Opening day defeat for Daisy Hill

12 Oct 2020 11:50
Published by: Scott Callan

Credit to Hayden Roberts for the goal scoring pic!

 

Daisy Hill 2 Prestwich Heys 5

Daisy Hill's opening North West Counties League game of the season ended with a 5-2 home defeat at the hands of Prestwich Heys.

An impressive display of attacking play and clinical finishing saw Heys build a three goal lead by half time, and although Daisy rallied in the second half and got on the scoresheet thanks to Matty Davison and Connor Hughes, the visitors ran out comfortable winners.

After the first attempt to play the game seven days earlier fell foul of the weather, conditions were much kinder at the second attempt, and Heys imposed themselves on the game right from the start.

The opening 10 minutes were played largely in the Daisy half of the field, and Nathan Emery cam close to opening in the scoring on 12 minutes, when he saw his well struck free kick deflected just wide of goal.

Five minutes later however, the left back played his part in Heys' opening goal, with a beautifully judged through ball from the left to pick out a run from Niall Sultan, who took a touch and placed a low shot under Cameron Allison in the Daisy goal to put his side ahead.

Just on the half hour mark, a similar move set up Heys' second goal, with a cross field pass from the left wing being picked up by Heys right back Joe Rothwell, who timed his run perfectly to rifle home a first time shot from 10 yards.

Within a minute Heys were nearly three up when they regained possession from the restart and built another attack which ended with Sultan firing in a shot that stung the palms of Daisy keeper Allison.

Daisy struggled to create much in the way of clear cut chances in the opening period, the best effort coming 10 minutes from the break when Connor Hughes advanced into the box, beat a defender and saw his shot blocked.

But Heys rounded off an impressive opening 45 minutes with a third goal in first half stoppage time, and a fine solo effort it was too, with Jamie Hill picking the ball up wide of the left, cutting inside two defenders before curling a shot high into the top corner of the
net.

The visitors picked up where they left after the restart with a fourth goal six minutes into the second half, when Jack Coop smashed home a loose ball after a shot from Alfie Belcher had been beaten out by Allison.

Two minutes later, an acrobatic goal line clearance from Jake O'Brien prevented a fifth goal after a Hill shot had been pushed up in the air by Allison, but Daisy finally got on the scoresheet in the 55th minute with a well worked goal.

A long ball down the left from O'Brien sent Connor Hughes racing towards goal, and his low cross into the box was sidefooted home by Matty Davison.

Two minutes later Hughes again found space down the left to fire another cross in to the danger zone but this time Davison just failed to connect.

On 62 minutes Heys added their fifth goal of the afternoon and it was the pick of the bunch, with some delightful one touch passing between Alfie Belcher and Jack Coop setting up Coop for his second goal of the afternoon with a cool finish.

Both sides continued to push forward and chances were created at both ends, but it was Daisy who finished the afternoon on a positive note with the final goal of the game, when Connor Hughes applied a cracking first time shot to Joe Mullarkey's cross to beat Saunders from 12 yards and reduce the margin of defeat.

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