Three-goal spell puts AFC to sword
A clinical spell of three goals in eleven minutes either side of half-time condemned Hinckley AFC to a second consecutive defeat at Atherstone Town, writes Liam Gibbs.
On a pitch that cut up from the start, Hinckley were on the front foot for large spells of the first half but football is a game of taking chances.
Hinckley didn’t convert theirs into goals, while Atherstone’s only shot of the opening 45 minutes sent them into the break ahead.
The Adders had secured all three points by five minutes into the second half, as defensive errors gifted goals to Alex Naughton and Aden Moore.
The opening ten minutes were cagey as both sides grew into the game, but it was Hinckley who had the first real sight of goal. Ryan Seal was sent through on goal and tried to round Tom McNulty, but the home keeper got a hand to the ball and diverted it away.
As Atherstone continued to disrupt Hinckley’s football, Carl Abbott’s side weren’t their usual fluent selves as a result but still created chances.
They had to get a goal while they were on top, and came close ten minutes before half time when Ryan Paddock’s effort crashed off the underside of the bar.
The home side made Hinckley pay for their missed chances six minutes before the break.
Atherstone broke forward at pace, and Ashley Gray’s cross was drilled home by the unmarked Moore at the far post.
It gave the home side a slender advantage at half time, but Hinckley would have been confident of pulling themselves level kicking down the slope after the interval.
As it turned out, Carl Abbott’s team talk would have gone straight out of the window three minutes after the break when Atherstone doubled their lead.
From a corner, Jamal Clarke’s header out had more height than distance, Scott Goodby returned the ball goalbound and Naughton applied the finishing touch from six yards.
And Hinckley’s task was made even more difficult two minutes later.
Again it was a problem of their own making as they lost possession in the corner, allowing Naughton to stride into the box and square for Moore to convert a simple chance from twelve yards.
As the game entered stoppage time, Haydn Whitcombe had to make his first save of the afternoon to prevent further misery for AFC, who will have to pick themselves up quickly ahead of next week’s Buildbase FA Vase last 16 tie against Buckland Athletic at St John’s Park.