MATCH DETAILS

Frickley Athletic 2-3 Silsden AFC

NCEL Premier Division

Tuesday 26th September 2024

Westfield Lane

MATCH REPORT

Sils came into last night’s game on the back of a disappointing defeat at Barton. But the team didn’t have long to wait to put thing right with a trip to the “wessie” stadium at Frickley.

Tom Greaves and Mo Conteh cane back into the side with Ross Daly captain. With keeper Callum Bradbury returning to his previous club after joining us in the summer.

Manager Cav then appeared to set up an attacking looking side despite Brooksbank missing in the number 10 role.

Early doors there wasn’t a great deal going on with the home side happy to sit in and look for a break. A clean take from Bradbury will have calmed any early nerves the young keeper had.

We had to wait until the ninth minute before anything of note, with a Price shot going well wide.

It wasn’t until the 17th minute that the home keeper was tested and he stopped a Casey Stewart shot in unconvincing fashion before re-gathering.

In the 19th minute a Cromack shot deflected for a corner and from the resulting cross Kayle Price headed towards goal from inside the six yard box, his shot palmed straight back to him and he made no mistake second time. 1-0 Sils 20th min.

Frickley had to wait until the 32nd min before they had a shot on goal. But the chance was blazed over and is probably still coming down now.

Four minutes later another good Stewart run and cross was almost clipped in by Coates who was making good runs through centre of midfield throughout the game. Frickley created a few half chances towards the end of the first half but Silsden appeared pretty comfortable as the half ended with the scoreline still at 1-0.

As early as 3 minutes into the second period Tom Greaves, who worked tirelessly all night – almost got on the end of a Cromack cross. Jeffery came on for Connolly and looked to make mischief on the right.

But just 2 mins later Silsden extended their lead with a well worked move that saw Casey Stewart clip a shot past the helpless home keeper.

At this stage you couldn’t see Frickley getting back into the game but that was to change in the 57th minute. A quick break down the right and low cross took out the Silsden defenders and Clegg was left to side foot the ball into an unguarded net. 2-1

Now we had a game on, as the home fans voices were raised and Sils faced the first real persistent pressure of the match. It was all blood and thunder for a 5 minute period and the injury stoppage to Varley came as a relief.

Hudson came on for a tiring Mo Conteh and made himself known straight away with a crunching tackle in midfield. It all got a bit scrappy at this point before Silsden started to exert pressure back on to the home side without creating a real clear chance.

As we reached the 70th minute and against the run of play a Frickley cross from the left was on its way to be gathered by Bradbury but Harry Coates intervened and was unfortunate to see his attempt at a header away fly into his own net. 2-2.

The team were now in real danger of seeing all 3pts disappear, in some ways it mirrored our home game vs Eccleshill where another lead was surrendered. But unlike Eccleshill, Frickley hadn’t had any long periods of possession to speak of, but we’re incredibly dangerous on the break.

Sam Kilner was subbed on for Greaves who had played 80 minutes and it almost paid dividends straight away as Hewiston palmed away a Price header. A minute later Stewart hit a close range shot in the box into the keepers chest who knew little about it but gathered the ball in time.

A Frickley corner came to nothing before in the 88th minute a long Silsden throw caused chaos in the penalty area before coming out to Cody Cromack outside the box who hit it as sweet as you’ll see on any pitch, to fly past a helpless Hewiston. 3-2

 

It was a tense last 5 or 6 minutes for thevisiting fans as Frickley pressed for another equaliser and got several balls into the box which were scrambled away.

The boys though stood firm and celebrated a deserved victory that sets up another massive game against early front runners Golcar. Cav will be pleased at the way the team regrouped at 2-2 when they could’ve crumbled through sheer hard work.

My motm Cody Cromack, who was spraying balls about all night and setting the tempo. Ending with a much deserved winning strike.

Nigel Hall