Lucy Trail reports from Kedleston Road
A sense of belief powered Derby University men’s twos to a penalty shootout win after a battling 1-1 draw against Nottingham Trent’s twos.
Defender Kyan Anderton said that the spirit and performance showed from the team sealed their spot in the third round of the Midlands Conference Cup.
He said: “We knew it was going to be a tough game, we went behind not like we wanted to but we had to dig in.
“We made it tough for ourselves at times, but we did what we needed to do.
“We had belief in ourselves, we knew we had the ability to get back into the game.
Trent were quick to get the first as a whipped in corner found the head of Josh Thompson who bulleted the ball into the back of the net.
Banks came close for the home side in the 11th minute as his header beat keeper Ben Thomas, but Michael Olude cleared it just off the line.
Trent thought they had doubled their lead 43 minutes in when Bryon Adiafo’s effort rolled past George Allen, but it was ruled out for offside.
Derby started the second half strong as through ball from Anderton found striker Nathan Banks who slotted the ball away comfortably levelling the score.
After an end to end second half, the game finished 1-1 resulting in a penalty shootout.
Anderton fired home the fifth penalty for Derby and he was delighted that his effort hit the back of the net.
He said: “It could have gone one way or the other but thankfully it went my way, the perfect way really.”
Derby return to the British Universities and Colleges Sport Midlands 4A league next week with a visit to Warwick thirds where they look to build on their back-to-back wins.
