St Dennis 1 Foxhole 0

[Darin Morse]

St Dennis 1 Foxhole 0

Friday 6th April 2012

A moment of brilliance on the hour by Lee Rickard decided this uninspiring derby in clay country sunshine, the striker for once escaping the attentions of Stone to wriggle out of a tight situation before firing high past Holland. It was tough on Foxhole, who had defended manfully to restrict the home team to very few genuine chances up till then, although Holland had recently denied both the Rickard twins with fine saves.

The first half had been largely uneventful and fairly even, the first shot not arriving until the fifteenth minute when Brown cut inside Mewton, but Holland was equal to the right-footed effort to the near post. Other than that the tight-marking Foxes were able to deal relatively comfortably with attacks that habitually petered out in the final third, although their decision to play with three strikers leaving a midfield already shorn of both Spaul and Trudgian outnumbered by the home team's more mobile quintet would prove decisive when St Dennis were to turn the screw in the latter stages. Hawke somehow fired Bird's driven centre over from six yards just before the break in a rare nervous moment shortly after the referee had inexplicably failed to penalise Hill's blatant push on Kenny in the box.

Kenny must have realised it wasn't to be his day when he could only shoot weakly at Allen from Crowle's pull-back on fifty-four minutes, a miss that unfortunately heralded St Dennis' best spell, and then tamely headed wide Turton's cross. That the home team were to enjoy the majority of possession was undoubtedly aided by the huge swathes of unchallenged grass afforded to Isbell, Hawke and Friendship but, as in the earlier match on Boxing Day, a minimum of a point was there for the taking with greater belief and a serious goal threat. Stephen went close with a header to Gotthardt's long throw while late substitute Upton reminded the visiting faithful of his talent with a clever turn and shot which was again well fielded, a sad lament to what might have been.

Foxhole (3-4-3): Ryan Holland; Adam Holland, Joe Stone, Jaydon Gotthardt; Connor Mewton, Richard Faircloth, Ryan Stephen, Aydan Rundle; Orrin Crowle, Ross Turton (sub. Jamie Coates), Sam Kenny.

St Dennis (3-5-2): Brett Allen; Dave Rickard (sub. Dave Grose), Mark Rowe, Scott Hill; Chris Brown, CJ Bird, Richard Hawke (sub. Ryan Hayhurst), Kyle Friendship, Jay Isbell; Carl Rickard (sub. Duane Upton), Lee Rickard.

Referee: Mr Steve Nute (Saltash).

[Santini11]

Not bad Morsey, fairly accurate report. All the best for the rest of the season to Foxhole.