STEETON brought the curtain down on a disappointing campaign on the pitch with defeat away at Maghull.
In a game which very much had the feeling of two teams already mentally on their summer holidays with nothing at stake, little quality was shown throughout.
However, the Chevrons will have been disappointed with the loss after fighting back from two goals down before losing to a goal late on.
The game’s opening quarter set the tone for an afternoon that despite having five goals shared between the two sides, lacked momentum and quality with tame efforts and sloppy passes throughout.
Steeton came close to breaking the deadlock but Alex Stewart’s effort on target only stung the palms of Jack Mano in the Maghull goal.
Maghull opened the scoring shortly after in controversial circumstances.
A cross found itself whipped towards the far post and bounced up off the ground to strike the arm of Macca Smith as the right back looked to position himself inside the box.
No hesitation came from the match official as he pointed to the spot.
Matthew Worden then coolly sent Brad Emmerson diving to his left as he slotted the ball with ease down the middle of the goal.
Moments later, the home side doubled their advantage with the game’s only real piece of quality.
Nathan Moffitt took control of a long ball over the top and shrugged off the attentions of Sam Lloyd.
On the turn the striker noticed Emmerson off his line and proceeded to lift the ball over the onrushing keeper into the top corner.
Now on the back foot, the Chevrons looked for a way back into the contest.
And the referee presented them with one.
Working the ball into the area after some great link up play between Jake Townsend and Lewis Gartland, they found the feet of Josh Debenham.
Steeton’s top goalscorer had his ankle clipped on the turn and fell to ground, the official immediately pointing to the spot.
Debenham dusted himself down and smashed home his 14th of the season into the bottom right-hand corner.
The Chevrons levelled proceedings late in the second half with a goal in truth came through pure luck.
After Maghull cleared a corner, Arley Barnes tried his luck from range with a thunderous strike outside of the area.
Striking the back of a blue shirt, the deflection fell into the path of Ciaran Fleming.
Finding himself unmarked at the far post, Fleming tapped home for his first goal in Steeton colours.
Despite protests from Maghull’s back line, the linesman confirmed the midfielder was onside and a grandstand finish.
However, in the story of Steeton’s season they became the creators of their own downfall.
Trying to play a high line, they coughed up possession cheaply in midfield.
Maghull played the ball through leaving Sam Smith one-on-one with the onrushing Emmerson.
The Steeton keeper tried his best to put Smith off, even earning a yellow for an attempted trip, but Smith stayed up and played the advantage to put the ball into the net from distance.
There was still time for controversy as Steeton felt they should have had an opportunity to level from the penalty spot.
Debenham found himself through on goal but was unceremoniously grounded by Levi Adebisi.
The referee waved away the appeals much to the anger of those in yellow.
Following the game, manager Roy Mason admitted to already putting plans in place ahead of the 2025/26 season.
Steeton will be hoping for better fortunes after consecutive seasons of relegation battles after failing to build on their play-off push two seasons ago.
STEETON (Subs): Emmerson; M Smith; Lloyd; Barnes; Williamson (Gomersall); Holgate; Gartland (Lynn); Stewart (Coe); Debenham; Fleming; Townsend. Sub (Not Used): Green.
GOALS (Assist): Debenham 31’ (Debenham); Fleming 79’ (Barnes)
