Leek maintained their five-point gap at the top of the table after a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Worksop Town. Deadly duo Tim Grice and Rob Stevenson were both on the mark against the visiting Tigers but, in truth, the victory margin could have been more than doubled had the twin strikers not been so uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal.
Worksop attempted to play quality football and held the upper hand in the opening stages but their defensive limitations were ruthlessly exposed by the pace of Leek’s movement and they left Harrison Park without having registered a shot on target.
Leek took the lead in the 13th minute when Josh Agbozo’s bustling approach saw him break into the visitors’ area before finding Stevenson. Despite the tight angle, the shot was fierce enough to beat David Reay at his near post for the opener.
Grice was unable to get on top of Stevenson’s cross just after the goal but it was not long before he doubled the advantage. Brushing aside his marker, the striker advanced into the box from the left-hand side before slotting his left-footed effort past the keeper and into the bottom corner of the far post.
Steven Wooley was narrowly over Danny Roberts’ bar as his free-kick proved to be Worksop’s best effort of the match but Grice effectively ended the match as a contest when he netted the 198th goal of his Leek career. A long ball from Ollie Harrison left the defenders stranded and Grice was able to round the onrushing Reay before sliding the ball beyond the despairing defender’s efforts and into the net.
Grice had a golden opportunity to record yet another hat-trick when Reay spilled a shot from Stevenson but the loose ball was put wide and Stevenson and Lewis Short were both narrowly wide when a pass to the unmarked Grice may have been the better option.
Following the game Leek Assistant Manager Peter Ward spoke exclusively to Moorlands Radio and said “We’ve just said to the lads in there that we were a bit disappointed really. We could perhaps have scored a few more. We are just keeping them on their toes really. It’s good to score goals and to win games but they have to realise that they have to put in top performances. In certain parts of the game we weren’t at our best but early doors we played some good stuff. But we did win comfortably.
The disappointing part is we should have scored more. I don’t think that Danny Roberts had a shot to save. Defensively we were ok. We’ve probably set our standards high. We dealt with everything that came into our box. But we have a big game coming up at Frickley next week.
Aaron Bott hasn’t been playing a lot and is getting a bit frustrated so we felt that him going to Congleton would allow him to get a few games under his belt. Hopefully he can score a few goals there and come back with more confidence. He is a valuable member of the squad but because Grice and Stevenson have been doing so well, he hasn’t been getting the opportunity.”
