TUDOR TALK

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Saturday 1st September
Southern League Premier Division
Corby Town 0 Hemel Town 2

This was a classic case of a “smash & grab raid” as the Tudors drove away from the Rockingham Triangle stadium with all three points from a hard fought, ground out win.
The first fifteen minutes was fairly even, as both sides tried to find an early weakness but came up short. But on the quarter hour Corby’s Adam Wykes swung in a cross that Ricky Miller headed inches wide, & from that point on the Steelmen pushed forward in numbers, and only lady luck combined with some last ditch defending kept the score sheet blank.
On seventeen minutes Darren Lynch’s looping header rebounded off the Hemel crossbar, and on twenty two minutes Wayne Duik was allowed far too much room on the edge of the visitors box, but his low shot unluckily smashed against the inside of keeper Ian Brown’s post before rebounding all the way across goal and clear of the other upright.
Keeper Brown also then made four excellent saves, to deny Lynch twice more and also two good efforts from Steven Towers. And defender Nathan Bowden-Haase also prevented a certain goal, when he cleared off his own line after Robert Maddox had finally beaten Brown with another low shot from the edge of the area.
Incredibly however Hemel somehow survived intact and even went into the break ahead, by scoring with their only shot of an uncomfortable first half.
Ollie Burgess took a short corner to Drew Roberts on thirty eight minutes, and Roberts clipped his cross towards the far post where defender Liam Daly could only nod the ball skywards. Fortunately for the Tudors the ball fell straight to Bowden-Haase eight yards out, and he carefully watched it descend before crashing it home on the volley past the helpless Daniel Crane in the home net.
The second half again saw a slow start for both sides as Corby made changes early on. But gradually now the Tudors began to play better as a unit and take control. And whilst actual efforts on Crane’s goal were few, at least the Hemel defence managed to get on top of a quick home attack, that in the end grew ever increasingly frustrated as the game progressed.
Dean Cracknell shot a yard wide from long range just after the hour, and Josh Sozzo saw his effort five minutes later deflected wide of the mark by Liam Nicell, but for the most part Hemel were just happy to play it around now & contain the opposition whilst waiting for their chance to strike, and it wasn’t until the eighty ninth minute that substitute Garry Sippetts made the result safe - finishing well past Crane after Roberts’ lobbed pass over the top, left him with just the keeper to beat.
The Steelmen for their part were never a major threat after the half time break (especially after Miller was replaced up front) and resorted to some naughty tackles long before the final whistle.
Despite a late nail biting flurry from the home in the last five minutes however they never troubled Brown again to any degree, although the Tudors still had to work hard to keep the ball, & as a result were warmly applauded for their efforts at the final whistle, by a happy travelling support.

Hemel Town:
Ian Brown, Simon Sweeney, Chris Herron, Josh Sozzo (Danny Nicholls Jnr), Nathan Bowden-Haase, Yiadom Yeboah, Ollie Burgess, Dean Cracknell, Steve Sinclair (Robbie Kean), Drew Roberts, Paul Edgeworth (Garry Sippetts). Subs (Not Used): Fabio Valenti & Steve Smith.

Corby Town:
Daniel Crane, Liam Nicell, Tom Bonner, Robert Maddox, Liam Daly, Derek Brown (Dominic Hallows), Wayne Duik, Steven Towers, Darren Lynch, Ricky Miller (Chris Difante), Adam Wykes (Steve Diggin). Subs (Not Used): Richard Scott & Dean Curtis.

[steve]

Wilson's men are beaten again

Kevin Wilson's Corby Town are still looking for their first home win of the season following another disappointing defeat, losing 2-0 to Hemel Hempstead.
And the Steelmen will probably be in deep shock having done everything right apart from scoring – especially in the first half.

With little attacking play coming from the visitors, it came as a shock when they took the lead on 35 minutes as Nathan Bowden-Haas fired home a corner from 15 yards.

Hemel clung on to their slender lead at all costs in the second half. And to rub salt into the wound they doubled their lead with a minute to go.

Substitute Gary Sippetts latched onto a long ball before firing home to leave Corby just wondering how the game got away from them.