Andy Graves' praise as Hucknall Town's fine form continues

Goals from Joe Ashurst, Louis Kinnerley and Aaron Lamb – his first for the club – secured a comfortable win and lifted the Yellows up to second position in the United Counties League Division One.

Speaking shortly after the game, Graves said: “I thought we played very well and thoroughly deserved the victory. Grant [Ryan] and Craig [Westcarr] worked really hard and created several openings for the other lads, even though Craig didn’t get an assist or a goal.

“Often people assume that things will get much easier when your opponents have a man sent off, but it wasn’t a simple task for us today. We dropped the tempo a little bit towards the end of the first half and stopped doing the things that we were doing with 11 men against us.

“We spoke about it at half time and I told the lads to ignore the fact that they were one man down, and we did do that in the second half.

“They had a couple of half-chances but I thought we controlled it well and managed to keep another clean sheet which was pleasing. We could have scored more than three goals if we’d been a bit more clinical too.”

The Town boss was particularly pleased that young players Kinnerley and Lamb each managed to find the net after some impressive displays from the pair in recent weeks.

Graves stated: “They’re both still young and a little bit naïve, but I thought Aaron was even more influential today than he was last week [versus Blackstones] when we gave him roughly 70 minutes. If he keeps performing like that, he’s going to be there for the whole 90.

“I’ve said we’ll look after both Louis and Aaron and it is ultimately a squad game. I know it will have been disappointing for the players who didn’t get on today but I’ve got to start using my head and not my heart, because in every game, the result is the most important thin g.”

On Tuesday, Hucknall Town defeated Clifton All Whites 5-1 in the Nottinghamshire Senior Cup to set up a mouth-watering second round tie with Notts County.

Craig Westcarr (2), Grant Ryan, Joe Ashurst and Eugene Francis got the goals.