Hemsworth edge a game of two halves

After dominating the first half Emley took the lead on the stroke of half time through Steven Kenworthy but were unable to match these efforts in the second half and allowed their opponents to force the win.

Emley attacked the visitors straight from the kick off with leading scorer Ash Flynn bursting through on goal forcing a decent save from Ben Sawden. At the other of the field it took a strong challenge by Josh Cooke to stop Lee Dawson in his tracks as he closed in on goal.

The home team had strong claims for a penalty turned down when Aaron Joseph was upended in the penalty area by Sawden. The keeper appeared to obstruct the Emley man as he tried to thread his way past Sam Varley and through on goal. Joseph tumbled through the air, whilst Sawden cried out in paid following a knock to the side of his head. Referee Paul Matthewson dismissed Emley’s appeals and the incident went unpunished.

Emley continued to press and Flynn went agonisingly close after turning his marker and drawing Sawden off his line, but his firmly placed strike bounced back off the post. Hemsworth failed to clear the danger as Anthony Haigh fired in from the edge of the box but Sawden recovered his ground to make a solid save.

Soon after it looked like Jonny Irving had put them in the lead after connecting with a Joseph cross and chipping over the oncoming Sawden but Varley athletically hooked it back off the line.

They were finally rewarded for their efforts in first half stoppage time, Sawden came well of his line and managed to block a Flynn chip at full stretch but his defence could only clear the ball as far as Steven Kenworthy who lobbed home brilliantly from the edge of the box for his 10th of the season.

The goal was no more than Emley deserved and at half time it looked like they would go on and earn a comfortable victory. Hemwsorth came out with other ideas and appeared a much better organised unit in the second half.

Emley’s case wasn’t helped by the loss of John Cyrus to a stomach complaint straight after half time and Liam Schofield aggravated a foot injury leaving Darren Hepworth forced to shuffle his back line. Meanwhile Hemsworth had been forced to replace centre forward Damion Liddle with Damon Cassell on 30 minutes and it was Cassell’s more physical and direct style of play that would be Emley’s undoing.

Cassell grabbed an well taken equaliser on 54 minutes getting hold of a through ball down the middle then holding off Cyrus’s replacement Paul Sykes before slotting calmly past Paul Day into the bottom left hand corner.

In a game that was otherwise well controlled by referee Matthewson there was another controversial moment as he appeared to give Day the all clear to pick up the ball after the faintest of Sykes touches then blew up and awarded the visitors a free kick 10 yards from goal. Hemsworth failed to capitalise and blasted well wide.

They did take the lead on 70 minutes however and it was Cassell who exploited a weakness down the middle then set Robbie Crapper free to fire home past Day.

Emley through everything at Hemsworth to try salvage a point and a fizzing effort from Haigh almost caught out Sawden catching the keeper in the face before he finally gained control of the ball. It took a brilliant block by Gareth Lloyd to stop Flynn after Jospeh set him up with a neat backheel.

Crapper almost caught Emley out again as Hemsworth hit them on the break but Day made a smart save to deny him. Back at the other end of the field a quickly taken free kick by Haigh went straight to Sawden and further chances for Kenworthy, Cooke and Flynn were all defended competently as Hemsworth held on to claim all 3 points.

Emley:
Day, McIntosh, Schofield (Wilson 64), Leech, Cyrus (Sykes 47), Cooke, Joseph, Kenworthy, Flynn, Haigh, Irving (Townend 80). Sub (not used): Jerome.

Man of the Match: Aaron Joseph Att:87.