Glossop North End

1

Witton Albion

0

HT: 0 - 0

The Hillmen moved up to 2nd in the Evo-Stik North with a hard grafting win against Witton Albion. In a mostly even game, it took a late effort from Matty Williams to finally wear down the dogged resistance of the visitor’s defence leaving them little time to respond.

Glossop North End 1, Witton Albion 0
Evo-Stik Northern First Division
Saturday 5th September 2015

Honours were even after the first half, with both sides having spells of pressure, but neither keeper having a real save to make. Glossop probably shaded the first part of the half, with Kieran Lugsden having the best chance when Danny White played a perfectly weighted ball to find him in the box. Sadly for Lugsden the ball just wouldn’t sit for him and he got underneath the ball and put it over the bar.

Jonathan Dawson had the best chance for Witton when he dropped his shoulder to skip past Martin Parker, but Greg Hall saved comfortably.

A whipped shot across the face of goal in the 23rd minute signalled a reversal of pressure in the latter part of the half, Witton pinning the Hillmen back a little. However, the North End back line stood very firm with only the slightest glimmer of an opening coming on half time when Daniel Andrews just couldn’t latch onto a ball over the back line.

In the second half, North End started to get the upper hand in the battle in midfield, and created more than Witton, but the visitors had a strong defence too, that was very hard to break down.

Early in the period Jamie Rainford had a couple of sighters, shooting over on each occasion but in the 55th minute his drive from Lugsden’s pull back looked bound for the back of the net, only for keeper Daniel Roberts to pull off a terrific save, shovelling the ball wide.

The final ball was usually letting GNE down when they pressed so Eddie Moran simply shot from the corner of the box on 66 minutes, but his piledriver, which took everyone by surprise, hit the post and bounced to safety.

Witton were threatening sporadically, and Andrew’s shot on the twist on 75 minutes was close – just the wrong side of the post.

Two minutes later Jason Carey sprinted down the right and got behind the defence, but his shot on the angle was tipped over by Roberts. The Albion keeper had scored the winner the last time he played at Surrey Street, and he was providing frustration again today.

Then, in the 86th minute the breakthrough came. Carey threaded a terrific pass through the defence and found fellow substitute in space that had rarely been given to colleagues previously. His touch saw him advance into the box and he then clipped a shot past Roberts into the net.

There was still time for chances to come at either end. Somehow a Witton long ball got through the GNE defence and found Andrews unmarked in the box, but in lobbing the onrushing Hall he also cleared the bar. Shortly afterwards at the other end Tom Bailey was frustrated by a fabulous double save out of Roberts when he looked certain to score.

That was the last action of the game, and the Hillmen celebrated a fifth successive win, showing plenty of determination to get through a stern test of the credentials in this new division.