Leek Town may have bowed out of the FA Trophy but, they left the Lancashire market town of Chorley with their heads held high following a narrow 1-0 defeat.
Former Macclesfield Town forward Jack Sampson netted the game’s only goal just before the interval to send the Magpies through to the next round of the competition. However, Leek can be proud of their efforts in the second half as they took the game to the National League North outfit and, arguably should have had a penalty in the second half that wasn’t given.
Even before the game began, the odds were stacked against the Blues as top scorer Tim Grice was ruled out after tweaking his hamstring in the midweek win against Widnes, while Rob Stevenson was not fully fit but, took his place only on the bench alongside Scott Wara and Lucas Baker.
It was the Magpies who dominated the first half of the match as they showed their experience of playing two divisions higher than Leek and, they should have been 1-0 up after just ten minutes of play as Callum Schorah played a lovely ball over the top to Connor Hall and, the forward blasted a fierce volley against the underside of the crossbar which thankfully bounced away to safety.
Despite Chorley’s dominance in the first half, it looked like Leek were going to go into the half-time break all square but, that changed in the first minute of injury time when Justin Johnson, who had been an absolute menace to the Leek defence cut into the area before seeing his shot saved by Danny Roberts. However, the Leek goalkeeper couldn’t keep hold of the ball and Sampson was on hand to sweep home for Chorley.
After the break, Leek came out and really took the game to Chorley as they pressed for an equaliser. They got their first shot on target on 65 minutes when a Dan Trickett-Smith free-kick deflected off the wall and into the grateful hands of Matt Urwin.
Leek then should have been awarded a penalty halfway through the second half for two offences in one move. First, Davidson saw his cross strike the hand of Matty Challoner and as the cross was coming in, Josh Ryder was being manhandled by Adam Blakeman. You would have thought the referee would have pointed to the spot for one of those offences, but he did not.
Trickett-Smith did have the ball in the back of the net with 10 minutes to play when he lobbed Urwin.
However, the referee had on this occasion spotted that Leek’s magic man had used his hand to control the ball.That was the final chance for Leek as Chorley ran the clock down by taking the ball into the corner of the pitch for the majority of the six minutes of injury time, which was given due to a serious-looking injury to Schorah whom we send our best wishes to and hope he has a speedy recovery.
Elsewhere in the area Buxton also went out of the FA Trophy thanks to a 4-2 defeat at Blyth Spartans where Cedric Main helped himself to four goals. No doubt the Bucks had one eye on next weekend’s trip to Portman Road, the home of Ipswich Town, in the Emirates FA Cup 2nd round.
A bit closer to home and Kidsgrove Athletic won 2-1 against Clitheroe. Lewis Bergin opened the scoring from the penalty spot on 22 minutes before Josh Thorpe scored his first goal since returning from a serious Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury.
Hanley Town just can’t seem to win at home in the league this season as they lost another game at the Payaro stadium, this time to Prescot Cables. A goal from John Murphy with twenty minutes to go gave the Tigers the win.
It was an entertaining game at the Leasing.com stadium as Macclesfield ran out 4-3 winners over Mossley with three goals in the last four minutes of the game. Mark Duffy had given the Silkmen the lead on 18 minutes only to be pegged back by Jack Grundy midway through the first half. Jordan Butterworth had put Mossley 2-1 up on 58 minutes, but Tom Clare replied on behalf of Macclesfield on 86 minutes.
Mossley thought they had won it on 88 minutes when Jack Bannister made it 3-2 but, Clare equalised again in injury time and, there was just enough time for Neil Kengni to win the game for Macclesfield in the sixth minute of injury time.
In the NPL Premier Division, Nantwich Town made the trip to Radcliffe and got an important 2-1 win. A penalty from Byron Harrison and a late goal from defender Troy Bourne secured the win and puts the Dabbers up to 17th in the league table.
Meanwhile, in the Macron Cup second round Congleton Town won 2-1 at Brocton thanks to goals from Peter Williams and Richard Duffy. While Abbey Hulton United saw off Eccleshall 3-0 at the Drayton Beaumont stadium- two goals from Liam Robinson and one from Matthew Ward won the game for Abbey.
Finally, in the FA Vase, Stone Old Alleynians exited the competition as they lost 2-0 at Atherstone Town.
