Atletico adapted best to the conditions on the day and two excellent individual goals
for Nathan Walker and Marco Adaggio beat Lichfield, keeping AFC in second place in the league.
The first twenty minutes of the game was pretty much a non event thanks mainly to a sudden
down pour of sleet and rain, making play virtually impossible. In that time Tyrone
Clark-O'Connell had weaved his way into the area, gone down under a challenge, and whilst it
wasn't really a penalty it certainly wasn't a 'dive' for which the Hinckley winger received
a ridiculous yellow card. After the rain, the surface was very sticky and got worse throughout
the match. Nathan Walker opened the scoring for AFC on the half hour, receiving a cut back
on the edge of the area, with the Lichfield players backing off him, the midfielder let fly
from 20 yards curling the ball out of the reach of Jon Clough into the back of the net. The ref
then dismissed strong penalty appeals from the Lichfield players as the ball stuck in the mud
in the AFC area promting a melee of players trying to get to the ball. The ref was increasingly
losing control of the game, and indeed took no action when Justin Nisbett was scythed down
from behind with a very late challenge, forcing the right winger to be replaced by Luke
Richards just before half time.
The second half became bogged down, literally, in a very muddy midfield, though with Atletico
coming down the slope, it was they who created what little goal chances there were. With the
game seemingly beginning to 'fizzle out' a moment of brilliance from Adaggio lit it up again.
Receiving the ball central 30 yards out, he dribbled past two Lichfield defenders into the area,
and as the keeper came out slotted it past him, despite being caught by another very late
tackle in the process, doubling Hinckley's lead. Lichfield had no response for this and AFC saw
out the last 15 minutes to record their nineteenth game unbeaten, remaining in second place
in the table.
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Lichfield City match details
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