Glasshoughton Welfare battled hard but unfortunately a late goal downed them as they suffered a 2-1 home defeat to league leaders Campion at a cold TJs Arena on Saturday.

Matthew Semley gave welfare an early lead but two poor goals conceded in the game gave the Bradford based side all three points.

Injuries and illness forced welfare into changes with skipper Gareth Hunter, and Tom Carr coming back into the side. There was also a debut at full back for Samuel Walker-Haines.

Welfare opened the game brightly and a cross from the right saw Semley mis-kick and Gary Collier hit the rolling ball over the cross bar.

Welfare took the lead on 7 minutes when Carr thread a superb ball through to Semley who ran on and slotted past visiting keeper Declan Lambton.

Campion came back and Jacob Collier in the home goal had to be quick off his line to claim a dangerous through ball.

There was an anxious moment for Lambton when he dropped a free kick but fortunately for him there were no home players to pounce on the loose ball. The keeper then did well to hold onto a Ryan Poskitt shot under his cross bar.

Marcus Edwards then caused danger for welfare when he broke down the right but his cross into the area was hammered away.

Shortly after this Campion levelled the scores when Leon Hurles- Brook skipped by a welfare defender before being allowed to fire a shot in from 12 yards that seemed to go under the arm of keeper Collier and nestled in the far corner of the net.

The visitors were after a quick second goal and Collier made a great block with his legs to thwart Jack Normanton.

As the second half opened Jack Knight broke through the visiting defence. He was crowded out and played the ball to Gary Collier who fed Poskitt but his shot looped over the bar.

The visitors hit back and goalkeeper Collier tipped a shot wide before denying Hurles-Brook with his legs.

For a few minutes welfare were then on top. Carr seemed one on one with Lambton but he squared the ball to Semley whose weak shot was easily saved by the keeper. A defender then hooked an effort off the goal line before Lambton did well to push away a Gary Collier shot from under the bar.

With 15 minutes left Campion substitute Andrew McCreadie was introduced to the game and within a minute he got the deciding goal when a high cross to the edge of the welfare 6 yard area saw him rise and the ball appeared to strike his shoulder before looping over stranded keeper Collier.

That was the end for a shell shocked welfare side who looked as though they had run out of energy and they failed to create any further chances.

After the game welfare joint manager Darren Holmes commented, "Very frustrating today. When you're on a bad run things don't seem to fall your way For large parts of the game we dominated, playing some very good football and created some guilt edge chances. Unfortunately after scoring an early goal we couldn't increase our lead and let Campion back in the game. Campion played some very smart football and although I'm sure they will say they were not at their best today, they played in the right areas and finished 2 of the 4 chances they created A good conversion rate and a reason they are competing for top spot Its fair to say if we would have finished our chances we would have won the game. The lads worked very hard today and again got no reward. The performances are improving and only fine margins are now separating us from the top teams. Goals win games and it's something we have to address if we are to get amongst the front runners again this season."

Glasshoughton Welfare. Jacob Collier, Walker-Haines,(Sokol), Cunliffe, Hunter,(Klimczak), Walsh, Pashley, Semley, Knight, Carr, Poskitt, Gary Collier. Unusd. Isaac Collier, Wushishi.

Campion. Lambton, Carney, Bodle, Eastwood, Hall, Bradshaw,(Ndlouv), Hurley-Brook, Graham, Edwards,(McCreadie), Normanton,(Habeeb) Cussack
Unused, Ward, Braun.

Referee. Samuel Wright

Attendance. 86