STEETON picked up their first three points of the new campaign with victory over Bacup Borough.
In what proved to be yet another enthralling contest between the two sides, a close but end-to-end game was ultimately decided by a clinical Chevvies attack late in the piece.
And despite a whopping seventeen minutes of injury time, Roy Mason had yet more reason to cheer heading into a run of three tough away games.
The tone for the evening’s entertainment was set early on with a fast paced start as both sides looked to break the deadlock and seize an early advantage.
That honour would go to Steeton as they made the most of consecutive corners.
After an initial delivery was cleared, the second caused a goalmouth scramble inside the Bacup area.
Keann Shaw managed to lob the ball back across the face of goal for Josh Coe to rise highest and nod home from close range.
Yianni Abbas then thought he had scrambled home a second but was frustrated by the linesman’s flag.
The visitors fought back into the arm wrestle and after a period of dominant possession, in which Olly Gollcher in the Steeton goal pulled off a string of fine saves, finally managed to level the scores.
Alfie Dowden was shown a yellow card for a late challenge with the resulting set piece allowing Bacup to work their way into the box.
Once there, Joey Fallon used a free header to send the ball back across goal where Kaiden Barlow was unmarked to scramble home from close range.
The start of the second half saw both sides create half chances as they looked to find the initiative and take the lead.
The closest either side came to finding that breakthrough was the visitors as Jake Townsend, on his first return to Marley since his departure in March, struck the crossbar with an in-swinging free-kick.
With thirteen minutes remaining on the clock came the turning point of the match.
Chasing a long ball over the top, Bacup goalkeeper Billy Blake came worse off from a heavy collision with Macca Smith.
With Blake unable to continue under concussion protocols following a lengthy delay, and no substitute goalkeeper available, the visitors were left with no option but to place an outfield player in goal.
The Chevrons wasted little time in taking advantage just two minutes following the restart of play.
Arley Barnes, on his return from suspension, delivered a peach of a cross towards the penalty spot where Coe was on hand to turn the ball home with his head inside the far post to restore his side’s lead.
Now in the ascendancy, a third goal to end the game as a contest soon followed.
Despite an initial heavy touch, Abbas controlled the ball and executed a lovingly placed through ball into the direct path of Adam Terrelonge-Jones.
The attacker struck the ball across the makeshift keeper to find the bottom corner to register his first goal since his summer arrival from Bradford United.
Now deep into added time, both sides still found time to register one final goal apiece.
Steeton first registered their fourth through Arron Sagar.
The debutant, who had only signed with the club the morning of the game, struck a sweet first time volley from outside of the area after Bacup thought they had cleared the danger after Smith and Dowden’s beautifully executed set-piece routine.
Borough would have the final say in the final minute of injury time as former Steeton man Josh Walne scored a consolation at a tight angle from just inside the six yard box.
STEETON (Subs): Gollcher; M Smith; Barnes; Storton (Aremu); Shaw; Spence; Darko; Salah (Terrelonge-Jones); Coe (Bishop); Abbas (Sagar); Dowden (Asamoah).
GOALS (Assists): Coe 10’ (Shaw), 84’ (Barnes); Terrelonge-Jones 88’ (Abbas); Sagar 90+10’
