Loughborough win nine goal thriller

LOUGHBOROUGH TOWN 1ST XI 5

HARBORNE 1ST XI 4 LOUGHBOROUGH Town welcomed top of the league Harborne knowing they needed a win to get their season back on track after a few disappointing results at the back end of 2017.

The day started with the wordsmith, Jez Clarke, delivering a fiery team talk urging Town to finally show some passion on the pitch.

The game started with some concern for Town as Nick Morris tried to dribble around the Harborne attacker on his own penalty spot, but this just brought the eventual man of the match, Johnny Hie, into the game, making his first of many quality saves.

Stephen Hunter opened the scoring for Town with a reverse stick shot from the top of the d beating the keep at his near post.

Town made it 2-0 shortly after, an Ian Johnston drag flick was closed down but it fell to Sam Curd on the half volley who rifled a shot towards the top corner, only for the Harborne keeper to pull off a world class save but the ball fell to Callum Holloway who put away the rebound.

Harborne pulled on back from a short corner but the teams went in at half time with the score at 2-1 to Town.

Loughborough Town then took grip of the game with three goals giving them a seemingly unassailable lead before they had their usual last five minute wobble - not helped by Fewtrell being shown a yellow card for abad tackle which left Town with 10 men for the remainder of the match.

Harborne added three goals to make the score 5-4 but Town hung on to secure an important win, their first since the start of November.

The best Town performance for a long time, helped by a fantastic performance in goal by Hie.