Table toppers strike three in first half to see off Hinckley

HINCKLEY AFC fell to a second home defeat of the season as top of the table Lichfield City scored three first-half goals at the Welfare Ground, eventually running out 3-2 winners.

AFC got off to the perfect start when Jordan Wilson fired them into the lead with less than a minute gone, but they didn’t capitalise on that with a lacklustre display thereafter and had any hopes of a second-half comback dashed by a harsh red card.

James Taylor scored twice to turn the game on its head and Joe Hartshorne left Hinckley with a mountain to climb when he netted a third in first-half stoppage time.

It was a mountain which they never looked like scaling despite Joe McLaughlin’s header and they ended the game with 10 men after Kieran Harrison was harshly dismissed.

Hinckley were missing key players in Sam Belcher and Tom Maddison, but that didn’t seem to be affecting them when they took the lead 55 seconds in.

Harrison and Louis Hamilton were involved in setting up Wilson, who fired his side ahead with a precise finish into the top corner from the right hand edge of the box.

It was the perfect start, but Lichfield reacted better and gained the ascendancy as AFC were second to most balls.

They equalised when they broke forward from a Hinckley corner, and Taylor played a one-two with Max Black.

The return ball was perfectly weighted for Taylor to neatly slide under the advancing Jacob Wood.

Both sides then had half chances, Cameron Gilchrist having an effort deflected into the side netting for Hinckley, but the visitors turned the game around on the half hour.

Taylor was left in acres of space down the right channel and lashed one into the far corner.

Even having gone a goal down, Hinckley remained second best and the visitors added a third in first-half stoppage time. The ball looked to have gone out of play but the officials allowed the game to continue, and after Jordan Evans’ strike was only parried, Hartshorne converted a simple rebound to leave Hinckley with an uphill battle.

If Hinckley stood any chance of winning, they needed to score early and had a golden chance to do just that four minutes into the second half.

But from Harrison’s wide free kick, the stooping Jason Lee nodded inches wide.

The visitors gained in confidence and should have scored another goal of their own, Hartshorne blazing over at the far post just after the hour.

And that could have proven costly when Hinckley gained hope just after the hour.

For the second time in two games, McLaughlin rose highest from a corner to nod home Kieran Harrison’s delivery.

But if that gave them cause for optimism, their hopes were dashed again shortly afterwards.

Harrison and Harry Harris both challenged for a ball at knee, Harris got their slightly before his opposite number, and Harrison caught him a fraction late, but without force or malice.

Hinckley, though, were shocked at seeing referee Scott Hamilton brandish red.

It all but ended Hinckley’s hopes, and the only time the home side came close to levelling was when Matt Cotton denied Hamilton’s angled curler, as Lichfield managed the game well to retain their place at the top.

Manager James Jepson admitted his side weren’t good enough on the day.

Jepson was frustrated at a number of things not happening for his side.

He said: “Jordan put us ahead early on, and at that stage you feel like it could be an afternoon where things go right for you.

“But for whatever reason, things just didn’t happen for us after that.

“Prior to that we’d beaten Littleton and should have beaten a good Studley side, so we had hopes of building an unbeaten run, but against Lichfield we just didn’t turn up.

“We felt on the rough end of one or two decisions but sometimes you have to create your own luck and at the end of the day we weren’t good enough.”

After a big turnover of players in the squad over the last couple of weeks, the former Rugby Town boss now wants his side to gain more consistency.

He feels greater continuity in the personnel week in, week out, will help his side get more consistent results.

“We’ve had a change of circumstances within the squad and the club, and a few players have left that I didn’t want to lose.

“But we’ve had to cut our cloth accordingly and we have to build momentum.

“Since the first game until match six we had similar squads, but the last four weeks we’ve had different ones,” said Jepson.

“We need to gain a bit of continuity within the squad – which will hopefully start when we get Sam Belcher back next week.”