NEW YEAR'S DAY CURSE STRIKES AGAIN

The curse of New Years Day struck again as Blues went down 3-2 at lowly Market Drayton Town.

eek had not won on January 1st since 1994 when Neil Baker was in his first spell in charge and this loss extended their record on this date to a miserable seven defeats and a draw in the eight games since.

The Blues boss rung the changes as Blues embarked on their fourth fixture in ten days over the festive period.

Dan Shelley (pictured), Sam Grimshaw, Tim Grice, Darren Chadwick and Liam Davies all returned to the starting line-up in place of Rob Stevenson, Jordan Johnson, Niall Maguire, Jordan Lemon and Dan-Trickett Smith (injured).

Leek got off to the perfect start when Grimshaw rifled home a 25 yarder into the top corner with just 80 seconds on the clock.

However this was soon cancelled out when Stefan Walker beat Ben Chapman from distance on 8 minutes.

Five minutes later Chapman made a fine save to tip a goal bound header around the post., but Drayton went ahead on 31 minutes when a nice move down the right was finished off again by Walker who slotted home from a tight angle.

Blues got themselves level three minutes before the break when Grimshaw scored a fine solo effort, running at the Drayton defence before finishing low past Mitchell Allen in the Gingerbreads goal.

The second half was played in atrocious conditions as the battered down onto an already sticky surface.

Grice had a chance on 62 minutes, but dragged his shot on the volley across the face of the goal.

Six minutes later the striker was unlucky to see his thumping header rebound against the crossbar with Allen beaten.

On 77 minutes Davies broke into the box and appeared to be clipped as he ran through, but tried to stay on his feet rather than going down and the referee waved away the penalty claims.

Four minutes later Drayton scored the winner as a scramble in the box following a corner and Jud Ellis rammed the ball home from six yards out.

Team: Chapman, Green, Kearns, Grocott, Lycett, Chadwick, Shelley (Johnson, 75), Crawford (Stevenson, 65), Grice, Grimshaw, Davies

Unused subs: Wara, Maguire, Lemon

Attendance: 175