Huntsman 1, Cockton Hill Club 2
The Huntsman welcomed third division bottom club Cockton Hill Club to Simpasture Park on Sunday and were left humiliated as they crashed out of the League Cup at the first hurdle.
David Neale replaced Lee Redpath who was unavailable and Anthony Harrison was rewarded for his two goals from the bench against the Rolling Mills with a start.
Cockton Hill got out of the traps the quicker and were strong in the tackle, the Huntsman making mistakes all over the park. It was Cockton Hill who broke the deadlock after 10 minutes when the two centre forwards combined to slice open the defence before calmly finishing the one on one opportunity.
The Huntsman continued to look lack lustre and an early double substitution was required to spark some life into them with Farley and Barnes introduced to give the midfield some bite. Man of the match Ryan Durr was providing some width from full back and top scorer Molloy went close when he headed a Durr cross straight at the goalkeeper; but they went in at the break luckily only one down and were met by some harsh words.
The second half started much better with tempo and bite added to their play, Neale and Molloy both went close with headers but it appeared as though they were never going to get the equalizer until the 70th minute when big centre half Stuart Ord met a Farley cross to head home to make it 1-1.
The Huntsman never kicked on and sat back again welcoming Cockton Hill onto them, they could have quickly regained the lead had it not been for a superb save from Nathan Wintour who turned a point blank effort onto the bar.
However Cockton weren’t to be denied and a break down the left saw the ball squared to the centre forward who stroked home from 12 yards with what proved to be the winner.
This week Huntsman welcome Shildon Timothy Hackworth to Simpasture (KO10.30) which is their game in hand on the league leaders, a win will see the Huntsman go top on goal difference at this early stage in the season.