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Saturday 15th February - Colwyn Bay 2-3 Frickley Athletic

Spurred on by the return of Club Captain Mark Hancock, the Blues earned three much needed and richly deserved points with a more comfortable win than the scoreline suggests. Although heavily strapped up Hancock returned in place of Steve Woolford and formed a good midfield partnership with loan signing Phil Lindley. Gary Reece and Remo Nesa were both absent through injury.

The home side came close to taking the lead as early as the second minute but Carl Furlong's opportunist strike from outside the box hit the top of Mark Samway's crossbar. The Blues soon pressed forward and were rather unfortunate not to take the lead on 10 minutes when Chris Newton somehow failed to make contact with Gary Hatto's chipped cross to the far post. Curtis Bernard then won a corner down the Blues' right which was taken by Hatto only for Paul Marquis to meet it with a powerful header which Bay 'keeper Matt Boswell saved well on the line. But on 20 minutes the Blues got their reward when a great run down the right from Bernard saw him send over a cross which Steve Robinson miss-kicked but LINDLEY ran in behind him to tap in from 8 yards. The game started to get scrappy with some rash challenges from both sides being evident before Lindley went close to increasing the lead on the half hour but his shot went wide of the left hand post. The home side had a chance to equalise just before half time when Furlong fed Deiniol Graham but the former Emley striker blazed wide from the edge of the box.

Bay replaced Graham at half time with Calvin Davies and he set Furlong up on 52 minutes but he delayed his shot, allowing Duncan Richards to narrow his options before he shot straight at Samways. The Blues replied with Bernard and Newton combining well on the edge of the box before the latter saw his angled drive blocked by Boswell's legs. Minutes later Newton returned the compliment for Bernard whose 15 yard shot was inches wide of the left hand post. On the hour Robinson went even closer as he headed into the side netting at the far post following a Hatto cross. The second goal finally came on 65 minutes when Chris Gowen did well to break down the left and send over a cross which Boswell missed at the near post, leaving BERNARD with the easy task of tapping in from 2 yards. Eight minutes later the game was all but over as Robinson's pass to Bernard on the edge of the box took a fortunate deflection off a defender to fall to NEWTON who made no mistake from just inside the box. Phil Sharpe then replaced Newton and Hatto with Lee Morris and Kieran O'Brien and almost immediately Gowen went close to adding a fourth but his angled drive was pushed around the post by Boswell. On 85 minutes the home side scored what seemed like a consolation goal when Antony Jackson was adjudged to have held Furlong in the box and Marc Limbert converted the penalty. Lindley then went close again as he got on the end off Morris' ball into the box but Boswell rushed out well to block Lindley's effort with his legs. The final minute of injury time was made to seem like an eternity when John Stannard was unmarked as he headed in a left wing cross two minutes into added time to make the score 3-2 but the Blues held on to claim 3 much needed points.

Frickley Athletic : Samways, Richards, Gowen, Lindley, Jackson, Marquis, Hancock, Robinson, Bernard, Newton (Morris 80), Hatto (O'Brien 80). Unused sub. Sharpe.

Attendance : 210

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