Hucknall Town 2 Accrington Stanley 0

A WOEFUL display on a bumpy pitch saw Stanley crash to defeat at Hucknall Town. The tone for the afternoon was set as early as the fourth minute when Wayne Maddock deceived by the bounce and it allowed Simon Martin to race away but with only Jamie Speare to beat he blasted the ball wide of the goal.

Hucknall went ahead in the 12th minutes, Jamie Roberts played the ball through for Paul Tomlinson, who raced into the Stanley penalty area and fired the ball past Speare at the near post.

Steve Carragher launched a Red attack on 19 minutes with a long ball into the path of Gary Williams but he fired wide.

Williams electric pace saw him get past the Hucknall defence on 32 minutes to latch onto a Steve Hollis pass but he lobbed the ball wide of the goal. Stanley came close to grabbing an equaliser a minute into first half stoppage time, Williams turned well in the penalty box and his shot was deflected for a corner. Carragher's corner kick was met by Jay Flannery whose first time goal-bound shot was cleared by Danny Mayman.

Accrington were left stunned a minute after the interval when they conceded the second goal. Mark Place passed the ball down the right wing to Martin whose cross wasn't cleared by Stanley's three central defenders and Rob Orton was on hand to fire past Speare.

Record signing Williams had a glorious chance to get Stanley back into the game when he raced onto a through ball and should have done better than fire over. Stanley introduced all three of their substitutes but could find no way back into the game.