Frustrated Hucknall forced to settle for a point after late pain again
Conceding late cost Hucknall Town for the second week running in the GCE Fleet Hire United Counties League.
In a hard-fought Premier Division North clash with Gresley Rovers, Yellows led 1-0 through Callum Orange’s seventh of the season just before the hour to put them on course for a second win in three games.
But fatigue that had been creeping into the Yellows’ game allowed Gresley to wrestle control of the match in the final half hour and the visitors grabbed an equaliser and a share of the spoils through Finlay Ryder’s goal on 84 minutes.
Assitant boss Aaron Large said: “I thought in the first half we were probably the better side.
"But I said to the lads, we’re not fit enough at the minute.
"With the number of changes that we’ve made and bringing lads in, we’re not quite up to the level of where we need to be.
"After 60 minutes, we kind of just fizzled off a little bit.
"We are lacking a little bit of a killer edge at the minute, our final third is an area that we need to work on."
One major positive for the Yellows was the performance of their defensive line, highlighted by a fine debut for Tony Gbopo at right back, with Ben Cassady switching to the left.
But, proving Large's point about match fitness, Gbopo eventually ‘blew up’ due to a lack of match fitness, forcing a reshuffle that saw Cassday move back to the right before he too fatigued and was replaced by Trent Jules.
Large continued: “The system that we play, our fullbacks are the ones that give us our width and normally get into the final third,
"Tony was playing almost as a winger at times, it was a really, really solid debut.
"We’re really blessed with good players in fullback areas, we just need to get the lads fitter to be able to do that for 90 minutes plus."