Willington vs Crook Town AFC

Recap

DERBY DELIGHT FOR THE AMBER ARMY

Crook Town visited neighbours Willington on Friday night and a healthy crowd of 225 were treated to an action packed derby with plenty of goals and controversy.

Crook started very brightly and had Willington on the back foot from the off. In the 7th minute the Willington keeper came out of his goal to make a clearance under pressure from Peter Brown. His clearance found Callum Smith on the half way line who expertly controlled the ball and drove a shot from all of 40 yards over the keepers head and in to the top corner of the net. Willington came more into the game and should have equalised in the 15th minute after a slip by Crook keeper Niall Harrison but Callum Smith was able to clear off the line. Willington then had another chance but the Willington number 10 blazed over from 8 yards out.

In the 25th minute came a moment of controversy after what looked like a fairly innocuous challenge by Peter Brown the referee showed a straight red card which led to an on pitch melee. This meant that Crook were down to 10 men for the remainder of the 65 minutes. Crook reorganised and kept their shape very well to limit Willington to long range efforts which got them to half time still holding on to their 1-0 lead.

Crook came out in the second half with renewed vigour and a determination which was to serve them well. However 5 minutes in Crook lost defender Paul Sammons to injury and was replaced by Joe Grant. Just past the hour mark Connor Hughes picked up the ball from a throw and from 25 yards out he unleashed a volley straight in to the top corner of the Willington goal to extend Crooks lead to 2-0. Crook now were having to soak up a lot of pressure from Willington but Ian Maddison had a brilliant game making some last ditch clearances and marshalling his defence well. In the 70th Minute Willington’s pressure paid off as Connor Lowes pulled one back for the home side. Crook reacted by replacing Connor Hughes with Damon Reaks. Crook produced a very disciplined performance for the rest of the game and it seemed Reaks had won the game late on for Crook when he slid the ball home from 5 yards but was adjudged to be off side by the linesman.

The final whistle saw the Crook fans and players head back up the road with all 3 points in a very hard fought, disciplined performance having played with only 10 men for most of the game.

Team: Harrison, Iley, Spooner, Sammons, Maddison, Cummings, Megran, Plews, Smith, Hughes (Reaks), Brown (Grant)
Unused subs: Moss, Martin, Scotter

Man of the match: Ian Maddison