Steels 4-1 Dearne & District

Stocksbridge progressed to the next round of the Sheffield Senior Cup with a dominate performance over step 7 club Dearne & District. Steels facing a potential banana skin against a club on the rise made sure the tie was over by half time. Manager Ian Richards made several changes with Langton, O’Connor and Nowak coming in, with Baker, Goodwin and Rawson on the bench. Also Defalco returned from Maltby to also make the bench.

In wet and windy conditions both teams struggled to gain a foothold on the game in the opening 10 minutes but it was Steels who got the early goal they required when good play by Stocksbridge played in Watson who turned the Dearne defender inside out, got his shot off but it fell to the latest player to come through the youth system who made no mistake and slotted home to give Steels the lead on 16 minutes. The tie was still very much there with Steels though starting to dominate in the Dearne half but it was Dearne who caught Steels on the counter attack and Ben Townsend pulled off a top class save to keep Stocksbridge in the lead.

28 minutes in and it was Alex O’Connor who was making his 50th appearance was set up by man of the match Kurtis Tuner to slot past the Dearne keeper. Steels then began to turn the screw as Watson 4 minutes later continue his scoring form thanks to a great ball through by Tomas Poole who was also making his 50th appearance. Hogg almost made it 4 within mins of the restart but it was Poole on 37 minutes who made sure of the tie before half time.

The second half the first 10 minutes Stocksbridge struggled to get going due to the conditions but Dearne couldn’t capitalize on it and then Steels began to again play some good football, on 60 minutes the manager Ian Richards made 4 changes with  Hogg, Poole, Lemon and Nowak coming off and Rawson, Baker, Defalco and Davis coming on.  Watson nearly made it 5 as his shot fizzed past the post and then the Dearne keeper became superman denying Tinker his first goal as his finger tip save was top class. Will Jack ever score! The keeper then pulled off another top class save from the resulting corner as Watson again coming close.

The game began to fizzle out in last 10 minutes but in stoppage time a lapse in concentration allowed Dearne to get a late goal to deny Ben Townsend a 2nd clean sheet. But it matter not as Stocksbridge progressed to the next round and stops Dearne’s 100% start to the season.

Next up is a very tough trip to Vauxhall Motors in the FA Trophy.