Wollaton 1 - 3 Bilborough Town
Wollaton 1 - 3 Bilborough Town Fisher (55) Croft (24) Davis (42) Taylor (86)
Bilborough bounced back from their midweek cup defeat on Saturday as they ground out a victory over Wollaton in the NG8 derby at the WSA Ground. Wollaton started the brighter of the two sides with some good spells in possession and NSL record goalscorer, Fisher, had an early glimpse at goal when a ball over the top fell into his path, but he could only scuff his shot wide. Town grew into the game as the half went on and the front pairing of Croft and Davis were linking up well with Croft twice crossing in for Davis, only for him to miscue both shots. In a game that was battled out in the middle, the breakthrough for Bilborough came halfway through the first half when a Cross through-ball left Croft one-on-one with the ‘keeper and he lofted the ball over him to make it 1-0 to the away side. This woke Town up as they began to keep the ball for longer and they saw large amounts of success on the wings of Stewart and Cross. The 2nd goal came just before half-time when a perfect pass from Ivanov found the head of Clements, who flicked it onto Croft. The goalscorer then drilled the ball across Wollaton’s penalty area and Davis smashed it home to make it 2-0 at halftime. HT 2-0
The home side, as expected, came out of the blocks in the 2nd half but the town defence stood strong, with the Wollaton strike-force failing to find a way through. Ten minutes in, however, and they were gifted a goal when Ivanov failed to clear his lines and kicked the ball straight at the oncoming Fisher, who tucked the ball away into an empty net and to set up for an interesting final half an hour. Wollaton saw a majority of the possession for most of the half but were often thwarted by Town’s resilience and clear-cut chances were a rarity for both sides. As the home side pushed forward in the final five minutes, Town launched an impressive counter attack after defending a corner. 17-year-old debutant, Ellis Williamson, on loan from Mansfield Town U23s, gave the ball to man-of-the-match, Taylor, and he set off on a Zapacosta-esque run down the right-hand side. With most at the ground screaming for him to square it to Croft, he proceeded to smash it into the roof of the net from the corner of the box to make it 3-1 and to put the game out of Wollaton’s reach. The game was marred with the final action of the game when a needless kick out from the home side’s captain, Tinsley, left the referee no option but to give him his marching orders. FT 3-1
