Frickley 1 Loughborough Dynamo 0

Battling Blues beat 'boro

The Blues took the field for their first home game of 2018 with the same starting XI that beat Chasetown on NYD. Danny Frost (more of him later) & debutant Danny Burns took up places on the bench.

A chance came Frickleys way after 15 minutes or so, when a Darkenbauer exocet came in & Cammy Hough had a good chance with a header but he put it wide & that was to be pretty much the story of the first half. Plenty of endeavour by Frickley, lots of midfield battling & our finishing wasn't quite 'on point'.

The visitors came with a game plan - much the same one that they employed for their home fixture - which was to frustrate & niggle at the Blues & that is their prerogative, & in fairness they engaged it well.

Probably Les Bleus best chance came on half time when a Ben Algar corner was met by Jammer but was cleared by the man on the post (Coaches Medwell & Whitehead say that you should always have a man on the post....)

HALF TIME - FRICKLEY 0 LOUGHBOROUGH 0

More of the same to start the 2nd half but then Frickley started to move through their gears a little, & then Spen shuffled the pack as Duggie was replaced by Danny Frost & Jammer was replaced by Danny Burns. Is this the first time Frickley have had 2 subs called Danny brought on at the same time? (Southy & Walshy maybe? Any stattos out there, please email idontreallywanttoknowtheanswer@hotmail.com). Jameels substitution a result of increasing efforts to get him a red card, possibly.....

The forward threat of Tyler, Gav, Frosty & Haze created problems for the away defence but they couldn't find the end result until.....

Darkenbauer wins a challenge on half way, & feeds Gav down the left. Gav gets to the edge of the area & puts the ball into the danger area, which is half cleared but only as far as the Iceman. For all Loughboroughs defensive tactics, the old adage rang true:

Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
If Gav or Haze don't get you
The Iceman must

as Danny F smashed home from close range, his 7th goal for the club.

A number of corners from Ben Algar set up 2 good headed chances for Gav & 1 for a Haze special but we couldn't add the 2nd that we deserved.

Tyler Blake was replaced by Ishy Dawson as the Blues looked to see out the game & Haze had a great chance to seal it as he went clean through but his attempt to round the keeper was smothered. But good game management by the entire team meant that the victory was never in doubt.

The epitome of an ugly win, but that's way better than a pretty defeat

FINAL SCORE - FRICKLEY 1 LOUGHBOROUGH 0

WEBMASTER MOTM - a few decent shouts, Frosty put in a great cameo performance when he came on & Danny Burns looked very assured as Jammers replacement. Hugo didn't have much to do but showed great mastery & command of the box when he had to come for crosses & long balls. Ben Algar was an unsung hero for me as well, but the stand outs were Darkenbauer, Rolls Royce Richie Patterson & Cammy Hough & the Glitterball goes to Darker, which he graciously accepted in his acceptance speech (attached)

213 through the gate, thank you to everyone who came - please come again.

Most important of all, a massive thank you to everyone who contributed to Sebba via the bucket collection & the football card - £242 in total, magnificent. Don't forget that you can still contribute to his Just Giving page.

Sebba was at the ground, it was good to see the Big Man up & around - he told us that he has a medical appointment this Thursday so hopefully he will know more about his injury this week.

Next up, we're away at Stamford - see the separate news item about coach travel

Photo album courtesy of our good friend Onion Bag & video clips courtesy of that lad that stands next to me

#forzasebba
#forzafrickley