Six Goal Thriller for Boxing Day

With a good following of supporters Holwell took to the field with a side missing a few regulars for this Boxing Day tie against fellow strugglers Ibstock United. The pitch was in a poor state very sticky with the ball hard to handle on the surface.

Holwell handed a first team debut to Freddie Daws and it didn’t take him long to get into the game with some telling tackles and intelligent passes in central midfield. One such break up tackle started the first real move for Holwell on 4 mins with a ball to Teare who in turn set Smedley off down the right and his run at defense had the Ibstock captain Brown making a last ditch tackle to put the ball out for a throw in.

Holwell were beginning to dominate and a slick move up the left saw good interchanges between Michael Stevenson and Ian Bitmead who played in Jay Kirkby for a one on one with the Ibstock keeper Shuttleworth which the keeper managed to smother.

Ibstock retaliated by making a strong move down the right and a telling cross was well plucked out of the air by Richard Cragg in the visitors goal. The pitch was making control difficult and it contributed to two further efforts on goal by Kirkby being mopped up by the home keeper – still Holwell were making the chances and looked the better of the two teams.

Ibstock were still a threat though and Cragg had to be at his best to beat out an effort by Ibstock’s Rob Tarry on 15 minutes. From the throw out Freddie Daws again sent Ryan Plummer away down the left and his cross was eluded by both Ian Bitmead and Ben Smedley at the far post when it looked certain that Holwell would take the lead.
This seemed to wake Ibstock up and they began to pressure the Holwell defence with crosses from the right where Holwell were not covering back effectively and Ibstock’s Ryan Foster was beginning to cause problems for the visitors. It was one such attack against the run of play on 18 mins that got behind the defence resulting in a low cross which was not cut out and gleefully tapped in by Rob Tarry to put the home side in front.

Back came Holwell and it wasn’t long before they got themselves level with a series of telling passes in midfield by Daws releasing Ryan Plummer on the left and on 23mins Plummer sent in a great ball to Smedley who passed to Kirkby and he despatched the equaliser with great skill into the bottom corner. Plummer was beginning to cause havoc with the home defense outrunning defenders and sending in telling crosses.

Holwell seemed to be well on top at this point in the match and though there was a lot of sticky midfield play due to the state of the pitch Holwell were still able to mount several attacks to get themselves in front. On 35 mins the pressure paid off after a free kick was awarded to Holwell the ball into the box was headed back across goal by Kirkby and with defenders all around him Bitmead stooped to make a brave header and get the ball through to Smedley who scored from close range.
Holwell continued to press for the rest of the half and looked as though they would go into the break with a well deserved lead but on 42 mins Right back Murray sent in a low cross which Holwell failed to deal with and with a carbon copy of his first goal Tarry happily taped in his second to bring Ibstock back level. HT 2-2

Holwell came out after the break and showed their intent very early on with an attack straight from the kick off which saw Kirkby break into the Ibstock box only to miss kick and the chance was lost. However the visitors stuck at it and after only 3mikns of the second half Holwell were back in the lead when a mistake by the Ibstock defense let in Ben Smedley who despatched his shot past the helpless Shuttleworth.
Ibstock were still a threat but were now limited to long shots and the closest they came to bringing themselves level again was a shot by centre forward Jack Lewis on 57 mins which skimmed the Holwell cross bar. This brought Ibstock back into the game and there followed a decent spell of pressure from the home side and on the hour they were awarded a free kick after Daws had brought down Chamberlain on the edge of the box. The visitors won a corner from the free kick and poor defending by Holwell who had eight players in the box, of which not one of them attacked the ball and it fell to Lee Chamberlain to score from close range and bring the match level again.
Though Holwell kept pressing and saw an effort come back off the post back into the arms of the thankful keeper the game petered out to a 3-3 draw. A case of two point dropped rather than a good point gained for Holwell.

The Club were thankful to Youth Player Freddie Daws stepping into the First Team squad at such short notice. Freddie equipped himself well and could be proud of his contribution in his first team debut.