Division One (East)
Letcombe FC 1 Finchampstead 6
Saturday, 29 March 2003
An Alan Hawkins hat trick helped Finchampstead maintain their slender lead of the Hellenic Football League Division One (East) table as they returned from Letcombe with maximum points from a 6-1 victory. This was a devastating team performance by the league champions, who set about their task from the very first whistle and never let up the pressure on their gallant hosts throughout the ninety minutes play.
After an even opening few minutes in which both sides created chances in end-to-end play, Finch nudged 1-0 in front in the fifth minute from a Danny McCarthy free kick that was firmly driven into the penalty area and met by the soaring Darren Kettle, who nodded it back across the six yard box to the unmarked Alan Hawkins, who slotted home to give his side the perfect start. Letcombe rallied well and tried hard to quickly get back on level terms, but all of their forward runs were stopped before getting near the penalty area by the resolute Finch midfield and defence, ably marshalled by Lee Goddard and Jeremy Lynch, restricting them to a couple of hopeful long-range efforts that never really threatened. The best of these, in the eighth minute, came from Robert Fairchild, whose thirty yard effort had Finch keeper Stuart Harris scurrying back towards his goal line before grasping the ball near the foot of his right hand post. The referee won few fans for the next twenty minutes as his incessant use of the whistle ruined the game for both sides, play being stopped on a number of occasions for quite innocent looking fouls that would have best been ignored in the interest of keeping play flowing. It was from once such stoppage that Finch doubled their lead, Jeremy Lynch whipping a free kick deep into the six-yard box in the fifteenth minute for Danny McCarthy to score with a powerful far post header. Letcombe, still restricted to long range efforts, saw Craig Whittle send in a fine thirty-five yard effort that dipped just over the Finch cross bar in the twenty-fifth minute and Iain Whatley fired wide of the target from twenty yards out two minutes later as his side made good use of the right flank to get a cross into him from the bye line.
With Finch dominating the midfield, thanks to some superb link-up play and runs from Howard Jaeger, Danny Russell and Danny McCarthy, a third goal was always on the cards and arrived in the thirtieth minute. Howard Jaeger made a strong diagonal forward run from deep in defence before playing the ball out to Danny McCarthy on the right, whose cross into the path of Alan Hawkins was finished with a delightful chip over Letcombe keeper Jason Varney into the back of the net. To their credit, the young Letcombe side never gave up trying and Iain Whatley forced Stuart Harris to make an amazing fingertip save in the thirty-eighth minute as for the first time the Finch defence was breached. Letcombe then grabbed their goal from a James Simms penalty in the forty-fourth minute, after the referee adjudged the ball to have been handled by a Finch player when delivered into a packed penalty area from a floated Robert Fairchild corner.
Half Time: 3-1
If anything Finch increased the tempo in the second half, completely outplaying Letcombe and rarely allowing them any time on the ball. After a terrific display of skilful trickery around the edge of the penalty area, Darren Kettle won a corner in the forty-eighth minute, but this was totally wasted by Finch. Danny McCarthy floated the ball towards the penalty area where it dropped in front of four Finch players, none of whom managed to get a foot to it to tap it home, allowing the unbelieving but grateful Letcombe skipper to scramble it to safety. Urged on by the creative word power of manager Steve McClurg, Finch did much better in front of goal over the course of the next ten minutes to deservedly go 5-1 in front. Their fourth goal, in the fifty-sixth minute, came from good poaching by the predatory Alan Hawkins, who pounced on an under-hit back pass and slotted the ball neatly past Jason Varney. Their fifth, on the hour, saw Darren Kettle score with a powerful header from an in-swinging cross from Alan Hawkins, after a good run by Danny Russell through the middle of the park. Between these goals, in the best move of the game, the ball flowed the length of the field before Alan Hawkins was brought down twenty yards from goal, deep out on the right. The resulting free-kick was played in by Danny McCarthy to Alan Hawkins, who neatly flicked the ball out to Darren Kettle, whose blistering volley would have graced any Six Nations Championship match as it sailed high over the bar between the posts from fifteen yards out. Finch?s sixth and final goal of the afternoon, in the eighty-first minute, came from substitute Grant Lewin, and was a classic example of reward for strength and determination, as he thumped the ball home having twice won it back in tenacious tackles from Letcombe defenders at the end of another good flowing move involving Danny McCarthy and Darren Kettle.
On Saturday, Finchampstead play second place Quarry Nomads at Finchampstead Park in what could be the Hellenic Football League Division One (East) championship decider (3.00pm). The reserve team travel to Cheltenham for a Hellenic Football League Reserve Division One fixture.
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