Late equaliser earns a point in West Yorkshire

An equaliser from Jacob Ridings five minutes from time rescued a point for Daisy Hill in a 1-1 draw at the Stafflex Arena.

It was no more than Daisy deserved after a fine performance in West Yorkshire, and had they been a bit sharper in front of goal they could easily have travelled back along the M62 with all three points.

But in the end, a draw against the team in third place in the league was no bad result, especially after poor marking had allowed Shelley's leading scorer Craig Billington time and space to open the scoring with a header on the hour mark.

The game began in lively fashion with half chances at both ends in the opening quarter, the pick of the efforts coming from Daisy skipper Hensley Mills who saw a 25 yarder just miss the target with the keeper beaten.

Late in the first half, David Devlin was unlucky when he finished off a neat build up down the left with a shot across the face of goal that just
missed the far post.

Daisy kept the momentum going after the break, and six minutes after the restart Jake O'Brien combined well with Jamie Ramwell to construct a chance that curled over the bar.

Five minutes later Ramwell was denied in a one-on-one with Shelley keeper Stuart Morrison, with the striker's shot blocked by the keeper's outstretched leg.

However, a minute later Daisy had a narrow escape when Dean Singleton directed a header from a corner kick off his own crossbar, and just as the clock hit the hour mark the home side took the lead.

Once again it was a corner that caused problems in the Daisy defence, with Craig Billington evading his marker to direct a header past Dean Williams.

With 20 minutes remaining Daisy had another let off when Shelley's Ethan Labad finished off a move with a low shot into the bottom corner, only to be flagged offside by the assistant referee.

As the game entered the closing stages, Daisy pushed forward in search of an equaliser and got their reward with five minutes remaining.

Once again, Jamie Ramwell was involved, outpacing the home defence to get a shot on target that was beaten out by Shelley keeper Williams, and Jacob Ridings followed up to tuck the loose ball into the net.

The result means that Daisy drop one place down into fifth, with 17 points from ten games as we move into October.