Hall Road Rangers suffered their 1st league defeat of the 2022/23 Humber Premier League Premier Division season on Saturday as they lost 2-1 at Hedon Rangers.

In the 2nd minute, Lewis Andrew had an effort cleared off the line. Three minutes later, Hedon had a shot which was hit straight at Hall Road keeper Haydn Withill.

Andrew then had a free kick saved by the Hedon keeper and Withill had to produce a good save at the other end to prevent the hosts from going in front.

In the 20th minute, Rob Hall tried his luck with a speculative lob from distance which went over the bar. Two quick fire goals for Hedon, courtesy of Daniel Clancy and Harry Giles, put them in front.

Luke Bullement got a goal back for Hall Road in the 31st minute when he fired home after latching onto a great pass from Tommy Waud. Hall Road thought they equalised when Bullement saw an effort hit the post and bounce near the goal line, but the referee was unmoved and didn’t award a goal.

Hall Road carved out more chances on Hedon’s goal. They came very close to equalising in the 35th minute as Elliott Williams pulled the ball back into the box which avoided the onrushing Sam O’Malley and fell to Tommy Waud who fired an effort over the bar. Rob Hall and Lucas Robinson then had opportunities to get Hall Road back on level terms, but they weren’t converted.

In the 2nd half, Hedon threatened to extend their lead. Haydn Withill made a great save in the 51st minute to deny the hosts a 3rd goal. The hosts also had a couple of efforts go over the bar.

Just before full-time, Hall Road had a chance to equalise when Finn Pulford sent a header straight at the Hedon keeper. Ultimately, Hall Road took nothing from the game and this defeat means they occupy 7th place in the league table.

Hall Road Rangers: Withill, Williams, Murray, Pulford, Chaffer (Miller 68’), Andrew (C), R. Hall, Waud, Bullement (Iversen 81’), Robinson, O’Malley (Oliver 68’).

Subs Not Used: Emmerson, J. Hall.

Hall Road boss Leon Sewell was very disappointed with his side’s overall performance:

“First of all, congrats to Hedon. The scoreline doesn’t lie and we all know that goals win games and some clever movement from Hedon caused us problems in our own area.

For me, we’ve conceded two sloppy goals and we weren’t switched on. You can’t give anybody a two nil head start.

On reflection of the way that Hedon played in the 1st half and the two chances that they had, fair play to them and they deserved the three points.

What’s really disappointing is we’ve set the players up in training on Thursday and some have listened and some haven’t. When they want to do their own things, things fall down.

We’ve scored a good goal to get back in it. Prior to that, we should have had a couple of goals. After we scored, the boys are adamant that we’ve scored a 2nd which hit the inside of the post on the portable goals and somehow gone out for a goal kick which is bizarre.

We’ve not done enough and we don’t deserve to win today. We’ve got to assess it which we have done with the players.

Finally, thanks for the little bit of travelling support that we’ve had again which is much appreciated. Albeit, they don’t deserve to watch a poor performance like they have done this afternoon.

I thought Hedon played the game well and wound the clock down and did what they needed to do. Us on the other hand, there’s an awful lot of room for improvement.”