A game of two halves at Sheerien Park saw Athersley’s lead undone by two second-half Swallownest headers, Rec beaten 2-1 in the NCEL Division One on Saturday afternoon.
James Woodhouse’s third in four games, direct from a corner,
earnt Rec a half-time lead, headers from Oliver Grey and
Nathan Taylor turning it round after the break in the favour of the visitors.
New signing Jack Brassey played all ninety-minutes on debut alongside
Theo Peat who too played the duration. Jacob Morton, Sam Foulds and Carter
Tingle completed five changes from a week ago at South Leeds.
Rec’s hold of possession in the opening couple of minutes
set-up Micklethwaite right-footed, off-centre, striking from outside of the box
with visiting ‘keeper Ollie Sykes easily able to get his body behind the effort.
Alex Wonham was first to a ball in-behind Rec’s defence,
using his head in an attempt to lift over Owen but for the ‘keeper’s fingertips, strong enough to stop the momentum of the ball and push it away from goal.
James Hardeman met a delivery to the back post to head back
across goal, Aaran Turner reading it and lifting the ball high in the air to
remove any threat of a follow-up.
Sam Foulds’ opportunity to run to goal came on twenty-five minutes and towards the left-hand channel of the box, missing the target with his shot.
Three minutes later, an Athersley corner delivery from the
left appeared to curl straight at goal and needed heading off the line at the
far post.
The opener would follow a similar story, Woodhouse curling
straight in from a corner delivery. In the build-up, Foulds allowed the ball to
drop on the edge and connected clean but a defender was in the way to deflect
it behind. Left-footed from the right-hand side, Woodhouse’s in-swinger went directly
in at the far side.
Next up from distance was Jacob Morton who’s clean strike
passed the defending pack also, teasing a second at the same post but having flew the wrong side of the post with a single minute remaining of the half, Rec’s half-time lead remained at one.
Ten minutes into the second period and Swallownest equalised,
Olvier Grey glancing in a header. He met a cross born from beside the left-hand post
after Owen had needed to throw himself to his bottom corner to palm away a ball
deflected back towards him off a Rec man.
An hour played, Woodhouse’s first touch spun him round the
outside of his marker toward the left-hand channel of Swallownest's box. The wide-man caught
up with the ball by sliding in and shooting whilst on the move to give him a
better area to aim at, the ball running all the way across the face of goal.
He fought to regain possession midway inside Swallownest’s
half from his wide-left base and upon attacking the byline, had Tingle to aim
for inside the box, the delivery aimed ahead of the forward, inbetween Tingle
and the keeper and ran away to Brassey wide on the other side. He then looked to
return it to Woodhouse via an aerial cross, the winger beaten in the air.
Woodhouse’s continued threat combined with Perks’ move to
lead the line, reading Tingle’s flick-on inside the box before continuing the
ball to the left by lifting it over a defender into a free Woodhouse. The first-time
volley, side-footed from close range gave the ‘keeper too much chance, a
combination of left boot and glove able to stop the effort.
Swallownest took the lead through a simple corner routine of
their own. A delivery from the left met the highest man in Nathan Taylor to
head in at the back post with ten minutes remaining.
Perks knew Wright was on the move on Rec’s left and fed the
ball between Swallownest defenders on the half-volley. Wright’s first-touch undone
the move, knocking the ball too close to the defender, allowing the
interception as the ball entered the box.
Alfie Bakes had a final attempt to level deep into
added-time, collecting a loose ball beside the penalty spot but not testing
Sykes’ goal when hitting over.
Tuesday night Athersley are again at home, hosting Harrogate
Railway in the NCEL.
