Vets Lose at Kirkby

A depleted Amaranth Manstonians, missing several players from their last outing at Clifford, went down to a heavy defeat at the hands of Kirby Malzeard in Harrogate late on Sunday afternoon in the Sky TV 4pm kick-off slot. Mick Wood captained the side and was moved into attack by Manager Spence with the back four comprising of Sleightholm, Milsted, Stephenson and Pearce. Steve Hunt stepped in to make his second appearance of the season on the left of midfield with Hallam taking up the other wide position in the 4-4-2 formation. Smith and Heaton made up the central midfield partnership with David Pugh alongside Wood up front.

The team from Leeds struggled to create any clear cut openings in the first 40 with Malzeard’s keeper a relative spectator. The closest the away side came was when late substitute Danny Mannion fizzed a right footed effort just over the bar from 20 yards out after being teed up by Pugh. Amaranth’s top scorer had looked threatening on a couple of occasions down the left but either choose the wrong option or failed to test the keeper. Likewise Wood who found himself in a one on one situation with the last defender inside the box only to twist and turn once too often before being crowded out by the retreating home defenders.

Hallam enjoyed a tidy half an hour, unafraid to carry the ball into the opposition half but unable to find a final pass of any note, before running out of steam towards the end of the half. The defence worked tirelessly in the first forty minutes as Kirby continually probed down the flanks and looked to get in behind. Pearce, playing at left full-back, was particularly effective with his never say die attitude and determination, making several crucial last ditch tackles. Stephenson also threw his body on the line, taking a vicious shot to the face that left him dazed and needing to come off just before half time meaning Wood needed to drop back in defence. Milsted won a number of headers and both he and Sleightholm were kept on their toes to keep out crosses and through balls, conceding a number of corners in the process.

It was the second of these corners that started the scoring for Kirby Malzeard who were playing in their all red strip. A good delivery to the back post was met firmly with an accurate header as the home scorer outjumped Wood to register the opener.

HALF TIME 1-0

Cold-ridden Bentley came on at the start of the second half on the right of midfield, giving a breather to 10 pints and 30 fags a day man Hunt. Smith and Heaton were seeing more of the ball in the early exchanges of the half, but there seemed no way back within 10 minutes as two quick goals from Malzeard’s pacy Number 14 knocked the stuffing out of Amaranth and the game was effectively over as a contest.

Capitalising on a couple of defensive lapses, he received the ball round the back and finished with consummate ease past the exposed O’Brien, firstly firing inside the right hand post and secondly sitting down the big keeper before dinking into the exposed goal. Amaranth’s highly rated and reliable No.1 delayed 14’s hat-trick with a fantastic one on one save, diving low to his left to cling on to the forward’s placed effort, but the hat-trick did duely arrive with ten to go.

The afternoon for Amaranth was typified by two glaring second half misses. Firstly, Pugh broke down the left and hung over a perfect cross to the back post where Bentley had made a great run into the box only to spectacularly fluff his lines by inexplicably heading over the b