Joe Jagger bagged his second brace against Knaresborough in the space of a month as Emley AFC completed a quickfire double over the North Yorkshire side.
Emley’s 5-1 win on Saturday followed a 4-0 victory at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground last month and it’s Emley’s fifth win in the last six matches.
Boss Richard Tracey was happy with the win even though he didn’t think the Pewits played their best flowing football.
He said: “When we came and saw the pitch, which was soft coupled with the wind, we knew we needed to do the basics right.
“I didn’t think we played our best flowing football but the pitch didn’t help that. I thought we were the better side overall and deserved the three points.”
Jagger won the Man of the Match award and Tracey added: “Joe has struck a couple of free kicks over the last few weeks. He’s had two in this match, one going around the wall and one on the corner. He played very well again.”
Another positive was young on-loan goalkeeper Michael Acuah from Huddersfield Town standing in for regular keeper Sam Kelly who was sent off in last week’s 2-1 defeat to Barton Town.
Tracey said: “Michael has come in from Huddersfield Town and I thought he did well. He didn’t have a lot of saves to make but what he did do I thought he did well.”
The only downside was the goal the Pewits conceded from a corner and Tracey said: “We defended well and conceded a corner. We then just didn’t deal with the corner well enough. We have to work a bit harder to clear the second ball. Their guy just stabs it home which is fair play to him.”
The Pewits started well and managed to grab their first goal in the 31st minute. Joe Kenny fired a shot in, it took a wicked deflection from the unfortunate Sam Cook and the ball nestled in the bottom corner.
After a few close attempts by both Jagger and George Doyle, Emley had the ball in the net again in the 43rd minute. A beautiful, whipped in corner was met by Charlie Smith who buried a header into the bottom corner.
It was 2-0 to Emley at the break but there was more to come from the away side in the second half.
The travelling fans didn’t have to wait long as Jagger smashed in a 48th minute free-kick.
The Pewits’ fourth goal came three minutes later. Another free-kick, from roughly the same distance, up stepped Jagger but this time he deceived the home defence as he left it for his strike partner Doyle who fired home via a deflection.
Emley conceded a goal on the 57th minute. Cook made up for his earlier own goal by poking home a consolation after a corner.
The scoring was wrapped up in the 62nd minute when Jagger repeated his earlier trick by rifling another free-kick past the Knaresborough keeper for Emley’s fifth.
With only a month of the season left Emley go to Barnsley to face Athersley Rec on Tuesday night (7.45).
Images supplied by Emley AFC
