Kelvin Sparks New Year Party
The Hillmen started 2016 positively with a pleasing win at Radcliffe thanks to a late goal from an unlikely source.
Kelvin Lugsden has had a disjointed season, with injury and suspension seeing him miss much of the season until this point. However, there was no way the right back was going to miss from 6 yards out when presented with the opportunity in the 80th minute, and he slammed the ball home from short range.
Glossop had started the game brightly, and Jason Carey forced a good save from Chris Cheetham in the 5th minute when heading towards goal from a corner. Minutes later Kieran Lugsden just couldn’t adjust his body shape to direct Tom Bailey’s low free kick goalwards.
Lugsden also looped a header over the bar and a near post flick just went wide of the far post as Glossop North End pressed to open the scoring, but gradually the home side’s graft got them a foothold in the game and Luke Pilling in the Glossop goal had to react sharply to Sam Fitzgerald’s bouncing shot from the edge of the area, pushing it wide.
Suddenly Borough were putting some pressure on, forcing a succession of corners, although they all come to nothing. For Glossop, Rainford’s turn and shot was comfortably saved, whilst at the other end Matt Davies shot just wide in injury time.
In the second half, again Glossop North End started brightly, with Eddie Moran picking up a loose ball and playing in Bailey on the angle. Bailey’s shot was just saved by the keeper as he raced off his line, and the ricochet favoured the home side.
The game began to get bogged down in midfield and chances became rare, with only Moran’s long shot over the bar and a looped Radcliffe header comfortably pushed over by Pilling, but as the game entered the last 15 minutes, Glossop made their final push.
A free kick was awarded on the edge of the box, that looked to be prime territory for Jamie Rainford. The 20-goal striker couldn’t clear the wall, but picked up the rebound and drove to the by-line. His cross was headed back across goal and met with a swivelled shot, but despite the effort beating Cheetham, Forbes was on the line to kick away.
Tom Bailey got behind the back line again, and this time tried to square a pass to Rainford as he drew the defender. The pass wasn’t inch perfect, but you fancied Rainford to score until his standing leg gave way on a slippy surface just as he shot, and it went tamely to the keeper.
However with 10 minutes left the pressure paid off. A corner was cleared but Moran bravely won the ball back in a 50/50 at the edge and player a 1-2 with Kieran Lugsden to get to the by-line. It was his low cross that was gleefully finished by Kelvin Lugsden.
It sealed a win that North End deserved having had the better possession throughout. Radcliffe had relied on their hard work, trying to elicit a mistake from the defence. The victory took Glossop North End back up to third in the league.
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