Five Minutes of Madness

Rainworth and West Bridgford both contributed to a pulsating match that Rainworth managed to gift their hosts victory in the final minutes with two unforced errors.

The two teams met at the Tomlinson Personnel Stadium, in late October, at the start of manager Lewis Saxby’s reign, a match which Rainworth won 2-1 in the final ten minutes. Since that meeting West Bridgford have moved up the table, whilst Rainworth have had a mixed run of results.

The form guide indicated a West Bridgford win, especially after their 3-2 victory at Radford the previous Saturday. In contrast Rainworth had lost their last two league games, conceding ten goals in the process.

It was Rainworth with a swirling wind at their back who created the early chances, but Kurtis Bamford’s free-kick went just over. The opening goal came in the 19th minute a long ball found Ethan Wiesztort on the right and his inch-perfect pass found Josh Asuman in the area. As Sam Clark tried to close the angle Asuman squared it into Wiesztort’s path, who made no mistake.

Five minutes later the roles were reversed as Wiesztort set-up Asuman, but his effort went just wide when well placed. Rainworth were made to rue that missed chance as West Bridgford counter-attacked. A quick break by Jack Oldham left defenders in his wake and as he entered the area his angled shot beat Josh Hollis and despite Ben Copestake’s valiant effort to clear it off the line it ended in the net for the equaliser.
Rainworth were struggling to cope with the strong wide and were constantly over-hitting their passes which were easily dealt with by the West Bridgford defence. Then in the 35th minute they contributed to West Bridgford’s second goal when they left Timothy Hopkinson unmarked in the area and he made no mistake with a firm header into the roof of the net.

It could have been even worse but for an excellent Hollis save from Ryan Whitehurst’s well hit effort. At the half-time whistle Rainworth were ruing their inability to take advantage of the elements and must have been fearing the worst in the second-half.

However, it was Rainworth who started to have the better of the opening minutes of the second-half, but Bamford’s effort lacked power and was easily gathered by Clark. Rainworth were pushing hard for the equaliser and in the 62nd minute made a double-substitution bringing on Cameron Davidson and Brad Holmes for Asuman and Charlie Hardwick.

It almost paid dividends immediately when an excellent flowing move saw Holmes drive into the area but an excellent last-ditch tackle difused the situation. It was now West Bridgford who were struggling to cope with the wind at their backs and Rainworth who continued to carve out the opportunities.

They went close again on 70 minutes when Copestake’s excellent cross from the right was mis-hit by Liam Jepson. Rainworth however got their deserved equaliser when Kurtis Bamford hit an absolute screamer into the top corner giving Clark no chance.

Rainworth continued to have the lions share of play but in the 85th minute they were guilty of a schoolboy error when an attempted pass in their own penalty area found Ryan Whitehurst. As the Rainworth defence scrambled to cover he coolly drilled the ball home to give West Bridgford the lead.

With only minutes remaining Rainworth then committed the cardinal sin of chasing the game and when the ball once again entered their area, suicidal defending allowed John Whitehurst to steal the ball and add a fourth.

Rainworth continued to play and were rewarded in injury-time when Aiden Harris gave Clark no-chance when finding the bottom corner, sadly for Rainworth it was too late as the referee blew for full-time, shortly afterwards.

RAINWORTH MWFC: Hollis; Copestake; Toon; Hardwick (Holmes); Spray; Dawson; Wiesztort; Bamford; Asuman (Davidson); Harris; Jepson.
Subs (not used): Heginbotham; Pursglove.

Referee: Karl Donaghey

Attendance: 55