Graves wants new momentum

The Yellows beat Aslockton & Orton 2-1 at Watnall Road to maintain their title push and now sit six points behind leaders Sherwood Colliery in the CML South with a game in hand.

And Graves was relieved to get back into action after over three weeks without a game.

He said: “It was important because we’d have really suffered if we’d had to go another week without playing.

“We were obviously very rusty, compared to Aslockton who had had a few games since we’d last played including some encouraging displays against Sherwood.

“In the first-half we didn’t work hard enough despite having lots of the ball and I said to the players at half-time that the game would pass us by if we weren’t careful.

“That prophecy came true to an extent because Aslockton then took the lead with a good goal and we were looking a bit nervy.

“So we changed things a bit and brought Kajally Danso on which gave us a bit more physicality and soon got level through Adam Nelson who I was about to take off 30 seconds later, although he then shot himself in the foot by missing a sitter later on.

“Jordan Phillips got the winner not long after we’d got level and we got there in the end, but there were certainly things we’ll have to work on but which will also be aided by playing more games.

“It wasn’t really until the last 20 minutes that we got back to being like our old selves and credit to Aslockton who worked hard and made it difficult for us.”

Hucknall will now host Blidworth Welfare at home on Saturday, coming up against a team they beat 2-1 last month.

Graves said: “It was a narrow win for us there but we hit the woodwork several times and I’m hoping we won’t be taking as much paint off of ours this time around.

“I watched Blidworth play Sherwood the other week when our game was called off and although they lost 3-0 the result didn’t really do them justice so as with every game in this division, it’ll be another tough one for us this weekend.

“Now we’ve finally got another match under our belt I’m really hoping the weather behaves and we can get some momentum built up as we go into the closing stages of the season.

“We don’t want more postponements leading to a backlog of games if we can help it although we’re all in the same boat of course.”

With the title race still wide open and the contenders having a varying number of games left to play, Graves believes it will go to the wire.

He said: “There really isn’t much between us at all when you take games in hand into account and one or two have still got to play each other which will also make it interesting.

“We’re relying on slip-ups but can’t worry about what others are doing, just concentrate on ourselves.”

Meanwhile, a race/quiz night will be held at Hucknall Town after the Linby game on March 17 to help raise funds for two injured players. Michael Banister and Sam Hawkins have both been ruled out long-term and are unable to work due to their injuries, with the night aiming to raise money to help them.

Tickets cost £5 and include pie and peas.