08 December 2013

Hemel match report by Nathan Lees (from official Hemel site) plus comment from Steve C.

Truro, having secured more away points than at home in the league took the arduous journey up to Hertfordshire to face high flying Hemel Hempstead Town with a significant 17 points that separated the two teams at kick off.
 
The first chance of the game fell in the way of the Tudors. Paul Kendall, Truro's captain, recklessly dived in to a challenge and earned himself a booking in the process early on. The free kick to follow saw Ben Mackey's low drive nearly tucked home from Dave Pearce. It was the Tudors once more with the chance as a driving run from James Folkes gave room for Parkes to shoot, and his curling effort skimmed the top of the bar to the crowd’s dismay.
 
Paul Kendall then dived in to another dangerous tackle; he was walking a very fine line. Talbot took the free kick and his tremendous strike was tipped over the bar by the visiting keeper. After a flurry of Hemel pressure the long awaited goal finally came for the Tudors. A perfectly waited ball in found Kieran Murphy and he was on hand to head home. 1-0.

The teams went into the break from a half where chances were few and far between.The second half began where the first let off, with Hemel on top. Ben Mackey found himself with the ball at his feet and after going round the third player to the delight of the home support he struck, however his shot did not match the run as it flew into the stand.

 It was almost a replica of moments ago, Mackey ran at the defence and once more he beat his man but this time his shot went wide. The second eventually came for the Tudors as Hutton's looping ball in was sweetly volleyed home by Dave Pearce in the 71st minute to double their advantage. Ben Mackey was then replaced by Charie Mpi and he had an immediate impact. He went round the travelling keeper and fired it into the net to grab the third for Hemel in the 82nd minute.
 
A good chance for Truro followed with Neil Slateford beating two men but his shot was inches wide of the mark. Dave Pearce was proving too much to deal with for Truro in the latter stages of the game and he crossed for Mpi. His bullet header was instinctively saved by the keeper. The final whistle blew and the result was made ever so much sweeter for the home fans with the welcome news of local rivals Chesham losing at home to Burnham. This meant that Hemel went top of the Calor gas league after this hard fought victory.

Hemel line-up: Walker, King, Connolly, Parkes, Murphy, May, Talbot (Allen), Hutton, Pearce, Mackey (Mpi), Faulkes (Berwick). Unused subs: Hawkins, Maissiat.

Man of the match: Dave Pearce.
 
Steve Clark comment:
Well I'll start it off then, in my opinion we played quite well against a very good team.

In the first half I actually thought we were the better team although they created better chances.

On their forum, they said "we were made to fight for it when Truro looked good for about twenty minutes in the second half but goals from Pearce and Mpi finished them off."

That's how I saw the second half which started really brightly for us without too many clear cut chances.

Their 2nd goal was a fantastic volley that is difficult to do anything about and then as we tried to chase the game they broke and got a 3rd.

Another comment from their forum: "Excellent win against a big skilful team I reckon. Mackey was a total handful at all times and the new boys looked good. Special mention for their fans who were excellent. Fair play to them. Truro will play worse than that and win games."

Grant made some excellent saves but needs to work on his distribution I would say.

I don't think anyone had a bad game and up front.  Ben Watson worked his socks off but nothing is breaking for him, unlike his first few games.

Liam Eddy is improving with every match and needs to keep learning which runs to make and when.

Whilst I didn't think Hemel were excellent, I heard that our central defenders said their forwards were the best they had played all season so if anything that shows how well we did defend with the exception of the 1st goal (I don't know who lost their man to allow a relatively free header).

I certainly saw enough to keep me confident that our league position is slightly false and that we are good enough to get results against anyone in this league.

Our fans were awesome once again and it was still a good day out.

I will finish with a quote from Bill Shankly which should be read to any doubters or people who are considering not going as we're not top & winning every game by at least 4 goals "If you can't support us when we lose or draw, don't support us when we win."

By that I mean let's support OUR team in the good and bad times with equal measure.       

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