Silkstone United 1-4 Steels Reserves

Stocksbridge Park Steels earned a thumping 4-1 victory over Silkstone United FC away from home in the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League on Saturday, 5th October.

Unlike previous games, the Steels made a rather quiet start to the game, taking a fair amount of time to build momentum. 25 minutes had passed on the clock when Mark Fretwell’s side had their first major chance of the game.

Matthew Lee darted down the left flank before delivering a tempting cross to Thomson Cartledge, who then headed the ball towards the goal. The Silkstone goalkeeper managed to get a hand on it and although the ball fell to Oliver Nowak, he could not keep his follow-up shot on target.

Declan Childes, meanwhile, saw a thumping saw whizz past the crossbar four minutes later. The midfielder was on the receiving end of a few fouls from the opposition that saw two of their players being booked in the first half.

The second half got off to a quick start with Louis Brown registering a shot on target following a corner. Silkstone immediately went on the attack and created a 1v1 situation before forcing a fine save from Ewan Oxborough.

Cartledge had a shot saved in another end-to-end sequence a few minutes later, with the hosts missing the target from their chance.

Fretwell made his first change of the game just after the one-hour mark, bringing Louis Hall on for Judah Smith. The substitution instantly paid off as Hall gave Stocksbridge the lead in the 67th minute. Lee was played through on the left wing and the winger took a touch before setting Hall up for a first-time finish.

Three minutes later, Hall was on the scoresheet again, doubling the Steels’ lead. Lee was fouled on the right wing near the halfway line, but the referee played advantage, allowing Oliver Nowak to drive into the box. The ball then fell to Cartledge, who could not get a shot away, but did well to assist Hall for the goal.

Silkstone halved their deficit soon, but any concern of a slip-up did not last long as substitute Cole Thorpe quickly got Stocksbridge’s third with a sublime chip from outside the box.

Thorpe closed out the game with his second of the afternoon in added time. While he took his first with grace, he pounded the ball into the left corner from the right side of the box for his second.