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Saturday 12th November - Witton Albion 1-0 Frickley Athletic

The Blues gave a largely ineffective display as they suffered their second successive UniBond League defeat to go down 1-0 at in form Witton Albion this afternoon. The decisive goal came after 52 minutes as the Blues failed to deal with a corner, allowing Griff Jones to head in from close range.

With Nicky Heinemann available again Gary Marrow opted to bring him back in at left back with Phil Lindley moving to right back. Ashley Scothern was unavailable so Ryan Golden made up the subs. bench with Steve Robinson and Simon Collins.

Both sides threatened the other's goal in the first few minutes but, from then onwards, their was very little goalmouth action until the home side forced the Blues back for the last fifteen minutes or so of the half. Just before the half hour Griff Jones latched onto a long ball over the Blues' defence but Heinemann bundled him over some 25 yards out and was perhaps a little fortunate to receive only a yellow card for the challenge. Thankfully, the free-kick was easily cleared. After forcing a series of corners Witton went close on 43 minutes when Chris Gaghan pulled the ball back to Jones but Steve Kennedy's challenge forced Jones' shot wide of the left hand post.

The Blues started the second half looking more threatening and went close twice in quick succession as Alex Callery saw his angled shot deflected into the arms of Jon Kennedy whilst minutes later Lee Pugh shot over from 20 yards, although the better option may have been to lay the ball into the path of Callery who was unmarked to Pugh's right. Unfortunately, Witton immediately responded and forced a corner on the right which was flicked on at the near post for Jones to head in from close range after 52 minutes. This prompted Marrow to make a double substitution as Golden and Robinson replaced Selby and Chambers with Lindley moving into midfield whilst Woolford moved up front to partner Evans with Golden playing down the left. This immediately saw the Blues improve going forward and Callery and Woolford combined for Woolford to fire in a low shot from 20 yards which Kennedy collected comfortably after 65 minutes. Shortly afterwards Woolford picked out Heinemann on the edge of the box but his first time shot cleared the crossbar. However, Witton were still looking lively themselves and they had a great opportunity to seal the game with just 5 minutes left when Moseley received the ball at the far post following a cross from the right but he took too long to control the ball and he blazed over the bar as Gary Ingham rushed to close him down. As the game entered stoppage time Pugh sent Callery clear down the right but as he broke into the box David Ness got back to tackle him brilliantly inside the box before Callery could get in a shot.