The tropical weather brought the Shanghai massive out in force to watch this largely entertaining game between the Humber Colts and Dee Street.
In the early exchanges the Humber Colts had the upper hand.
Wayne Hardy was lucky not to be booked after hitting the ball away at a throw in when it appeared to hit a Dee Street player’s hand.
Michael Clackston (“Swampie”) was trying to put his stamp on the midfield and in the 5th minute sent a searching ball for Daniel Atkinson to chase unfortunately he was unable to latch on to the ball.
Again on 18mins “Swampie” sprung the off side trap and nipped inside of the full back to unleash a right footed shot which the keeper parried back towards “Swampie” who volleyed a first time netbuster in to the roof of the net to give the Colts a 1 – 0 lead.
Dee Street went straight on the attack but good skills from the improving Adam Merkin (“Magic”) with a clever back heel to Hardy broke up the attack and the Colts came away with the ball once again.
On 31mins after good work down the right from the Silver Fox, Steve Grantham, let in Atkinson who tapped home from 5 yards to make it 2-0. The second goal seemed to rattle the lads from Hull and on 38mins their striker was lucky not to receive his second yellow of the game for an altercation with Wayne Hardy after the ball had gone out of play.
Calm and collected was the order of the day for Colts Manager Tony Henderson at half time who encouraged his troops to express themselves and enjoy the football and the Colts were certainly enjoying their football.
After 60mins the manager spun the dice and risked a change in formation and personnel with Mark Frampton replacing Jay Fox on the right hand side of midfield, Blackwell replacing Duplock at right back and Lee Jenkinson replacing Danny Atkinson.
This led to a re-shuffle which worked well as the midfield had a little bit more about it with Frampton and Asa Pardoe linking up well. On 65 minutes “Swampie” unleashed an absolute screamer from 36yards which left the Dee Street keeper with no chance as the Colts took 3-0 lead.
This forced Dee Street in to making a change at the back and a minor earth tremor which recorded 2.4 on the Richter scale was felt as the unmistakeable figure of Ben “ice cream legs” Nevis limbered up on the touch line.
The colts who had pace to burn thrived on the opportunity to run at a somewhat already immobile back line and would have scored a lot more had the Dee Street keeper not been living a charmed life.
Steve Grantham was the closest to adding to the score when he created a chance from nothing and a shot-come-cross shaved the crossbar.
Henderson’s tactical substitutions were proving to be an inspired call and after good work from Blackwell down the right which included wiping out a 10yr old boy and his BMX, an easy chance eventually fell to Grantham who tapped in from close range to make it 4-0.
Asa Pardoe who was playing a central midfield role rightly earned the Man-of-the-match award for a tireless display at the heart of everything.
Final Score: Humber Colts 4 Dee Street 0 | Reported by Craig Fawcett | Pictures by Scott Mchugh
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