Pilkington 4 Grapp Sports 5 - 12/11/11
After scoring last weekend on his GSFC 1st Team debut Tom Rutter put on a virtuoso performance scoring all 5 in a thrilling 5-4 victory for Grappenhall against high flying Pilkington away from home on Saturday 12th November.
With all players and officials perfectly observing the minute’s silence the Grappenhall lads were ready to put on a performance worth of the poppy they proudly wore on their shirts.
Straight from the kick-off it was clear this would be a fast moving tight game, Tom Rutter open his account on 3’ only for Pilkington to equalise 7’ later, then finally a tight first half exploded into Tom adding his 2nd and 3rd in three minutes on 33 and 35 with two outstanding strikes, only for Pilkington to get a penalty on 39 minutes to make it 3-2 to Grappenhall at half time.
Grappenhall took a little time getting started again in the second half and on 51’ it was all square at 3-3. Up popped Rutter again on 68’ and it looked like Grappenhall finally had control on the game and would see out the game, then on 85’ the referee points to the spot and awards Pilkington their second penalty of the day which was duly converted to make it 4-4. All Grappenhall hearts sunk after such a valiant effort from all 11 players, it looked like it was only to be 1 point in return. But nothing was going to stop Grappenhalls’ new number 9 from making it his day and 2 minutes later on 87’, Rutter unleashes an unstoppable strike from the edge of the area to make it 5-4. The lads then worked hard for the remaining 3 minutes plus extra time to close out a fantastic away win for the club.
