Hucknall Town so glad not to play Pinxton again after two bruisers in four days

Hucknall took another big step towards Central Midlands League title glory with their 3-0 win at third-placed Pinxton on Saturday to edge seven points clear of Pinxton and sit four points adrift of table-topping Matlock Town Reserves with three games in hand and only seven to go.

However, Pinxton did gain some revenge with a 4-3 win when Hucknall returned for a Floodlit Cup tie on Tuesday and Graves smiled: “They were two tough games to be fair.

“Pinxton are a very strong, direct, physical sort of side. They are a formidable side and no mugs.

“I don’t think we will face too many team as direct as them in the rest of the league games this season.

“I am glad we don’t have to play them again, though we could face them in the League Cup final if we both got through.

“But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. We have to concentrate on Saturday now.

“We are not overly disappointed to lose on Tuesday as Saturday was the bigger one and we just have to move onto this Saturday at Teversal.

“To be fair I thought we played better football on Tuesday than we did on Saturday. It just shows you.”

Hucknall were forced into changes on Tuesday and Graves was impressed with how they performed, despite the defeat in a thrilling game.

“For the cup game we had to make five forced changes unfortunately, though it did give some players game time they needed,” he said.

“We had one player – Aaron Short - who was ineligible to play by a day on Tuesday night and he had done really well on Saturday.

“On Saturday in the league game we had to soak up a lot of pressure, especially from set pieces. I wasn’t happy with the amount of corners we conceded as that’s where they are pretty strong. But, other than that, we played fairly well.

“Second half they might have had a bit more possession, but we had it where it mattered.

“Obviously the Saturday game was the priority.

“The scoreline makes it look comfortable and it could have looked even more comfortable as we missed two chances before we even scored.

“At that point we thought it was going to be one of those days and we were going to get mugged. But we made up for it it and went in 2-0 up.

“You’d expect them to come at us in the second half, which they did, and to be honest they are a good side.”

He added: “They have a lot of old heads, which was the key in Tuesday night’s game. They had a little bit more nous to be honest.

“Pete Stubley played on Tuesday and he is a class player up top. He gave our two a bit of a lesson.

“We had defended really well on Saturday, but we made two uncharacteristic mistakes on Tuesday which is something we’ve not been doing. Then we got caught by a late added time penalty.

“We went behind twice, came back to lead, then they scored a ‘worldy’.

“The guy hit it as sweet as anything with great technique. How many of them go in is another thing.”

Pinxton then stole victory from the spot and Graves said: “I was a little disappointed with the penalty as we always say stand up in the box and don’t dive in. Don’t give anyone a chance to fall over.

“Our lad said he never touched him but if you are going to dive in you are always vulnerable to something like that happening.

“Overall I have no complaints and good luck to Pinxton.”

Hucknall look set to lose goalkeeper Adam Jablonski for the rest of the season.

He limped off after trying to continue in the Notts Senior Cup tie against Basford United just over a week ago and has now aggravated the problem.

“It now looks like it’s a season-ending injury I am afraid,” said Graves.

“He had done something to the top of his quad.

“He was responding okay but then he slipped coming down the stairs when he was carrying his little one and pulled it again.

“He has physio again tomorrow but realistically it’s not looking good.”