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Saturday 31st March 2018 (9.00am)
Summerville Road #3, Salford M6 7HG
Referee: Lucas McLaughlin
Won: 2-3 (HT 2-0)
Goals: Daniel Robinson (2), Joshua Whitehead
MotM: Oliver Dalton-Bunker
This was the Hurricanes’ third Supplementary Cup group match, and also the third meeting between these two teams. Honours were even between the two, with each of the teams having won one of the previous matches 3-2, so another close encounter was eagerly anticipated. Unfortunately, Beechfield were low on numbers as both Matthew Elliott and Alfie Latham were unavailable for the tie.
The boys who were present battled against confident opposition and difficult playing conditions as the match began. Low temperatures and strong winds made it difficult to play any kind of flowing football, but the home team’s size advantage seemed to help them settle better as the half wore on. This advantage eventually paid off as Barr Hill took the lead. Following a run of five consecutive clean sheets, this was the first goal that Beechfield had conceded in over 2 months (which was also against Barr Hill Hearts!)
Unfortunately, that seemed to give the Hearts’ more confidence and it wasn’t long before they doubled their lead after a well-worked move led to another unstoppable finish, which saw the Hurricanes come in 2-0 behind at half time.
Some carefully chosen words from manager Ben Robinson and assistant Glen Whitehead during the half time break helped the Hurricanes get back into the game at the beginning of the second half, as Beechfield saw more of the ball and began to test the Barr Hill defence. However it took a further intervention from Ben Robinson to have a real impact on the game, as he replaced Jai Devani-White (who had been excellent down the right hand side until that point) with Joshua Whitehead.
Almost immediately, Joshua Whitehead broke clear down the right, fired a cross into the Barr Hill penalty area and top goal-scorer Daniel Robinson was on-hand to slot home and get Beechfield back into the game. This visibly rocked the Barr Hill players, who were now firmly on the back-foot, and it was less than a minute later when Daniel Robinson scored again, with his 20th goal of the season pulling the Hurricanes level.
With time ticking away, it became an end-to-end game with both teams having chances to score a winner. The Hurricanes defended resolutely, with ‘keeper Oliver Dalton-Bunker making a number of important saves to keep the scores level. At the other end Oliver Hall was becoming increasingly influential and created a number of chances which the Hearts’ goalkeeper did well to keep out. In the final few minutes of the game, it took another master-stroke from Ben Robinson who sent Oliver Hall to take a corner. The corner came in and Joshua Whitehead, who would normally have crossed the ball in, was on-hand to slam the ball home to give Beechfield a fantastic win!
After the game, manager Ben Robinson said " Well done to the boys today, best come back of the season considering that we were 2-0 down at half time, and against a very strong Barr Hill Hearts team. It just shows the character of this team that they did not let their heads go down and did really well in the second half. A massive thanks to the parents as always for your commitment, but especially to Lee for driving down from their caravan this morning so that Presley got to celebrate the win (and show off his cool new hairdo!). Oliver was outstanding today in net and was a well-deserved MotM".
The Hurricanes squad for the match was: Oliver Dalton-Bunker, Joshua Whitehead, Jamie Maher, Oliver Hall, Dillan Caldwell, Jaiesh Devani-White, Presley Smith, Daniel Robinson, Sean Cosgrove.