Colts vs Kidderminster Athletic Hawks (20/12/20)

After a late pitch inspection, Colts final game of a stuttering 2020 was declared on after a deluge on Friday that put paid to Saturdays fixtures at the same venue. The surface looked remarkably good given the extent of standing water 24 hours previously so the match against Kidderminster Hawks kicked-off as scheduled. The home team started with Elton in Goal, Beale, Sivaharan, Fisher and Glazzard at the back, Heywood, Perks and Coopey in Midfield and Conner James up front.
Colts looked pretty sharp early on and provided the lions share of attacking intent. Sivaharan and James combining well with the latter stabbing wide with the goal at his mercy after 10 minutes. Hawks came into the game and some sustained pressure forced a number of corners, which were flung into the box dangerously and mostly just about repelled by the Colts back line. Such a set piece did indeed break the deadlock after 14 minutes, when a Hawks attacker rose highest to head past Elton from a corner to make it 1-0. The half played out in a scrappy manner with neither team able to make any real inroads for the remainder of the first period. The biggest plus points
The second half saw the introduction of Bousfield, Clarke, Davies and Box and proved to be as disjointed as the first. Both home and away teams did a good job of cancelling each other out with very little to show for their efforts. As the half wore on, Hawks physicality began to see the advantage shift in their favour with an increasing amount of the play being shifted into Colts half of the pitch.
Hawks doubled their lead on 40 minutes when a shot from a tight angle evaded everyone at the back and somehow found it’s way in to the net. Colts heads visibly dropped and they found themselves 3 goals down shortly after. Johnson was introduced to attempt to freshen things up and James and Coopey were reintroduced to try and force an opening. Davies had a half-chance drift wide and Heywood found himself in a good position without anywhere to go as the Hawks defence just about held. With time running out Coopey burst into the box and was unceremoniously flattened. He picked himself up and smashed a confident penalty home with the last kick of the match to give the home support a crumb of joy to take into the Christmas break.
Players Man-of-the-match: Nathan Box
Managers Man-of-the-match: Conner James