Tommo on ‘Game of Two Halves’

Hinckley AFC assistant manager Paul Tomlinson said his side’s 1-1 Boxing Day draw against Nuneaton Griff was ‘a game of two halves’.

Both sides had the better of the game when they played against the strong wind, with AFC dominating the first half and taking the lead through Greg Pearson.

But The Heartlanders responded well after the break, having the better of the second half even though they didn’t test Hinckley ‘keeper Tom Cross until Ryan Slinn scored their 87th minute leveller.

And Tomlinson said he thought his side were ‘tremendous’ in the first half before being pegged back after the interval. He said: ”I thought we were tremendous in the first half, against a strong wind and the lads kept possession of the ball really well.

‘We created a couple of really good opportunities in the first half, but also, on the back of that, Crossy (Tom Cross) has had to make a couple of outstanding saves as well to keep us in the lead.

‘I thought we played some nice football in some difficult conditions on a difficult pitch, but it was a game of two halves and they’ve done to us in the second half what we did to them in the first.

‘They looked after the ball well, had a lot of possession, probably didn’t create as many chances as we did in the first half but I thought we defended really well in the second half up until we conceded the goal.

‘It was a real game of two halves, the wind was very strong at times, so the lads have put in a good shift, which was really pleasing today. We’ve come off at the end with what was probably a fair result.’