Steeton AFC v Ashton Town

Recap

STEETON failed to build on the previous week’s victory as they fell to a disappointing home defeat to Ashton Town.

Manager Roy Mason lamented his side’s sluggish start that saw them two goals behind inside the opening eleven minutes.

However, a failure to create any chances of note in an attempt to get a foothold back in the contest in a disjointed performance proved the Chevvies downfall as they fell to a fourth league defeat of the campaign.

Ashton came out of the blocks with all the momentum as they looked to build on their first win of the season the week previous.

Their opening goal seemed a matter of when, not if, and it arrived in the sixth minute of the encounter.

Creating a two-on-one down Steeton’s right channel, it allowed Adam Morris to deliver a peach of a cross across the face of goal.

Nobody in green tracked the run of Chad Whyte at the far post and the Town striker smashed his strike from close range home into the roof of the net.

Now in the lead, the away side continued to take charge of the opening moments, and the second goal would soon follow.

Hitting on the counter, they were denied by an outstanding goal line clearance by Alfie Dowden as the Steeton left-back turned the ball wide for a corner.

From the resulting set-piece, Jack Walker’s delivery to the near post allowed Sam Twist to stroll through unchallenged and flick the ball beneath the outstretched arm of Emmerson.

The Chevvies first opportunity of the game came in the 28th minute as Dan Smith whipped a direct free-kick around the ball, only to see his superb strike met by an even better save with Callum Jakovlevs turning the effort over the bar.

Shortly before the interval, Steeton were given a glimmer of hope as they halved the deficit.

Josh Coe was bundled over inside the penalty area by a rash Connor Brown challenge.

Coe dusted himself off to take the strike from the spot, but saw his effort saved by Jakovlevs.

The linesman flagged for the referee’s attention, ruling that Brown had encroached into the area.

With a retake ordered, Coe made no mistake the second time round as he sent Jakovlevs the wrong way to record his sixth goal of the season.

The second half in truth was a dull affair with little to note until the final ten minutes bar both Chris Lomax and Dan Squires squandering great chances to put the result beyond doubt.

But in the 82nd minute, the visitors were temporarily reduced to ten men when Squires was sent to the sin-bin following a consultation between the referee and his linesman.

Despite holding a man advantage, the Chevrons failed to take advantage as the visitors ran down the clock as they awaited the re-entry of play of their teammate.

Steeton did have two chances in injury time to level, Keann Shaw first agonisingly heading Haroon Salah’s corner wide of the far post.

A minute later, Kevin Gonzalez’s acrobatic effort went behind the striker and out for a goal kick.

In the seventh minute of injury time, the visitors hit on the counter and wrapped up the three points.

Despite Brad Emmerson making a superb save to deny the initial effort, the ball fell into the path of the onrushing Lomax to smash home into the bottom corner.

Steeton will now be looking for an immediate reaction as they head into a week that brings with it meetings with two of the division’s fancied sides in the form of Darwen and Flixton.

STEETON (Subs): Emmerson; M Smith; Dowden; Barnes; Storton; Spence; Darko (Salah); Terrelonge (Shaw); Coe; Gonzalez; D Smith (Abbas). Subs (Not Used): Aremu; Asamoah.

GOAL (Assist): Coe 39’ (Coe)