Straight from kick-off Cotgrave won a corner. The corner was cleared by Rolls Royce to Ben Halcro who lifted the ball back over their defence for Thomas Staples to ghost in and finish from close range. A great start for Cotgrave. However, the match proved to be far from won as both teams then contributed to an entertaining and enjoyable game.

Cotgrave continued to attack and had several chances. Max Robertson wide on the left and Lewis Hopkinson on the right continually caused Rolls Royce problems, and a Hopkinson shot from a defence splitting pass by Robertson saw the Rolls Royce keeper make a superb reaction save. With James Staples playing the holding role in front of the Cotgrave defence, Cotgrave’s full backs, Elliott Coulthard-Gaunt and Thomas Staples, were able to drive forward. Rolls Royce were playing on the break but with two fast forwards Cotgrave had to be wary, and on one such break a Rolls Royce forward managed to win the ball and, despite having keeper Nathan Burgin to beat, he calmly rolled his shot into the Cotgrave net.

The match was heading towards a draw at half-time when, with one minute to go, Harry Normington picked out Jordan Cumberland on the edge of the area with a precision angled long pass. Cumberland controlled the ball then finished with a drive into the corner of the Rolls Royce goal. A good goal for Cotgrave both in terms of execution and timing.

The second-half then started as the first, with a Cotgrave goal. This time with two minutes on the clock Aidan Sheppard took control of a loose ball bobbling around just inside the area and hit a fierce drive into the roof of the Rolls Royce net.

Luke Black, Kit Weir and Sheppard were controlling the midfield, Kris McCann made a useful looking debut at 11 a-side, but despite creating several chances Cotgrave found the Rolls Royce keeper to be in good form. David Young switched to wide left and Robertson moved up-front. Black hit the bar. Robertson drifted through the Rolls Royce defence but Cotgrave were unable to add to their goal tally. At the other end the pace of Normington and Halcro was needed against the swift counter-attacking of Rolls Royce, and they did their jobs effectively ensuring that Burgin had little to do.

At 3-1 Rolls Royce always had a chance if they could get another goal, but Cotgrave held out for a deserved win.

Another solid performance by Cotgrave against a useful Rolls Royce team.

Man of the Match - Max Robertson