Stone hit back to sink North Notts into drop zone

The game was played in a subdued atmosphere as North Notts learned on Thursday that club member Philip Wyville (28) had passed away after a five-year fight against cancer.

Philip was a well-respected player at the club and served North Notts from his schooldays until his illness meant he could no longer play.

Both teams held a minute’s silence before the game and the Notts side wore black armbands as a mark of respect to Philip.

This game started well for Notts when a ball fired into the D by Butler was deflected by the defender over the keeper and into the back of the net to send Notts into the lead after just five minutes.

Notts were still making offensive moves, but were struggling to get used to the very hard and uneven pitch which caused the ball to bounce unevenly.

This was evident as passes bounced over sticks or into players.

On the seven minute mark an offensive manoeuvre from Adam Moss won a penalty corner. This was saved by the Stone keeper but fast thinking from Russ Jarvis saw him able to knock it back into the net to extend Notts’ lead to 2-0.

Notts then hit a flat spot and Stone were quick to capitalise by scoring three goals in just five minutes, one from a short corner and the two from field goals.

This meant Notts had a lot of work to do to make amends. They did start to settle down and try to move the ball out to the wing men, but after sending three balls past the post in quick succession were getting very frustrated.

At the half-time break, manager Faulkner told his players to not over-complicate things and play to the pitche’s advantage of firing balls on route one and get shots off looking for a deflection from a loose ball in the D.

On the restart Notts were struggling to devolve their playing style to maximise potential from the pitch.

The frustrations from Stone were showing as a number of green cards were issued and several short corners from danger tackles from the keeper.

Notts were unable to convert the two corners they had in quick succession but a fast break from Stone down the left hand side overwhelmed the Notts defence to extend their lead further following a great diving save for keeper Unwin.

Stone were able to win a short on the 56th minute from a sloppy tackle on the edge of the D.

This was converted to make the last 20 minutes easy for Stone, despite a late Notts flurry which saw Allen Butler fire home a penalty corner.

On Saturday Notts face Stourport who boast two ex-GB internationals in their squad.

This is another must-win game for Notts, who have now slipped into the dreaded relegation zone.