Monyhull Church 3 Wollaston Free Athletic 4

After losing 1:3 to the same team last time out in the cup, and fielding what some saw as a weakened line up, there was a fear that the hull could be in for a bit of a pasting on Saturday.

Perhaps that would have been the case last season, and even at the beginning of this, but the hull are starting to develop a backbone, and aren’t the same pushover any more. And with no offence to the other front players, who are all young enough to develop (apart from Gaffer Millist), the hull have now found in Leigh a frontman who can be relied on to hold the ball up, pass it, and score.

The pitch at Rowheath was unbelievably heavy, and was cutting up badly even during the warm up, so Madden and Pete Langston at the back were expecting a hard time against a lively Wollaston front man, while Pickett and Nick Pritchard were tasked with providing cover for Webber in goal.

Gaffer Millist was finally taking his assistant managers advice to play as a holding midfielder alongside Burke who saw an opportunity to cover every inch of himself with mud. I believe an I told you so may be in order as Millist and Burke made an excellent partnership, with Reeson in front of them dancing round the Wollaston midfield on the heavy pitch while Keys and Shannon supplied width.

Wollaston kept to a direct style, trying to get the ball up to their frontman as quickly as possible, and after a fairly even start it was a long ball through that saw Pritchard lunging into a tackle he was never going to make to concede a penalty. Again Webber got fingertips to it, but couldn’t get down quickly enough. Another I told you so perhaps, as clearly having his hair in a bun has to be the way forward for the hirsute custodian.

Keep your heads up was the call from captain Burke, and straight from the kick of the hull put together a mesmeric sequence of passes down the right before Watts fired home from the edge of the area to make it one each.

Wollaston went back on the offensive, but Madden made several solid clearances while Langston made a couple of last ditch tackles. But a panic at the back saw Reeson sky an attempted clearance, and under pressure as the high ball came down Webber opted to try and push it round the post but unfortunately managed to bounce it off the Wollaston forwards shoulder and into the net for 2:1.

Once again, from the restart the hull produced another incisive series of passes which was ended when Keys was brought down in the area. Sadly Watts then scuffed the spotkick wide. But the hull were not to be denied and were passing their way through the Wollaston defence at will, and it was almost inevitable that Watts would redeem himself with another fine finish to square things up at 2:2 as half time arrived.

The change of ends saw the hull lose focus and Wollaston were encamped in the hulls half for most of the half. Eventually the pressure told, and a shot half blocked by Madden fell straight at the feet of the Wollaston striker who was able to round Webber and walk the ball into the net.

Millist rang the changes with himself, Shannon and Watts making way for Hales, Willets and White. Hales immediately began to cause problems down the left wing, beating his full back consistently, but was having trouble crossing accurately with his left foot. Practice session on Tuesday passing with the left foot anyone?

Finally one cross found Keys who shot back across the face of the goal into the bottom corner for the hulls equaliser.

Could the hull hold on to the end for a well deserved point? A corner on the right, and with Reeson the hulls tallest outfield player, there was always likely to be trouble. A flicked header bounced on the line and virtually stuck in the mud as Hales moved to clear. But the ball had just enough momentum to cross the line, and with the energy sapping conditions the hull had nothing left to give in search of another equaliser. Wollaston were able to play out the last few minutes to take home all the points.