2005/06 season match No.39
Saturday, February 25th, 2006
Nationwide North
Redditch United 1 , Alfreton Town 0
Report by Gordon Foster (Mansfield CHAD). Pics by Phil Lucic.

IT SEEMS that Alfreton Town are determined not to allow their supporters to breathe easily or sleep at night before the end of April.
Saturday’s relegation scrap at the Valley Stadium gave the Reds the chance not only to complete their first league double of the season but also to build on their last couple of results and put a bit of distance between themselves and the bottom two.
It was not to be, for Alfreton paid the price for conceding a sloppy goal inside the first five minutes as they never got it back, and a match in which it was more important not to lose than to win was lost.
Rookie 16-year-old centre-back James Stevens, another youngster borrowed from Boston United and thrown in at the deep end to cover the suspensions of Dave Robinson and Mark Hume, may have had nightmares about the goal that night, but manager Gary Mills leapt to the youngster’s defence afterwards.
“He’s not let us down, he did OK for us,” said the manager. “Perhaps he was caught cold early on, but two or three stood still, and to concede a sloppy goal like that inside the first five minutes was disappointing.
“It’s not the first time we have done that this season and it has cost us points.
“We had our chances after that but we didn’t take them.”
He was right – and it confirmed the current trend. For Alfreton have scored only five goals in their last eight outings, and all of these have come from defenders
Mills also had unstinting praise for his other debutant, central midfielder Chris Howard, a former Leicester City youngster and, like Matt Fisher, an ex-Royal Marine.
Howard was snapped up from United Counties side Ford Sports Daventry and did more than enough to show that he will be an excellent acquisition.
Indeed, although the Press Box man of the match verdict went to the excellent and accomplished Mark Turner, Howard got his manager’s vote.
“I thought he was the best player on the park today,” he continued. “He’s not played a lot of football at this level, but the way he’s got around the park was magnificent, and I’m delighted with his performance.”
The match was always going to be a battle, verging on a lottery. The pitch was a mudheap which restricted good football on the ground, and the swirling gale made matters unpredictable when the ball was in the air.
Mills was denied the use of Lewis Brooks at left back, the Boston youngster being called up for England Under-18 duty, which meant Lee Featherstone reverting to left back.
Both sides were well aware of the demands of the day. The previous evening’s draw between Leigh RMI and Vauxhall had lifted Leigh above the Reds, who themselves went into the match one point ahead of Redditch.
But it got off to the worst possible start for Alfreton. Stevens was caught flatfooted when he had time to cut out a ball through the Redditch inside right, Carl Palmer ran through to take possession and, with the Town defence at sixes and sevens, his cross was easily hit home by Simon Hollis.
Hollis had a great chance to compound Alfreton’s misery two minutes later having run into the area from the left, only to fire wide of the near post.
Thereafter both sides struggled to find any fluency in the difficult conditions, but Alfreton were close to a 34th minute equaliser.
Chris Bettney created enough space to enable him to lay the ball to Fisher who farmed it out to Howard. The newcomer’s shot from the left beat Richard Anstiss, but home skipper Mark Creighton had dropped back to clear off the line.
That led to two successive corners, from the second of which Bettney retuned the ball into the area, Emeka Nwadike steered it forward, and Michael Rankine, swiveling to try to find the net, saw his finish beaten away by Anstiss.
In the closing stages of the half Simon Raynor dived to his left to hold Rory May’s wickedly curling shot, while at the other end in stoppage time Ryan Clarke should have done better than to guide his header onto another Bettney corner beyond the far post.
Anstiss featured in the first action of note after the break when, seven minutes in, he superbly pushed aside Stevenson’s driven shot from the right of the area, following a good crossfield move and a lay-off by Bettney.
Both Hollis and Howard whipped in promising crosses, which needed and lacked only a touch in front of goal, before Lee Featherstone kept Alfreton in the game, heading a curling corner away from under the bar.
Mills gambled for the final 12 minutes, sending on newly transfer-listed forward Peter Duffield for defender Stevens, but still the Reds struggled to find a way through.
And it was Turner to the rescue 10 minutes from time when, as Rayner came out to claim Danny Scheppel’s cross, it was caught on the wind which carried it away from him and towards the waiting May, Turner getting in a vital header to concede a corner.
As it happens, some of the sting was taken out of the result by the subsequent news that Hednesford had crashed 8-0 at Northwich.
They and Vauxhall look current favourites to take the drop, but Alfreton remain a long, long way from the breathe easy area yet.
REDDITCH: Anstiss, King, Whitcombe, Rea, Creighton, Field (Scheppel 64), Hollis (Doyle 83), Palmer, Wilding, May (Adams 76), Taylor. Subs not used: McGrath, Vaughan.
ALFRETON: Rayner, Clarke, Featherstone, Stevens (Duffield 78), Turner, Howard, Bettney, Fisher, Rankine (Godber 55), Stevenson, Nwadike (White 68). Subs not used: Mills, Hurst.
REFEREE: Mark Lever of Leicester.
ATTENDANCE: 369.
SCORER: Redditch – Hollis 5.
CAUTIONS: Alfreton – Bettney 74 (dissent); Godber 88 (dissent).
REDS MAN OF THE MATCH: Mark Turner.