The Trojans set off early for a day out at the seaside.
Fish and chips, arcades, ice cream and doughnuts were enjoyed…the roller
coaster would come later.
Cleethorpes town were the opponents for Staveley Miners
Welfare a team who in preseason were tipped to be in amongst the frontrunners
and after starting the season slowly the Owls have now started to justify that
tag, and had smashed in 11 goals in their two previous games, with one of those
being an 0-8 away victory at Retford.
Steve Carty had done enough in his brief cameo at left
back in midweek to retain that place in the starting line, Richard Mintoft
returned at the expense of Kyle Clarke also returning was Adam Scott and he
took his customary position on the right of the Staveley attack instead of the
unavailable Kurtis Morley.
The first half from a Staveley perspective lacked
cohesion, flair and pretty much everything else required to get a result out of
a game of football as Cleethorpes very aerial, very direct style of play
threatened to put them out of sight before half time…
To start with Staveley dealt with everything that was
thrown at them but were guilty of waiting for it to come back rather than
making something happen for themselves and Brody Robertson soon had the ball in
the back of the Staveley net but it was ruled out for offside.
Eleven minutes in and a rare incursion into the opponents
half resulted in a Staveley corner which Adam Scott floated to the far post for
Matt Varley to head back towards the far post but one which Miles Fenty in goal
was able to punch clear.
Robertson went through again, breaking the offside trap
on 13 minutes but his shot was pushed out for a corner by Ryan Musselwhite in
the Staveley net, whilst he was on the floor having been sold by Robertson’s
initial dummy shot. That corner went all the way over to the far post and was
cleared but only out as far as Peter Winn whose curling dipping effort from the
Cleethorpes right just whistled past the far angle of post and crossbar.
Staveley manager Brett Marshall, the many Trojan fans and
their beleaguered defenders were pleading with the forwards to help them out a
bit by keeping the ball a bit better as it was surely only a matter of time
before the home side took the lead and this came to pass in the 27th
minute when a moment of hesitation from Ryan Musslewhite seemingly unsure where
he was in relation to his area and was undecided whether to pick the ball up or
smash it into touch and did… neither allowing Brody Robertson to pounce, taking
the ball around Musslewhite and steering the ball into an unguarded net. 1-0
Brody Robertson increased the home sides lead eight
minutes later in almost the exact same fashion this time from the opposite side
of the pitch he cut inside from the left took it round Musslewhite who again
was at the extremities of his area, with ease and stuck it past defender Alex
Pugh who tried to block it on the line.
Ht: Cleethorpes Town 2 – 0 Staveley Miners Welfare
In the first half Staveley had been guilty of playing
Cleethorpes at their own game i.e. long and direct and it clearly hadn’t
worked, they came out in the second half and started to play football and this
contributed to a major improvement in the second.
On 52 minutes the ball was fed to Kieran Watson who
turned inside the box and shrugged off the attentions of two defenders and then
smashed the ball between the sticks and through Miles Fenty to reduce the
arrears and, with a good chunk of the game left gave Staveley hope of grabbing
a result which had seemed unlikely up to that point. 2-1
Two minutes later Kieran Watson used his strength to hold
up the ball out on the Staveley right and passed across the edge of the area to
Courtney Hastings who showed great awareness to dummy that ball which then fell
into the path of Ellis Wall whose fierce drive was blocked.
Ryan Musselwhite redeemed himself somewhat with a string
of good saves notably pushing away a Marc Cooper drive and then with his legs
from a Danny Trott effort and then just like earlier in the day the Staveley
fans were once again in “dream land”, when a powerful Matt Varley volley on
goal following a cleared Adam Scott Free kick, ricocheted to Courtney Hastings
who couldn’t miss from five yards out and didn’t, to make it 2-2 in the 77th
minute.
Unbelievably Staveley had gone from being down and
completely out to being favourites to grab all three points and a period of
sustained pressure ensued, but with 7 minutes reaming only one clear cut chance
was created.Aa slick passing move involving Kyle Clarke, Kieran Watson, and
Adam Scott resulted in Ross Goodwin being able to cross the ball from the byline
right onto the head of Fabien Smith which unfortunately hit the crossbar.
Into the last minute as the aforementioned roller coaster
was about to pull into the station, it set off again and from the highs of almost
grabbing a winner Staveleys mood went crashing to the floor when an extremely
harsh free kick was given deep in Cleethorpes territory for a Kieran Watson
block tackle on Matt Kingson. Cleethorpes ‘keeper Miles Fenty pumped the ball
long into the Staveley box where it was cleared out to Luke Mascall who hit the
shot of his life into the top corner giving Ryan Musselwhite no chance, and
with no time to do anything about it the
game finished..
Full Time: Cleethorpes Town 3 – 2 Staveley Miners Welfare
A heart-breaking way to end the game for Staveley who had
fought so valiantly to pull it back to 2-2 and so very nearly win it…. If only
it had started that way…
Attendance: 162
SMWFC Line Up:1.Ryan Musslewhite.2.Alex Pugh.3.Steve Carty.4.Fabien Smith.5.Matt Varley.6.Richard Mintoft.(14.Kyle Clarke).7.Adam Scott.8.Ross Goodwin.9.Courtney Hastings.10.Kieran Watson.11.Ellis Wall(12.Simon Hore)
Subs Not Used: 16. Adam Wisdom.
