Steels 1-0 Grantham Town
Stocksbridge Park Steels battled and were able to get a tough win against Grantham Town.
Despite currently being in the bottom two, Grantham were able to get off to the better start. They were even able to deal with an early blow as Elliott Durrell was forced off with an injury. While the first chance did go Stocksbridge’s way, Luke Rawson’s attempt to curl the ball with the outside of his foot going wide, Grantham were very unlucky not to be in the lead later. Ashton Hall looped a header over a rushing Townsend but Kurtis Turner was able to clear it off the line to keep the game level.
Stocksbridge had opportunities at the other end, Alex O’Connor hit a shot that wasn’t too far over the bar, but Grantham had the big ones which really could have ended up in on another day. The Gingerbreads were able to put another good ball into the box and it would eventually fall to Charlie Jemson who volleyed over from inside the six yard box.
In the second half, Stocksbridge were much improved and their passing was able to create problems for the Grantham defence. Jordan Lemon was having success down the left wing and one deadly cross had to be turned behind else a Steels attacker would have been able to tap it in. However despite this much better play, they were struggling to create clear cut opportunities.
It became quite obvious that the game would be decided by only one goal and it probably wasn’t that much of a surprise that it was an own goal. Stocksbridge’s best passing move led the ball to Alex O’Connor who sent a cross into the zone of uncertainty. It avoided Luke Rawson but Greg Smith couldn’t help but turn the ball into his own net.
Grantham no longer had anything to lose and they threw everything at the Steels to try and get an equaliser to keep their hopes of staying up alive. A big moment was when Lee Shaw headed back for a volley to be sent towards the top corner but Townsend, who had mostly been catching crosses up until this point, made a top quality stop to ensure Stocksbridge got all three points.
