Another win on the road for The Ambers

The Ambers arrived in South Elmsall on the back of an unbeaten four match run which had propelled them up to 7th in the table, and with the home side losing their last three on the bounce, there were high hopes amongst the travelling fans.
It was quite a frantic start to the game with both teams pushing on in the early minutes. Mitch Dunne forced a low save from home keeper Preston with a shot from distance before a good move down the right involving Green and Burke saw Keita fire wide for the hosts.
There was an early yellow card shown when home skipper Green crunched Morgan James after the midfielder had nicked the ball in the centre circle before a surge into the box by Johno Williams was halted by Preston who was quickly off his line to clear the danger.
The best chance of the game so far went the way of the hosts when Grist ran virtually unchallenged for half the length of the pitch and The Ambers were indebted to Ben Townsend who stopped the ensuing shot before Richard Tootle was on hand to head away from danger.
A sloppy ball out of defence presented another opportunity for Frickley but Burke’s effort was deflected away for a corner which came to nothing, before more controversy followed after a foul by Ant Mackie on Burke had the home support baying for a red card. Fortunately for The Ambers, the man in black showed some consistency by only producing a yellow, but the full back had injured himself in the challenge and had to be replaced by Michael Trench, with Tootle moving to the right.
Collier then crashed a volley wide after being found by Keita’s cross and it seemed only a matter of time before the deadlock would be broken. Sure enough, in the dying embers of the first half, the visitors won a corner and Williams’ driven delivery was glanced home via the head of Sam Smith to open the scoring with his second goal of the week, and one almost became two when a fine opportunistic strike from distance by Jimmy Eyles rattled the cross bar, with Preston possibly getting a touch on it.
The home side were bang at it in the second half and Grist missed two early chances, firstly firing over after nicking the ball on the edge of the box before sending a far post header straight into the arms of a grateful Townsend. The influential Green then showed some fancy footwork and released Keita whose shot was deflected away for a corner and when that fell to Binns, his scuffed effort was unceremoniously hacked away by Townsend.
Frickley were really turning the screw now and the Ambers defence were holding up their end manfully, but it was time for fresh legs in the shape of Jon Hill, Toby Kenyon and Leon Howarth who were all introduced around the hour mark.
Townsend was once again at the top of his game when Grist set up the unmarked Keita at the back post and the winger looked odds on to level things up, but the keeper threw himself in the way to block the effort. The Ambers were being forced to play on the break and an excellent twisting run by Eyles almost paid dividends, but he was eventually crowded out in the box. The home keeper then bizarrely gave away an indirect free kick in his own area, but the Frickley wall did its job and Howarth’s effort bounced away to safety.
A quick break upfield by the hosts saw an attacker go down after a challenge on the edge of the box but the referee happily waved play on initially before he overruled himself after the Assistant flagged it as a foul. Green’s free kick was destined for the top corner before Townsend flung himself across his line to tip it round the post, and the keeper excelled again shortly afterwards to deny Hall who had got in around the back.
Keita and former Amber, Varley saw late efforts miss the target as Frickley kept pushing for an equaliser, but they found The Ambers in resolute form and a hard earned three points found their way back to Sheffield.
Next up for The Ambers is a League Cup visit to Parkgate on Wednesday night followed by a home fixture next Saturday against Yorkshire Amateur.