Tuesday 1st December 2009
Blue Square North
Vics 0
Hinckley United 1 (Webster 12)

With the euphoria of their FA Cup exploits now a fading memory Vics slumped to a third consecutive defeat and more significantly failed again to record a league win, a drought that stretches back to the 3rd of October.
Hinckley provided able but unspectacular opposition while the hosts were simply dreadful leaving the crowd with little to enjoy on a bitterly cold night.
Northwich looked out of sorts and hesitant from the start although Newby did spurn an early opportunity when set clear on goal by D’Laryea by shooting wide of an inviting target. As it was, another disjointed Vics attack fell apart and Hinckley broke to leave Adam WEBSTER clear on goal and he picked his spot with embarrassing ease to open the scoring. Vics huffed and puffed with little effect and Hinckley’s Andy Gooding was the only player to go close from a shot from the edge of the box that flew narrowly wide. Otherwise it took nearly 40 minutes for Vics to call upon United keeper Chris MacKenzie to make any save of note and then he dealt easily with a Newby shot.

HALF TIME : VICS 0 HINCKLEY UNITED 1

Andy Preece was quick to ring the changes and they began the second half with Nat Kerr and Junior Brown replacing Ian Herring and Ryan Brown, leaving Mat Bailey to move forward to a central striker role.
Most would have expected some sort of positive reaction but, if anything, things just got worse. Attack followed by attack broke down and Hinckley defended with an alarming degree of comfort and on a rare occasion broke leaving Aspden to produce a decent save to keep out an Eribenne effort. Mat Bailey attempted to break the monotony by forcing a couple of late saves from MacKenzie but otherwise the game limped to a lifeless and frustrating end.

Team: 4-3-3
Aspden /
Aspin, Bailey, Grand, R. Brown (J. Brown h/t) /
Connor, Herring (Kerr h/t), D’Laryea /
Danks, Newby (Burns 69), Elam /
Subs not used: Riley and Edwards.
Referee: M. Duncan
Attend: 451
Man of the Match: Every man and woman that ignored the bitterly cold weather to stand and sit through such a drab game.