St Dennis 1 Foxhole 2

[Darin Morse]

St Dennis 1 Foxhole 2

Friday 18th April 2014

The fantastic Foxes overcame the sudden resignation of respected manager Shaun Hayward to record a fully deserved derby victory. Fielding a much changed team, Foxhole battled for every ball and squandered several chances to give the scoreline a more realistic look. Aydan Rundle opened the scoring on 23 minutes following great work on the break by second-teamer Ben Bould and the lead should have been doubled within moments when home sweeper Dave Rickard dallied on the ball but Brett Cole was unable to beat Brett Allen, who then managed to deny Rundle despite slipping. St Dennis' surprising long ball tactics were being comfortably dealt with by Stone and Sincock, while the visiting rearguard was not compromised even after an unfortunate injury to Dan Allen.

Fears that there would be a repeat of last season's second-half capitulation were dispelled within five minutes of the restart when Foxhole made it 2-0. Home keeper Allen seemed favourite to gather a hopeful punt forward but inexplicably he missed the ball and instead flattened Bould. The referee had no option but to brandish his red card, Cole then easily beating Hill from the spot. St Dennis switched to 3-4-2 to no obvious effect, although Rickard fired wide from close range and Hayhurst lobbed onto the bar. However Foxhole looked well capable of notching a third, with the game's outstanding player Cole at the centre of every counter attack. Farbrother's miss from eight yards was the most glaring, while Rundle's thirty-five yard effort dipped onto the bar and Cole's fine finish was ruled out when the referee decided he was offside despite no flag from the home linesman.

By this time the referee had located his cards, of which there was no sign in the first half despite some contentious incidents. Lee Rickard was cautioned for dissent and Hayhurst for a crude foul on the excellent Duff, while Bould also saw yellow for a poor challenge on Sleeman. The tiring Foxes were defending ever deeper but afforded superb protection to Crane so St Dennis' goal in the 89th minute had not really been on the cards, Brown's driven cross finding the net off Giltjes. From nowhere four minutes of stoppage time were found during which both Hazeldine and Cole were booked for querying the referee's timekeeping. That the Foxes were able to hang on for the points despite the odds will hopefully be sufficient for Mr Hayward, and the players he had brought with him, to reconsider their positions.

Foxhole (4-4-2): Joe Crane; Ryan Wilkins, Dan Allen (sub. Robin Giltjes), Joe Stone, Andrew Sincock; Ben Bould (sub. Zach Smith-Brokenshire), Jack Farbrother, Lee Hazeldine, Martin Duff; Brett Cole, Aydan Rundle.

St Dennis (4-4-2): Brett Allen; Scott Brown (sub. Ollie Morrison), Ian Stone, Mark Rowe, Dave Rickard (sub.

Ryan Hayhurst); Martin Sleeman, Chris Brown, Richard Hawke, Scott Hill; Jacob Rowe (sub. Kyle Friendship), Lee Rickard.

[ArseneWanger]

Good to see you back darin, didn't see you post a great deal when jp flacky and robin were in charge!

[midlandlilywhite]

Great report Darin, looking forward to reading more in the future. I was at Wolves 6 Rotherham 4 - not enough space here to describe an incredible match. Good luck to the Foxes.

[L.Ricks9]

Spot on report morsey, all though when u say st dennis'a goal wasn't on the cards, I think ur wrong, we battered foxhole for 80 mins, a goal was the least we deserved, stone and Sinky were outstanding, foxhole as a team worked hard and had so much team spirit, something we lack in games like these. On that basis foxhole deserved the 3 points. Anyway congrats to all involved at foxhole.

[dave bunt]

A big thank you to everyone that helped out the struggling Foxes yesterday, & a special mention to Lee Hazeldine who volunteered to take charge until the end of the season.

Same effort next week boys.