Magdala Amateurs 2 - 6 Bilborough Town

Magdala Amateurs 2 - 6 Bilborough Town Morgan (1, pen. 81) Street (5, 41) Woods (62) Taylor (70) Kane (77) Nicholson (85)

Town won their 2nd successive game as they beat Magdala at Wilford Lane on Tuesday in a much tighter contested game than the scoreline suggests. The home side got off to the perfect start when a back-post header was nodded past Ivanov in just 37 seconds to put Magdala one up. It wasn’t long before Town equalised through a Street free-kick five minutes later that was smashed home from the edge of the box into the bottom corner. In a half of few chances, Magdala continued to press with the impressive Cooper, Hayes and Morgan leading the lines with efforts from the edge of the box, though none came to fruition with most either going off target or falling into Ivanov’s hands. Against the run of play, Town got a fortuitous break when, following a corner, a Street cross that was aimed at Hayes, beat everyone, including the Magdala ‘keeper and the away side found themselves 2-1 up shortly before half-time. HT 2-1 Town were struggling to keep the ball in the first half and tried to rectify that in the 2nd with bigger spells in possession. After 15 minutes of stalemate action, with neither team having any clear-cut chances, Woods put Town 3-1 up when he received the ball on the right flank, cut in, beat three defenders and the ‘keeper to tuck away his first goal for Town in fine fashion. Magdala almost got an instant reply when a corner wasn’t cleared by Town and a stab goalwards by Murdoch was cleared off the line to safety, despite claims of handball from the home side. With the introduction of Cross and Nicholson, Bilborough found their 2nd wind and it was a Kane cross that found the head of man-of-the-match, Taylor, who nodded home to put the game out of reach for Magdala. A flurry of goals followed in the next ten minutes when another Taylor effort was palmed away by the home sides’ ‘keeper, only for it to fall directly into the oncoming Kane, whose improvised finish saw him put the ball into the net from ten yards out with his knee. Bilborough then conceded their 4th penalty in as many games when Ivanov was adjudged to have brought down the Magdala striker in the box. The penalty was tucked away nicely to grab a deserved 2nd goal for the home side. The best was certainly saved until last when Cooper bagged the 6th for Town in an early contender for goal of the season. A blocked pass from Cross fell to Nicholson on the corner of the box and he smashed the ball with the outside of his foot into the far top corner, giving the ‘keeper absolutely no chance of keeping it out. In a game of few chances, Magdala will feel hard done to by the result but Town put their chances away – something they have struggled with at the beginning of this campaign. FT 6-2