The Huntsman played Newton Aycliffe Sports Club in the quarter final of the Division 2 Cup on Sunday and had a 3-1 victory. With both sides unbeaten in the league the impressive crowd got a decent game.
Manager Dodds tweaked the formation to ensure they weren’t overrun in the middle with 3 changes and Calum Farley replaced Anthony Brockley who had a slight groin strain, while Steven Williams and David Neale replaced Ollie Gell and top scorer Jamie Herd.
The visitors started well forcing a number of early corners which were defended well with the first chance seeing Dave Neale flash a shot just wide from outside of the box. The game ebbed and flowed without much action, Huntsman ball retention was poor while Sports Club were looking to exploit the wind and sun with lots of long balls forward.
It was from a long ball the opening goal came when the opposition keeper punted a ball forward which was put behind for a corner. The corner was drilled in and flew over Dodds in the Huntsman goal to be headed home at the back post by former player David Teder to give Sports Club the lead.
The Huntsman lads responded in emphatic style, and immediately put the pressure on the Sports Club backline and were soon on level terms; Michael Sproates in a more advanced role on the right wing played a short ball inside to Dave Neale who fired into the bottom left corner to score his first of the season.
The Huntsman weren’t finished and 2 minutes later were ahead, Michael Sproates shuffled his way to the byline before cutting the ball back to Shaun Sproates who fired in the net for his 8th goal of the season. Things got even better for the Huntsman minutes later when Neale added a third as a corner ball was headed out to the edge of the box where Neale controlled and hit a shot threw the bodies. It could have got even better but Calum Farley saw his effort superbly turned over the bar.
The sides went in at half time with Huntsman the happier leading 3-1; they expected an onslaught from the Sports Club at the start of the second half who applied pressure for the first 10 minutes without really testing the goal. Huntsman ball retention was much improved, and a double substitution saw Ollie Gell and Carl Bates replace Anth Cox and Calum Farley. This took the sting out of the game with Bates in particular linking up play and keeping the ball moving while Lee Redpath was protecting the back four, putting in a man of the match performance, breaking up play doing all of the dirty work.
Huntsman could have added more through Bates and Neale but they comfortably saw the game out to progress to the semi-final.
Next up for the Huntsman is another cup game against the British Legion at Moore Lane on November 3rd. 10.30 am kick off. We hope to see you there.