Holwell Impress for 90 minutes!

Holwell returned to winning ways on Saturday with an emphatic 3-o win at home to Ibstock United. What made the win impressive was the strong work rate shown by the players for the full ninety minutes which at times left Ibstock chasing the game from the first minute.
The game started well for Ibstock and they showed some intention through good play from Chamberlain in midfield and Kyte up front. However it didn’t take a new look Holwell with Ian Bitmead playing a support role up front to get into their stride and on eight minutes J Kirkby was put through by Michael Stevenson but his shot was saved.
Ibstock were finding it hard to clear their lines and balls from defence were being picked up by Hibbitt, Stevenson an the industrious Smedley in midfield and put through to the two forwards up front who were making defenders make errors. It was one such error that led to the first goal on 9 minutes when a shot by Stevenson was dropped by Keeper Shuttleworth at the feet of a defender who was penalised for tapping it back to him, resulting in an indirect free kick two metres from the left hand goal post. With five defenders and the goal keeper on the line and Bitmead in front of them distracting them, Stevenson rolled the ball to Kirkby who lifted the ball into the top right hand corner to put Holwell in front.
Holwell’s pressure was relentless and Ibstock just could not get a run of passes going at all to relieve the pressure on their back four. It was good to see the home side wanting the ball more than their opponents and the change by Manager Daws to play Bitmead up front was paying off with chances being created.
Bitmead was causing all sorts of problems up front and was put through on 18 mins but his shot was put round the post by keeper Shuttleworth. This led to a series of four corners in a row but unfortunately not to a second goal.
In their first real attack on goal on 22mins, Ibstock found that the home sides back four and keeper Cragg were alive to anything the visitors had to offer and it was easily cleared up. Ibstocks Ryan Foster was injured by a very late tackle by Dominic Hallows that saw the first booking of the day.
Holwell continued to press and another good interchange between Stevenson and Smedley saw a great cross sent in from the right which was met by Kirkby – but unfortunately his header went over the bar.
The home crowd were right behind Holwell and for the rest of the half enjoyed the dominance of the home side and on 43 minutes Stevenson again cut open the Ibstock defence to put through Ben Smedley who stroked the ball home for number two.
Half time 2-0
Holwell continued where they left off after the break and Ibstock were beginning to get frustrated at their lack of success. However the home side had to look lively a couple of times as the visitors tried to get back into the game and on the hour Holwell were at sixes and sevens trying to deal with an attack which ended with a shot just wide by Jack Lewis.
Holwell recovered their composure and got back into the game pressing Ibstock all the way, Lee Barton was booked for a bad tackle on Ian Bitmead.
Ibstock tried to change things around by bringing three subs on but Holwell were well on top and on 73mins Bitmead crowned his best performance of the season by outpacing a defender to poke home a shot from twelve yards for number three.
This was by far one of the best performances from Holwell this year – lets hope that they can keep this up with wins over the Xmas period starting away to lowly Radford on Saturday followed by Away to Ibstock on Boxing Day and the big one Home to current League leaders Heanor Town on Monday 2nd January at 3pm.
Full Time Holwell 3 Ibstock 0