Heroic Halmer inspires Jewdinese

This was a great for neutrals as both teams were attacking with real purpose. Jewdinese's qualiser came from a corner as Joe Meisel delivered a great ball in which new signing Ben Halmer headed powerfully into the back of the net.

With a minute to go in the first half AC Whetstone went down to 10 men and Jewdinese knew that the game was there for the taking.

Zack Collins started to excel down the left in the second half, testing the keeper on several occasions. His persistence paid off as he rounded three defenders after getting the ball from a Halmer clearance and he slotted past the keeper to put Jewdinese 2-1 up.

Joe Meisel, Jewdinese's Player of the Season so far, became more of an influence as the game progressed and he began to link up well with Barney Rhodes on the right and Jake Erlich up top.

AC Whetstone tried valiantly to get back into the game but Jewdinese's numerical advantage helped them to secure the win. Wonderful link-up play between Grant Reingold and Meisel saw the latter performed a clever backheel which sent Reingold off on the overlap. He passed it to Barney Rhodes who beat the keeper at a tight angle.

The game was secured and a huge three points means Jewdinese can still keep thier eyes on promotion.

Jewdinese boss Darren Lawrence told JC Sport: "I was happy with the performance, especially second half. I was also pleased with the maturity levels and respect shown by the team. When the game got heated, we stayed focused on the task at hand."

Club chairman Jake Erlich told JC Sport: "I know how hard it is being a young team in the MSFL, but being younger than us must be even more difficult. Credit to Whetstone for not giving up throughout the 90 minutes and giving us our toughest game of the season so far. We knew exactly what was at stake so when the game got heated and Whetstone got frustrated it was vital we kept to our game-plan and stayed focused.”

Whetstone joint-manager Clive Nathan told JC Sport: "Losing is always tough, but this group of boys will bounce back. We were ahead and had a good chance to score again but then to find ourselves playing with 10 was a struggle.

"As the youngest team in the league, it is important that the boys know that losing and dealing with tough decisions is part of sport. What I was pleased with is that we continued to try to play decent football and showed respect to the referee throughout the game. That's very important to this club and always will be."