Greens Take Play-Off Race To The Final Week

Flitton’s stunning intervention put the Greens firmly out of their opponents sights after Finlay Armond had given them a 1-0 lead with fine finish midway through the first half. The Greens second consecutive 2-0 victory over the Easter weekend was enough to lift them back into within three points of Skegness Town in 5th place in United Counties League Division North as the race for the final play-off spot hots up with just two games remaining.

Player/Managers Tom Ward and Nathan Arnold made just one change from the side that defeated Ashby Ivanhoe 2-0 over the weekend with Jake Henderson returning in the place of Max Ward. The only other change of any note came on the bench, with Nathan Arnold taking the place of Eli Christie. Hosts Pinchbeck United meanwhile made a huge five changes from the side that were defeated 2-0 by Hucknall Town at the weekend. Those changes saw Amadu Kanu, Flynn Slater and Charlie Brooks, Harry Cranfield and Josh Simpson drop out of the side with Logan Tate, Archie Moyses, Joseph Nicholson, Julian Ward, and Owen Sheriff the men to come in.

The Greens began in confident fashion at the Sir Halley Stewart Field and could have led inside three minutes when Tom Ward headed on Tristan Drummond’s freekick into the path of Akeel Francis who stabbed inches wide of the post. In response there was plenty of huff and puff from the home side but they couldn’t convert possession into meaningful opportunities and they were made to rue that inside fifteen minutes when the Greens produced a real moment of quality to strike first – Akeel Francis evading two tackles before feeding Finlay Armond who worked himself space before firing beyond Lewis Cox to give the Greens the advantage in south Lincolnshire.

That ignited a spell of pressure for the Greens, Henderson flashing an effort inches wide across goal after home keeper Lewis Cox had flailed at Tristan Drummond’s freekick. Cox was then the man on hand to block Ryan Lennon’s effort at close range before Clayton Wilkinson was on the line to deny Akeel Francis on the follow up. Francis was then involved again a minute later firing into the grateful hands of Cox from distance. The hosts were not without chances though and Logan Tate smashed a freekick into the hands of Liam Flitton from distance before Lewis Daff was on hand to produce a fine block to deny Tate again who’d advanced into the box on the stroke of half-time.

The second half started quietly at an increasingly damp and windy Sir Halley Stewart, a string of Pinchbeck corners the only real concerns for the Greens, the closest of which saw Owen Sheriff head wide. Ten minutes after that and the Greens doubled their advantage in remarkable fashion when goalkeeper Liam Flitton first collected an effort from distance before unleashing a punt forward that was misjudged by home keeper Lewis Cox, the ball ultimately bouncing over the helpless keeper an into the net to shock of many in the ground, most notably of Flitton himself!

That took the wind out of the hosts sails, and it became relatively plain sailing from there onwards for the Greens – Finlay Armond powering over from distance the closest either side came to netting the games third goal.

The Greens will now look to two final home games to see out their regulation fixtures for the season, starting with Eastwood Community at The MKM Ground next Saturday afternoon, kick-off is at 3PM.

Words: Oliver Atkin