Hardly's second season at Fenton Manor ended in a controversial defeat as opponents PSV Hangover got the victory needed for them to claim promotion.
Hardly turned upto the game with five players after knee injuries ruled out three players but were soon told that they would have to play with four men after Chris Cope, sent off last week for kicking a ball away, was told he had a one match ban.
Athletic were then told that the ref who had taken charge of their game last week, and sent off two Athletic players therefore leaving Hardly without influential frontman Cope and Craig Preece for this game was in fact from the refereeing department of Staffs FA and also the father of one of the PSV players! After he had a chat with the ref of the game on the night, who he seemed very pally with, two and two were soon added together and a conspiracy was the result!
The game saw Hardly camp out and try to be the party poopers they had planned to be, with in form F Unit set to benefit if they managed to claim a point.
To stop getting picked apart at the back Hardly didn't take the ball too far forward, one or two passes before unleashing a shot at goal.
The deadlock was broken though after ten minutes when a shot from distance took a slight deflection and flew inside the far post but the sides were level, frustratingly for PSV, when McEvoy flew down the wing before finding the net from an acute angle.
The teams should have been level player wise aswell as on the scoreboard straight after when a free kick was awarded to Hardly on the edge of the PSV box, for a slide tackle, but no sin bin was given, as state the rules, and the sense of injustice grew.
Two quickfire goals saw Hardly go in three goals to one down at the break but a hardworking display, and some good goalkeeping from Paul Dale, kept the score the same throughout the second half.
Just to add further insult to injury with five minutes remaining Young was brought down by a tackle from behind, right on the edge of the PSV box, and a free kick was awarded but, yet again, no sin bin was enforced.
Hardly now look forward to the start of their third season, and are back in action on January 5th.