STEETON signed off the calendar year in style with a comprehensive 5-2 home victory over near neighbours Colne.
Answering manager Roy Mason’s calls from the previous week to be more clinical in front of goal, the Chevrons moved within five points of the play-off positions in a pulsating festive encounter.
The game began at a pulsating pace with plenty of end-to-end action to warm up the crowd on a bitterly cold winter’s afternoon in the bottom of the Aire Valley.
It would be Steeton though who broke the deadlock.
Keann Shaw took possession of the ball just inside his own half and fed a lovely through ball forward into the path of Lewis Gartland.
The in-form winger continued his recent run of goalscoring form by taking control of the ball inside the area and slotting it beneath Harry Turner.
The visitors, who made the short journey across the Pennines, pulled themselves level just eight minutes later.
Jack Foster found space to shift the ball out wide into the path of Mo Butt.
Butt then whipped the ball towards the far post for what turned out to be a cross-cum-shot that dipped beautifully beneath the crossbar and into the top corner.
The wind proved a factor in the goal that restored Steeton’s advantage.
Macca Smith’s in-swinging corner was caught by the weather and beat everyone, including Turner between the sticks for Colne, to find its way into the back of the net.
The steam began to rise in the cold shortly before the break as a coming together resulted in yellow cards for both Aidan Kirby and Sam Holt.
Beginning the second half with a goal advantage, the home side turned the screw to score three goals in the space of eighteen minutes to kill the game off as a contest.
The first saw Gartland secure his brace, and a goal that takes him top of the Steeton goalscoring charts for the season to date.
Great work down the right channel saw the ball played out wide to Joe Edmonds.
He placed a superb ball into the box where Gartland was on hand to tap home.
The fourth nearly followed immediately as Owen Williamson let fly from the edge of the area, but his effort was tipped over the crossbar by the Colne keeper.
But that goal would come shortly after.
Macca Smith’s in-swinging free kick was flicked on by Kirby with the former Steeton defender Sam Lloyd getting his angles all wrong to turn past his own keeper from mere yards out.
Now firmly in the ascendancy, every Steeton attack threatened to bring with it another goal as they looked for a rout to deliver a late Christmas present to the majority of the healthy 215 crowd in attendance.
And a fifth and final notch on the post would come with fifteen minutes left on the clock.
Kirby proved the provider, if not in fortunate circumstances, as his attempted strike was deflected into the path of Edmonds to score his first goal in green and white following his move from Ilkley Town last month.
The action did not end there as Colne found a consolation goal as the game entered its final ten minutes.
Miles Storey found himself free on the right hand edge of the Chevrons penalty area and played the ball back across the face of goal into the path of substitute Barney Wiggin to finish from close range beneath the outstretched Brad Emmerson.
It would though be a big three points for Steeton ahead of another home fixture to begin the new year against in-form Squires Gate.
STEETON (Subs): Emmerson; M Smith; Williamson (Lynn); Barnes; Shaw; J Smith (Holgate); Townsend (Lawton); Kelly (Khan); Kirby; Edmonds (Coe); Gartland.
GOALS (Assists): Gartland 14’ (Shaw), 52’ (Edmonds); M Smith 30’; Own Goal 65’ (M Smith); Edmonds 75’ (Kirby)
