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Saturday 17th January - Ashton United 3-2 Frickley Athletic

The Blues' lost their short unbeaten record after going down 3-2 at Ashton United. Phil Sharpe stuck with the same starting eleven as played at Lancaster last week, with the only change being on the bench as Antony Jackson replaced the injured Michael Blythen.

On a bumpy pitch, the Blues started well with Dan Sheriffe putting an angled drive just wide of the left hand post after 13 minutes. The home side responded with Jamier Miller sidefooting wide as he met Craig Fleury's right wing cross at the near post as Chris Fawcus was caught out of position. On 22 minutes Nick Richardson pushed the ball past Ashton full back Andy Thackeray as he broke into the box, only for Thackeray to fall over and handle the ball away from Richardson as he shaped to shoot. The Assistant Referee immediately signalled the penalty which was promptly awarded. LEE MORRIS stepped up to beat Dan Trueman from the spot. Minute later a good move down the left by Fawcus and Mark Vickerage saw the latter play the ball into the path of Morris who shot just wide of the left hand post from 20 yards. After being in control of the game the Blues lost their grip as the game turned on its head following an incident on 40 minutes. A back-pass to goalkeeper Jon Hood saw Hood's attempted clearance strike Ashton forward Miller and ricochet back and strike Hood on his arm outside the area. The referee awarded the free-kick and, after consultation with his assistant, showed Hood the red card. Steve Robinson replaced Hood in goal. The free-kick was curled towards the bottom left hand corner by Jason Dormer and Robinson could only push the ball against the post with the ball bouncing over the line for the equaliser. Sharpe replaced Vickerage with Dale Rimmington to bolster the midfield in Robinson's absence.

After the break the home side went close on a couple of occasions with Paul Garvey getting to a left wing cross before Robinson but heading over the bar and Dean Johnson fired wide from 20 yards. Then, on 66 minutes, the ball fell kindly for Garvey to beat Robinson with an angled shot from 15 yards. Less than 2 minutes later the game was all but over as Johnson rode 3 challenges to break clear of the blues' defence and brilliantly chip the ball over the advancing Robinson and into the top right hand corner from 22 yards. The Blues kept plugging away and pulled a goal back right at the death when MORRIS scored with a 25 yard free-kick which Trueman appeared not to see as the ball zipped past him at his near post.

Frickley Athletic : Hood, Richards, Fawcus, Lindley, Pugh, Marquis, Robinson, Richardson (Hatto73), Morris, Sheriffe, Vickerage (Rimmington 44). Unused sub. Jackson

Att: 192

Ref : Mr W D Smallwood

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