STEETON recorded a much needed victory as they recorded a first home win in over a month against Ashton Athletic.
Taking a two goal advantage after a pulsating opening quarter to the contest, the Chevrons made it difficult for themselves for large parts of the second half.
And despite the visitors having opportunities to snatch a point, the men in green managed to get over the line to, in the words of manager Roy Mason, stop the rot.
As mentioned, the 79 in attendance were treated to an enthralling first seventeen minutes.
Steeton broke the deadlock just ninety seconds into the encounter as a pass back by Jonathan Sodhi was short allowing Dan Smith to pounce.
The winger knocked the ball past the onrushing Joe Beswick and after stepping round the stranded keeper, tapped home from close range into the open goal.
However, the Chevrons did not respond from the restart and found themselves back level less than a minute after taking the lead.
A clearance was countered by the visitors, and they took advantage of space down the channel to send the ball into the box where Tom Beckett was on hand to place the ball across the outstretched Brad Emmerson into the bottom corner.
The game continued to ebb and flow, and it wouldn’t be long before the hosts found themselves in front once more.
Marley Spence placed a pass to the edge of the area at the feet of Kevin Gonzalez.
Despite having his back to goal, the striker turned one defender before sitting another down as he dummied the shot.
Now with a clear view of the net, Gonzalez passed the ball across the face of the goal and inside the far post.
Steeton smelled blood and if not from some heroic defending, Adam Terrelonge would have found a third.
That third would come in the 17th minute as the Ashton defence went from heroic to calamitous.
Alfie Dowden found himself free on the left wing and whipped a cross into the wind and towards the penalty spot.
Despite Beswick making a shout to claim the ball with nobody in green near to the keeper, his call was missed by Luke Crompton and the defender’s attempted chest back would instead find the back of his own net.
Ashton began the second half the brighter of the two sides and were rewarded with the goal they needed to half the deficit and allow them to bring the game to Steeton.
Crompton, who had scored the own goal in the first half, this time found the back of the right net.
Pushed up into midfield following a triple half-time substitution, he found himself free at the far post from a long ball forward and managed to bundle the ball past Emmerson despite a valiant effort from Nathan Storton to attempt a goal line clearance.
The game lulled with the closest either side coming to another goal was a Josh Coe header that was collected by Beswick beneath the crossbar.
Then in injury time, Steeton not only maintained their lead but added to it with the final kick of the game.
Pushing for an equaliser, Athletic were denied by a goal line clearance from Arley Barnes.
From the resulting corner, Emmerson made a superb stop with his shins at the near post.
The ball then bounced around the box with Spence clearing the danger down the pitch into the path of Yianni Abbas.
The midfielder raced down the pitch, showing a recovering defender onto his inside before firing a striker across the face of goal into the top corner.
STEETON (Subs): Emmerson; M Smith; Dowden; Barnes; Storton; Spence; Terrelonge (Green); Mulvihill-Simpson; Coe; Gonzalez (Abbas); D Smith (Mitchell). Subs (Not Used): Burrows; Aremu.
GOALS (Assists): D Smith 2’; Gonzalez 8’ (Spence); Own Goal 17’ (Dowden); Abbas 90+4’ (Spence)
