Knight sees red after Town hit Ardley with early blast

Ardley United boss Paul Davis will be looking for a good response at Longlevens AFC on Saturday.
Ardley United manager Paul DavisArdley United manager Paul Davis
Ardley United manager Paul Davis

Highworth Town ended Ardley’s winning UHLSport Hellenic League run with a 4-0 victory.

Highworth hit four goals in little more than half-an-hour which stunned the hosts in Saturday’s premier division clash and Ardley failed to recover.

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And, after Ryan Knight got a straight red card before halftime, the home side shut up shop as Highworth had won the game by then.

Davis said: “I’m really disappointed to lose the game obviously.

“We’ve been really good recently but I felt the first 20 minutes we were slightly overawed by our opposition.

“We conceded some really poor goals, ones from mistakes and errors that we haven’t been conceding of late. We deserved to lose the game to the better side.

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“We didn’t concede a goal with ten men on the pitch for an hour and managed to create some chances in that time, so we’ll take those positives into next week.”

Highworth took the lead in the fifth minute when a Chris Taylor corner from their right eluded everyone and sailed straight in.

They doubled their advantage in the 18th minute when Aysa Corrick steadied himself before slotting home.

Two minutes later the away side were awarded a penalty when the Ardley defence were caught high up the pitch. Ash Edenborough was felled by a rash tackle and picked himself up to smash home the ensuing spot-kick.

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The game was ended as a contest in the 32nd minute as Highworth again got in behind the home defence. Edenborough surged forward before simply squaring to Aysa Corrick who, from six yards, tapped the ball in off the near post.

The home side had their afternoon of frustration compounded four minutes later when Ryan Knight was shown a straight red card.

Another ball over the top saw Corrick in behind and, as the United defender tussled with the front man to get the ball, the referee blew his whistle and gave Knight his marching orders.

Leam Howards was unlucky not to pull a goal back and Nathaniel Lewars beat his marker to the ball but saw his shot rebound down off the bar, bounce on the line and go away to safety.

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Edenborough also watched as his right-footed shot came back off the post and was cleared to safety.

Matt Cruse had a late shot saved and another Jack Ross lay off saw his team-mate head straight into the waiting hands of Kent Kauppinen.