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Friday 14th April - Frickley Athletic  1-1  North Ferriby United

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The Blues were forced to settle for a point in an entertaining 'top of the table' encounter against North Ferriby United at the Millennium Wolrdwide Stadium this afternoon. In front of the highest home League crowd for 21 years - 908 - Alex Callery gave the Blues a deserved first half lead only for Ferriby to equalise through Neil Allison. The Blues played the final 23 minutes with ten men after Mark Ward was sent off. 

Gary Marrow made just one change to the line-up which won emphatically at Lincoln United last Friday night by bringing the fit again Alex Callery back in on the right in place of Chris Adam.

The Blues started the game positively with Peter Duffield sending Callery clear down the right but he was denied by a last ditch tackle which earned the Blues a corner. Ferriby had their first chance from a 25 yard free-kick which was deflected off the wall but Gary Ingham reacted quickly to block the ball on the line. Martyn Woolford was causing the visitors problems down the left and it was he who almost gave the Blues the lead following a good run from Callery who played the ball inside the full back for Woolford to have a clear shot at goal. However, his low angled drive was cleared off the line after beating Antoni Pecora. This led to a period of sustained Blues' pressure with several crosses being cleared before Mark Ward saw his close range shot well blocked by Pecora. The Blues finally broke the deadlock on 23 minutes when Ritchie Butler sent over a cross from the left which Peter Duffield headed goalwards but Pecora parried only for CALLERY to follow up and stab the ball home. Ward and Duffield then exchanges passes outside the Ferriby box before the latter fired in an angled shot which Pecora got a hand to but Woolford seized on the loose ball to fire in a shot from a tight angle which was again cleared off the line. The Blues suffered a blow on the stroke of half time as Simon Collins was forced off through injury and he was replaced by Steve Heath, with Steve Kennedy moving into midfield.

Early in the second half Heath's ball out of defence somehow found its way through to Ward who broke clear down the right to fire in a powerful shot from 20 yards which Pecora parried at full stretch. Next Woolford did fantastic down the left to win the ball and then cut into the box before appearing to be felled but the referee waved away strong claims for a penalty. Minutes later the Blues had even stronger claims for a penalty waved away as Kennedy went down just inside the box and landed on the ball only for a Ferriby player to literally run up and kick him. Amazingly, the referee stopped play and decided to award the visitors a free-kick! Ferriby drew level on 65 minutes when Aliison rose the head in from 6 yards following a corner. Within 60 seconds of restarting the game Ward had a great chance to put the Blues back ahead when he latched onto a through ball from Butler to round Pecora but he rushed his final shot which went inches wide of the left hand post. Things went from bad to worse for Ward as seconds later he was sent off following comments made to an assistant referee following a debatable offside decision. Allison then almost headed Woolford's corner into his own goal but the ball just cleared the crossbar. Ferriby substitute Nathan Hotte broke clear but was denied by Ingham whilst Ingham did brilliantly to keep out Rob Smith's header from point blank range with just minutes remaining.