Alfreton Town Football Club

Match reports
2004/05

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2004/05 - Match No. 9
Nationwide North
Saturday, September 11th, 2004
Harrogate Town 2, Alfreton Town 1
Report by Gordon Foster (Mansfield CHAD).
THERE was more than a touch of irony at Wetherby Road on Saturday as Alfreton surrendered their 100 per cent away record after probably their best display of the season to date.
A last gasp winner by Harrogate’s Paul Shepherd sealed the points for the home club and condemned the Reds to an utterly undeserved defeat.
Earlier Mark Sale had fired the Reds into a 55th minute lead with a tremendous 35-yard volley which home skipper and keeper Paul Pettinger hadn’t a hope of stopping, but the lead was cancelled out in controversial circumstances by Simon Sturdy just three minutes later.
So often this season Alfreton have picked up points without really putting on a performance, so it was somewhat galling to lose in those circumstances after playing so well and really looking like a top-of-the-table side.
In fact the defeat dropped them down to third, but Reds chairman Wayne Bradley was not too worried about that.
“Harrogate are a top six side,” he said, “but they fell behind to a very good goal which at one stage looked as if it might be enough.
“For the whole of the 90 minutes we never looked as if we would be going home with nothing.
“Maybe we’ve lost a mantle which could have become a burden the longer the 100 per cent away record went on.
“Now Hinckley have the ‘yellow jersey’ so let them feel the pressure of it for a while. We’ve shown that we are a very good side and a force to be reckoned with.”
Assistant manager Charlie Williamson added: “Dave (Lloyd) and I are devastated for the lads to lose in that fashion after probably our best display so far.
“Lee Butler and we feel aggrieved about the decision for their equalising goal. Lee is as honest as the day is long, and he clearly felt he had a bit of a buffeting and was impeded when he was unable to keep hold of the ball, and let it slip for them to score.
“And to lose right at the death after that was a bitter pill to swallow. We didn’t deserve that, but these things happen and on another day we’ll be at the other end of it.”
Williamson was full of praise for Mark Sale who, it must be said, has looked a completely new man since landing the number nine shirt for his own.
All the big striker has needed has been a goal to set the seal on some hard-working displays since his recall to the starting line-up – it was richly deserved, and what a way to get it!
Just before the goal, a Harrogate fan sitting just behind me commented that he’d seen Sale play a few times and never seen him score with his feet. “You have now,” I took a small measure of delight in telling him very shortly afterwards.
It was a goal conjured out of nothing. Quite simply the ball dropped for him some 35 yards from goal, he hit it on the volley without letting it bounce, and it fairly screamed into Pettinger’s net.
At that stage, some 10 minutes into the second half, it could be seen as slightly against the run of play, for while Alfreton had dominated the first half and had nothing to show for it, the home side had begun the second period the brighter.
A measure of Sale’s willingness to graft was seen in the fifth minute when he was found digging out in defence to clear a free kick.
Four minutes later Matt Fisher was close to putting the Reds in front after a neat interchange with Chris Bettney.
And although the division’s top scorer Colin Hunter had similar luck at the other end shortly afterwards, it was Alfreton who were imposing themselves on their hosts increasingly as the half went on.
The leaping Sale’s towering downward header onto Ian Robinson’s high cross had Pettinger sprawling to push away for an unproductive corner.
The home keeper saved his side twice more in a short space of time, first brilliantly tipping over Peter Duffield’s powerful header following Bettney’s great run and cross from the right, then going down to hold Chris Dolby’s curling free kick from just outside the right corner of the area.
Duffield did finally beat Pettinger in first half stoppage time, but as the ball rolled goalwards Mark Barnard dashed back to clear off the line.
At the other end a solid Reds defence, with central pairing Grant Brown and Mark Blount giving nothing away, had kept the home side well at bay.
Harrogate stepped up a gear on the restart, and six minutes in Andy Farrell pounced on Brown’s attempted headed clearance which flew upwards instead of out, and forced Butler to save well low to his right.
Butler had to save again from Shepherd following an uncleared corner in the 54th minute, before Sale blasted the Reds into the lead seconds later.
But the away fans’ joy lasted only three minutes. Butler, crowded by a posse of home forwards, appeared to flap at James Turley’s right wing cross, and may well have been impeded, but Sturdy was first to the loose ball as it dropped to poke in the equaliser.
From then on an absorbing game took on an end to end character, with Sale spreading the ball out to substitute David Holmes to launch a succession of promising moves, but both Duffield and Holmes were unable to capitalise in front of goal.
But the killer blow came as the game went into stoppage time. Turley gathered a half-cleared free kick on the right by-line, and fed it back into the six yard box where Shepherd was on hand to sidefoot in.
HARROGATE: Pettinger, Shepherd, Barnard, Sturdy, Wood, Dunning (Black h/t), Turley, Krief, Smith, Farrell (Warburton 71), Hunter. Subs not used: Ord, Atkins, Buxton.
ALFRETON: Butler, Robinson, Chapman, Blount, Brown, Nwadike, Bettney, Fisher, Sale, Duffield (Goddard 85), Dolby (Holmes 50). Subs not used: Knapper, Godber, Woolley.
REFEREE: Ian Parkin of Stockton-on-Tees.
ATTENDANCE: 416.
SCORERS: Harrogate – Sturdy 58; Shepherd 90. Alfreton – Sale 55.
CAUTIONS: Harrogate – Wood 22 (foul on Dolby). Alfreton – Robinson 11 (dissent); Chapman 65 (foul on Turley).
REDS MAN OF THE MATCH: Mark Sale.