Wasteful Clipstone hang on for victory

The first half was more about how many chances were Clipstone going to convert into goals.

The first chance came on eight minutes. Hemsworth keeper Neal May tried to throw the ball out to his left midfield but got it totally wrong, only finding Carl Haslam 30 yards out.

He controlled extremely well, ran onto the edge of the area and played through for Jason Edwards to unleash an almighty shot towards the roof of the net, only for the keeper to make amends for his earlier mistake and tip over for a corner.

On 24 minutes Hemsworth had their first chance, when a cross came in from the right.

Gary Armstrong, the only player back in position, misjudged the flight of the ball, giving Lee Dawson all the time in the world to pick his spot, only to see him badly slice his effort and let Clipstone off the hook.

From then on Clipstone had most of the possession and on 33 minutes Gary Armstrong and Haslam played a one-two with the end product being a cross to the unmarked Liam Pride to tap in for the opening goal.

Just one minute later Keiran Watson was the beneficiary of some sloppy defensive work by Hemsworth and found himself one-on-one with the keeper, easily rounded him, and poked home from 12 yards out to make it two goals in as many minutes.

On 40 minutes Hemsworth were unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty as the Gary Armstrong lunged in to a desperate tackle, taking down the attacker who had both feet on the 18 yard line.

The referee deemed it a direct free kick inches outside of the box, which was hit hard and low at the the Clipstone wall and danger was averted.

It must be said that there was very little rhythm to either side in the second half, neither side managing to string more than two passes together. Both sides also gave away silly free kicks away when all was required was to keep tight.

Clipstone still had the best of the opportunities, though, and captain Rob Austin was unlucky to head inches over from a corner taken by Nathan Millington on 52 minutes.

Pride was finding more free space on the right of midfield and could have put Clipstone further ahead on two separate occasions.

On 65 minutes he again found himself in space on the right edge of the area, beat the last defender to send a cross to the back post which Watson crashed into the empty net, only to hear the whistle go for him being in an offside position.

That was very nearly a costly mistake as right on 90 minutes Hemsworth did pull a goal back.

Keeper Ed Eley had just made a wonderful save after a breakaway from Hemsworth, the ball eventually coming out to Adam Wilson to calmly place a looping shot into the far top corner with the keeper out of position.

With time running out Clipstone decided to run the ball into their opponents corner flag, which eventually Hemsworth did deal with, but to no avail as the referee brought the game to an end.