in pre-season is anything to go by, then Dom Roma is proving to be a great appointment as first team manager and his squad building and the aesthetically pleasing and easy on the eye manner in which he has got them playing, seems to suggest that the Northolme faithful are in for a treat over the forthcoming season.
With only three days to go until the 'Holy Blues' opening league game v. Bradford Park Avenue at the Northolme, Roma played what was predominantly a team of youngsters and squad players, while Hull City, whose first team is currently in Austria, sent their Under 21 team, who proved to be a very entertaining, top quality side, who play the sort of passing game that cries out for a surface like the one at the Martin & Co. Arena.

At times, it looked like a very steep learning curve for some of the younger Trinity lads, as the visitors knocked the ball around with consummate ease, but they matched Hull for competitive effort and although they were given a bit of a runaround at times, Gainsborough stuck to their ominous task and didn't allow City to completely dominate the game.
Lee Betts, playing in the left back berth for the 'Holy Blues' was probably the busiest player on the pitch for long spells, trying to keep tabs on Will Annan, who put the visitors ahead after 16 minutes. Despite the close attentions of Betts, Ioan Evans and the Trinity keeper Ollie Adams, Annan picked his moment and threaded the ball through his three opponents after breaking at pace through the right channel.

Will Annan puts the Tigers 1-0 up

Stung into action by Hull's opening goal, Trinity went on the attack, with Joe Hopson heading narrowly wide from Joe Edwards left wing cross. Moments later Nathan Jarman wasn't too far away from squaring things up with a speculative long range effort.
Adams did well to keep Tyler Hamilton's shot out after he had been set free by Annan.
Adam Porritt, the home side's right back was putting in a good shift and caught the eye, but what really stood out, was that when Hull City got hold of the ball they were retaining possession really well and they deserve a lot of credit for the way they executed their high tempo, pass and move game plan, with each and every one of their players looking very comfortable on the ball.
HT: Trinity 0 v Tigers 1

Left click image to enlarge

Adam Curry miscued his shot over the bar from Dan Batty's inswinging cross as the visitors went on the attack straight from the restart.

But Trinity took up the initiative when Porrit dispossessed Johnny Edwards with a timely interception before feeding the ball forward to Ash Shannon who darted forward before threading a sideways pass through to Hopson, but the promising box to box move came to an abrupt halt when the 'Holy Blues' striker lost his footing.

Hamilton powered into the home side's area but put his shot wide of the right hand post.

Hopson went one on one with Will Mannion in the Tigers goal and though the keeper made hard work of it, he eventually held onto the ball at the second attempt.

Porrit and Shannon combined again down the right flank, but Mannion caught the former Retford United player's cross.
Will Annan should have claimed a second goal for himself, but his shot across the face of the goal went wide of the upright.
Porrit and Ryan Douglas both had a go at clearing Steve Akbas' ball into the six yard box from out on the right, before Trinity snuffed out another City attack.
Edwards rode three challenges but Adams blocked his shot.
Hull were looking increasingly threatening now and only a last ditch tackle by Charlie man kept Annan out of harms way.

Inevitably, the visitors scored again when Hamilton's cross to Edwards, left Adams woefully exposed by his AWOL defence and the Tigers number 9 doubled their lead on 61 minutes. To be fair, it had been coming.

City added a third 9 minutes later, when Mann failed to clear Annan's delivery into the box and Edwards struck again, despite a brave effort to salvage the situation by Adams.

Abkas crashed a shot into the advertising hoardings and just past the upright as Hull mounted another attack.

Betts broke free down the left and when the Hull defence only cleared the ball as far as Henry Mallett, the Trinity substitute drilled his first time shot over the crossbar.

The visitors added a fourth goal inside the final 10 minutes when Batty struck and unstoppable effort from yet another cross from Hamilton and the visited ended the game with a flurry of chances that saw Trinitry's substitute keeper Blake Caldwell thrust in at the deep end and forced to make saves from Marc Kelleday, Edwards and Batty in the closing exchanges as City had to settle for just the four goals, while in spite of loosing, some of Trinity's fringe players will have taken a lot out of trying themselves out against a team who train full time and are on the verge of moving up into the Tigers Premier League set up... some of them certainly looked the part.
FT: Gainsborough Trinity XI 0 v Hull City U21 4