North End travelled to Colne on Saturday for their seventh league game of the season and went into it buoyed by recent results. In a new rich vein of form, they had won the previous three matches and finally found some scoring boots. The travelling fans were glad that this game arrived on a sunny September Saturday and not in the depths of winter when the weather can be mightily inclement up at the XLCR Stadium. Indeed Glossop North End Matchday Secretary Stewart Taylor was heard to describe it as “The warmest, driest and most pleasant matchday in recent memory”
Report: Tim Barnett
Playing up the steep incline in the first half, Glossop made a bright start, and winger Ben Connolly hit the bar with a long range header with only two minutes on the clock. Almost immediately, the home side sprung into action, and proving that they know how to play the slope, they quickly won a free kick on the left flank. With their first attacking move, the free kick was whipped into the Glossop box and the onrushing James Crorken glanced his header neatly past Ben Proctor for 1-0 (5 minutes).
Colne continued to press and Glossop were struggling to gauge their passes up the hill. Sam Marshall was a willing runner, but was outmuscled on numerous occasions and unlucky not to receive any favour from the nearest official. On 13 minutes the home side were let in again, when defensive frailties led to a speculative attempt from Paul Fildes that bounced high several times before evading everybody and crossing the line for 2-0.
Moments later, the away fans were given some hope, as Dean McGregor forced his way through the home defence to register his first goal of the current campaign and reduce Colne’s lead to one goal.
The next phase of the game became very scrappy as the home side’s previous nice passing play was replaced by speculative pot shots that rarely troubled Proctor. And when they did hit the target, in one mad moment, a combination of the crossbar, Proctor and then a Nick Allen goal line clearance came to Glossop’s rescue!
With the Hillmen trailing 2-1 the hope at half time was that Glossop would be able to use the downhill slope to their advantage and exploit the pace of their wingers to unlock the Colne defence.
As it happened, however, Glossop did try to press down the hill, but all too often they resorted to the long ball which never troubled the tall Colne defenders, and indeed at times became an exercise in heading practice for them! First McGregor, then substitutes Rothwell and Williams, all supported by right back Elliott, tried to find a way through, but it was to no avail, and the second goal remained elusive. All game some of the decisions from the officials appeared odd, and a strong penalty claim for a foul on Connolly was again waved away by the referee as time was running out.
Eventually the Colne forwards found another way through and, despite Proctor’s earlier heroics, a flowing move led to a sweeping ball to the back post that was headed in unchallenged by Jason Hart to seal the win on 79 minutes.
The chances that never came now present a headache for Paul Colgan and his staff as they prepare for the next game, the important FA Vase tie versus Winsford United.
Full Time: Colne 3 Glossop North End 1
