Carlton Town 2-3 Steels

Tommy Marshall was the hat trick hero as Stocksbridge Park Steels came from behind twice to beat Carlton Town.

Both teams have had positive starts to the season and were looking to continue that, even though Stocksbridge had been without a win in the last four games. The first big chance fell to the Steels with Alex Hardwick winning the ball on the right wing and whipping the ball in for Joao Silva who couldn’t keep his shot low and sent his close-range effort. At the other end, a looping header from Nat Watson forced Ben Townsend to be alive as he palmed the shot over.

However, it would be Carlton who’d take the lead and get the first goal. A ball went forward and in the tussle for the ball, the referee adjudged that Paul Iggulden had handled the ball. Niall Davie stepped up for the contested penalty, and while Townsend guessed right Davie had done enough to tuck it in.

It appeared that Stocksbridge would be going into the half time break behind until one final moment. Ben Townsend, who last year had delivered a free kick which set up Elliot Murray for a winning goal against Carlton, put a free kick into the box for Elliot Owen to head across the six-yard area. Tommy Marshall was there at the far post to hit it back across goalkeeper Felix Annan and level the game for Stocksbridge.

Normally, a team that concedes on the brink of half time comes out for the second a bit rattled but that wasn’t the case for Carlton. They were looking to gun for the Steels and because of that, they took the lead again. A long throw from Lewis Durow seemed to be cleared but Oliver Clark got onto the second ball and his deflected strike sent Townsend the wrong way and had the Millers back ahead.

But Stocksbridge didn’t let their heads get down and it didn’t take too long for them to be back level. It was from a corner with Danny Deakin whipping the ball in and Marshall got to it first to tap in from close range.

For the next goal, we might as well copy and paste the last paragraph. That’s because two minutes late, Deakin sent in a corner and Marshall was there in the six-yard area to tap in again. It’s rare to have such similar goals come in a range of three minutes, but Stocksbridge were happy to take it.

In the last ten minutes, Carlton threw everything at the Stocksbridge defence to try and get a late equaliser. However, the Steels defence remained firm and made sure all three points would return to South Yorkshire.