Flat Grove beaten at Loughborough Dynamo

1070

Kidsgrove Athletic put in a flat performance as they were beaten 2-0 at Loughborough Dynamo.

Goals either side of half time from Karl Demidh and Curtis Burrows condemned the Grove to their 5th league defeat of the season. It could have been more had it not been for the efforts of Kieran Harrison and Richard Duffy.

Grove manager Ryan Austin made one change to the side that lost to Frickley Athletic last weekend. Rhys Thompson started up front in place of James Jennings who was on the bench.

It was the Grove who had the first chance to open the scoring when a Jimmy Phillips free-kick was headed goalwards by James Butler. However, it went just wide of the post as Anthony Malbon attempted to get a foot on the ball to direct it past Jason Alexander.

The first real chance for the hosts saw them take the lead when an Alex Steadmen’s cross found Demidh who volleyed home. There was some confusion as the Assistant referee had his flag up for offside. However, the referee overruled him.

Sam Hall had a chance to equalise on 22 minutes when he had his shot from outside the area blocked by a backtracking defender.

Loughborough should have had a second around 10 minutes from the interval when Ben Hart slipped to allow Bradley Fortnam-Tomlinson to break into the area. However, he put his effort over the bar.

Grove had two great chances to equalise in the second half. First Butler shot wide of the goal from distance before Thompson forced a smart save out of Alexander.

Duffy almost put the ball into his own net when he slid in to cut out a cross from Fortnam-Tomlinson. From the resulting corner, the Grove didn’t clear their lines properly as the ball fell to Demidh who put a cross in for Burrows to head home unmarked in the area.

Duffy had to be alert on 73 minutes to clear the ball off the line from Will Norcross who was looking to score after Harrison had made a fine save to deny Burrows.

Harrison made a fine save on 77 minutes from Norcross to deny him the third goal of the afternoon. Norwood had got clear of the defence and, the majority of the crowd was expecting him to score.

That was the real last action of the match as the game drifted towards a frustrating conclusion for the Grove as they couldn’t find a way back into the game.

The result leaves Kidsgrove sitting 16th in the league ahead of next Saturday’s visit of Wisbech Town. Before that Warrington Town visit on Monday night in the Integro Sports Cup 1st round.

Kidsgrove Athletic: Harrison, Hart, Morris, Hall (Jennings, 77), Duffy, Butler, Phillips (Adu-Gymafi, 64), Blake, Thompson, Malbon and Williamson.
Unused sub: Bergin

Loughborough Dynamo: Alexander, Thorogood, Egginton, Munn, Scanalon, Sibson, Fortnam-Tomlinson (Owsus-Nepaul, 71), Burrows, Demidh (Norcross, 71), Norris and Steadman (Oke-William, 82)
Unused subs: Robinson and Smith-Eccles.

Attendance: 123