A brace for Luke Richards and Steve Hart, each scoring apiece in both halves, saw Atletico
comfortably past Stafford Town.
In truth AFC never really needed to get out of second gear and it was one of those games where
Hinckley were expected to win, but just needed to complete the job professionally. Luke
Richards opened the scoring just after the half hour when Bekir Halil played him through the
middle, with the Safford defence trying to play offside, he took the ball around Josh Moreton
and rolling into the unguarded net. AFC followed up with James Williams heading wide from a
corner and Steve Hart chipping the ball up, but onto the top of the crossbar. Stafford responded
after the half hour with Mark Habbershaw shooting straight at Ty Belford, but the Hinckley
keeper released the ball straight away, AFC moving the ball through midfield, and a half timed
tackle by the Stafford defence merely put the ball into the path of Hart running at goal guiding
the ball past Moreton as he was static and helpless in the Town goal.
The pattern of play was the same for the second half with Stafford having only rare attacks, Richards
firing wide and Dom Perkins heading over from a cross, but just after the hour AFC scored two
quick goals to seal the points. Richards had the ball on the edge of the area and the Stafford
defence allowed him time and space, so he duly obliged firing across Moreton into the far corner
of the net. The fourth followed minutes after when Lamar Graham did well on the right and crossed
central as Richards diving header was spectacularly saved by Moreton, however only to the feet
of Hart who blasted the ball back into goal. As AFC went in search of the fifth, 3 times they had
the ball in the net, but each time the goal was ruled out because of an infringement, and Kev
Thornton curled a shot just wide in the dying moments as Hinckley had to settle for four.
click here for:
Stafford Town details
|