Pinxton defeat Hucknall Town in entertaining clash

It was an entertaining game between two high-fliers who did not let the heavy pitch put them off their football

But Hucknall’s boss Andy Graves must have been left wondering how his side ended up with nothing from this game.  

Pinxton gave debut to young forward Luke Walker, a recent signing from Staveley Miners Welfare, but were without free scoring Jake Vernon, Darren Bettison, Chris Shelton and captain Pete Stubley.

Hucknall appeared to be almost at full strength with only influential midfield general Nathan Robinson absent as he serves out a six match ban. 

The action was end-to-end straight from the start and it was something of a surprise that it took 17th minutes for the first goal to arrive. 

A foul on the right gave Danny O’Donnell the chance to curl a free-kick in at the far post. The ball flew across the goal, and past Town keeper James Beddingham before nestling in the far corner of the net.

Striker Tom Ellis appeared to get a toe to the ball before it crossed the line, but that’s open to debate.

Pinxton almost doubled their advantage with seven minutes of the first half remaining when Luke Walker charged past Josh Henry before firing at Bedddingham, who was well positioned to save at his near post. 

Pinxton’s Joel Smith had a run and shot at goal in the third minute of the second period, but Dave Leak did well to block the effort.

Five minutes later Leon Aikman advanced down the Hucknall right before picking out Aaron Evans, who saw his shot well saved by Gareth Briggs. 

Hucknall got their well-deserved equaliser in the 58th minute when Ben Wapplington slammed a right foot rocket into the top corner after Briggs had seemingly cleared the initial danger.

On the hour mark, Elliott Pitt made a great foray down the left wing and played the ball into the box to where Adam Nelson was waiting.

The striker connected well, but hit the ball straight at Briggs.

The game became stretched and Walker brought out a neat stop from Beddingham in the 74th minute, then as Town countered, Aikman tried his luck from 18 yards and hit the base of the post before Wapplington saw his follow-up effort turned away for a corner. 

Pinxton were awarded a free-kick on 76 minutes and from fully 35 yards out Nathan Hollingsworth hit a screamer that Beddingham did well to hold on to.

Ellis saw the Town keeper also save his shot on 83 minutes, but the stopper was unable to keep out Pinxton two minutes later.

Hollingsworth played the ball into the box, and although Anthony Rowley made a mess of controlling, the loose ball fell invitingly to Luke Walker, who lashed it home through a crowd of players from the edge of the box. 

A draw would have been a fair result, and it looked as if Town had levelled with seconds of the game left when Elliott Pitt curled a sweet free-kick towards the Pinxton goal.

But he watched in agony as the ball hit the underside of the bar before bouncing down onto the goal-line, where it was hacked away to safety.