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Saturday 22nd December - Frickley Athletic 0-1 Witton Albion

Billy Heath's depleted Blues' side put in a battling performance against Premier Divison leaders Witton Albion but were unfortunate to end up on the receiving end of a 1-0 scoreline.

Heath was without the suspended quartet of Jon Hood, Neil Towler, Phil Lindley and Lee Morris whilst Steve Heath was in hospital ill and Rob Pell was unavailable. Adam Nicklin continued to deputise for Hood whilst Chris Hilton moved to centre back with Adam Pollock coming in down the right of midfield and Scott Turner came in to partner Craig Marsh up front. 

The Blues had the first real sight of goal after 8 minutes when Chris White found Turner in space on the edge of the box but his shot flew wide of the right hand post. Witton started to dictate the play although the Blues were restricting them to long range efforts at goal. The visitors took the lead on 20 minutes when Rod Thornley did well down the left before finding Kyle Wilson on the edge of the box and his powerful shot from 18 yards took a slight deflection off Dean Jones to fly past Nicklin into the net. Shortly afterwards Liam Brownhill's cross was flicked on by Thornley for Wilson to head just over from 6 yards. White had a mazey run into the visitors box before going down under pressure from Cavell Coo but the referee waved away shouts for a penalty, before Nicklin tipped a 25 yard free kick from Wilson over the bar.

The Blues took the game to the visitors more in the second half with Witton's goal living a charmed life at times. Turner forced a corner on 55 minutes which was headed clear for another corner by Prichard. White's second attempt flew across the face of goal with amazingly no Frickley player managing to get the slightest of touches which was all that was needed to produce a goal. The Blues came even closer on 66 minutes when Hilton's header forward saw Steve Robinson head on to Craig Marsh whose header from 6 yards struck the crossbar but Marsh was adjudged to be offside. On 72 minutes Chris Gowen swung over a cross from the left which Marsh headed goalwards but Jon Kennedy saved well at the foot of the far post. As time started to run out Marsh flicked Robinson's ball on for Jonathan Groome inside the box but Pritchard did brilliantly to prevent him getting to the ball with the goal at his mercy. Witton then broke away for Warlow to get in a shot from the edge of the box but Nicklin, who had had little to do in the second half, reacted well to block Warlow's goalbound shot.