4-0 to the 10 men - Leicester Road in stunning derby win
HINCKLEY’S Leicester Road FC scored a superb 4-0 home win in the local derby versus Nuneaton Griff – despite playing 60 minutes with 10 men.
After left sided defender Jack Harrison was shown a straight red after half an hour of play, LRFC bagged four goals courtesy of Callum Rudd, Matt Langham, Nuno Gomes and Joseph Lyne for a richly deserved three points.
LRFC had shown their intent early on, with Langham turning his marker well on four minutes and firing off a great shot which the keeper Woodward did very well to turn away.
Then, on 18 minutes Lyne escaped the defender to put in a cross that Gomes connected well with, but the away keeper did very well again, pulling off a point blank save.
Minutes later Langham was clean through but he scuffed his shot just wide, but it was all Leicester Road with Griff not troubling the home goal.
On 30 minutes, however, things got interesting for the Road when a 50/50 coming together saw Harrison red carded – with Langham shown a yellow for protesting.
There seemed to be no lunge or malice from Harrison, but the referee saw it differently and flashed a red card, forcing the distraught defender to make the long walk off.
The sense of injustice seemed to galvanise LRFC, however, and they continued to dominate both territory and possession.
On 34 minutes, Griff did have a clear-cut chance but forward Aston connected weakly and it flew well wide, but at the other end Gomes hit the bar and right to the end LRFC kept forcing the play.
A corner right on the stroke of half time landed at the feet of Rudd and he smashed it into the top left corner for a deserved 1-0 lead at the break.
LRFC continued where they had left off and on 47 minutes a penetrating ball was swiftly played up to Langham, who held his marker up, then turned him beautifully and cracked his shot into the bottom corner to make it 2-0.
The two goal cushion relaxed the Road and they started to dominate even more and on 54 minutes Gomes made it 3-0, and pretty much game over, with a crisp shot bottom left that gave the keeper no chance this time.
With Road’s defence resolute, the 10 men of LRFC continued to set the tempo and on 62 minutes Sandhu went on a trademark mazy run, drove through the Griff defence and fired it across the six yard line where an alert Lyne was on hand to slot it home for a 4-0 scoreline.
That’s six league wins on the bounce for LRFC and another very enterprising display, with keeper Will Highland hardly troubled all afternoon and the team shape rock solid.