Stocksbridge 2 Frickley 0

In the run up to Xmas we've been served up some champagne football (certainly top end prosecco) but yesterday the bubbles went a bit flat & we got a beaker of supermarket home brand pomagne.

Sam Cable returned to the starting lineup in a straight swap for Ant Wilson and Phil Watt came back from suspension to take a place on the bench in place of Brad Mears.

Stocksbridge made it clear that, despite their lowly league position, they were up for this one. It took only 10 minutes for them to make their pressure pay as a dangerous ball in from the right lead to a bit of penalty box ping pong. The ball eventually dropped to Scott Ruthven who managed to get his shot off from about 8 yards which took a wicked deflection and spun into the bottom corner of the Frickley net. Personally I thought that Youngy had been fouled as he attempted to clear, but there you go.

Both sides huffed and puffed through to half time but without really threatening either goal. HT 1-0.

The second half was more of the same scrappy nature, the Blues struggling to find any rhythm or to win many second balls. A second SPS goal in the 84th minute snuffed out any possibility of the Blues salvaging a point. The goal was a carbon copy of the one conceded against Wisbech as sub Alex Wiles headed home from a corner. FT 2-0.

SPS battled hard and deserved their win. We had a bad day at the office and will need to show a reaction next time out but ultimately no-one died - apart from our unbeaten record under MM.

WEBMASTER MOTM - Tom Burgin and Greg Young battled hard at the heart of the defence, and Rowey never let up but the stand out player was Sam Liversidge at right wing back. He was sound at the back and constantly looked to get forward so it’s Sam who takes the Glitterball.

TWITTER POLL MOTM - Sam also won the Twitter Poll, just pipping Rowey with Young & Burgin just behind them. Thank you to everyone who voted

An impressive Boxing Day gate of 225 with plenty from South Elmsall, thanks again for your much appreciated away support.

Next up we are at home to Cleethorpes on New Years Day - or next year if you like