Flanagan’s Onions 1

Robin Hood 3

Nathan Peskett came back to haunt Flanagan’s Onions with two second-half goals to give Robin Hood a well-deserved victory at Goose Gosling Field on Saturday night.

With Onions desperately holding on at 1-1 after Treshun Smith had cancelled out Zuhri Burgess’s opener, Peskett finally broke his former side’s resolve with a header from an Antwan Russell cross in the 84th minute.

The midfielder, who signed for Hood after Onions were relegated at the end of the 2014-15 season, was providing the sort of link-up play between defence and attack that Onions were clearly missing and struck again in added time with another header this time from a corner kick.

Kyle Lightbourne, the Hood coach, revealed that Peskett had been on the receiving end of some light-hearted jibes from his team-mates prior to the game, having failed to score with his new boots this season. But as Lightbourne pointed out, Peskett carries just as much scoring threat with his head as he does his feet.

“We’ve been teasing Peskett because he has these new black boots and hasn’t scored with them yet,” Lightbourne said.

“But, he scored with his head tonight so we told him, ‘You don’t need boots’.

“It was nice for him [to score against his former side] and the first goal he scored was a really good header.”

Onions, looking to build on their encouraging goalless draw in their season-opener against Somerset Trojans, fell behind to a goal from midfielder Burgess after a neat one-two with winger Lejuan Simmons in the tenth minute.

They were soon back on level terms when a long ball caught the Hood defence napping, allowing Smith to force his way through and tuck away a shot past Jason Simons, the Hood goalkeeper.

Chejon Berkeley, the Onions goalkeeper, made a magnificent save to deny Simmons moments before the break to leave Mick Ward the happier of the two coaches at the interval, with Lightbourne reading his players the riot act.

Lightbourne’s words seemed to have the desired effect with Hood seizing control of the game early in the second half, cutting out Onions’ long ball to Keston Lewis, leaving the lone striker increasingly isolated as the game wore on.

Onions defence, well marshalled by Joseph Scott, were keeping Hood at bay with no little help from Berkeley, who pulled off another wonder save to tip a header from Aaron Nelson over the bar. Scott then deflected a shot onto his post from a Burgess cross as Onions were living dangerously.

Onions appeared more than happy to share the spoils but were denied by their former man Peskett, whose run from deep went unchecked before he placed a header beyond the impressive Berkeley.

A tired looking Onions had given everything and conceded again in added time when Peskett added his second from a set piece as Hood made it two wins from two in the league.

“I always knew we would have more possession than them, but they made it difficult for us as they like to stretch the game which is a little different to what we’re used to,” Lightbourne said.

“They like to get it forward to Keston and I asked at half-time for someone to block all of those balls going into him.

“He didn’t have as much of an effect in the second half and they didn’t really create much, whereas their goalkeeper made some excellent saves at crucial times in the game to keep them in it.”

“To be fair, [Onions] are a team and they keep on battling and I told my players that.”

The match also heralded the return of respected referee Martin Wyer, who was officiating his first match since quitting after receiving abuse during a bad-tempered FA Cup quarter-final game between Onions and PHC Zebras at Goose Gosling Field in February 2015.

TEAMS

Scorers

Flanagan’s Onions (Smith 16)

Robin Hood (Burgess 10, Peskett 84, 89)

Flanagan’s Onions (4-5-1): C Berkeley — N Dunkle, J Scott, P Robey, B Turner — J Knight, V Anton (sub: D Thompson, 81min), C Burns (sub: R Calvert), S Swan, T Smith — K Lewis. Booked: Knight, Scott. Substitutes not used: P Smith.

Robin Hood 4-3-3: J Simmons — P Froncioni, D Cox, M Burgess, M Johnson — N Peskett, Z Burgess (sub: S Burchall, 72), C Ryan (sub: D Brangman, 83) — L Simmons, A Russell, E Outerbridge. Substitutes not used: D Andrade, S Nasir, M Thomas.

Referee: M Wyer.