King Leon caps great Ambers fightback

There were three changes for The Ambers from last week’s starting eleven due to injuries to Mitchell and Fairhurst, whilst Parkin was unavailable, meaning a debut for new signing Ehsan Mohammed and recalls for Jack Shaw and Johnny Pugh, as The Ambers went in search of a first goal and point away from Sandy Lane.
The visitors made a positive start and were unlucky not to net an early goal when Leon Howarth got the slightest of touches to Mohammed’s long throw, but the ball was scrambled away at the back stick by an Albion defender. Bailey Hobson then fired an effort wide after Pugh and Howarth had opened up the home defence, then a forward burst from Darius Smith ended with the full back forcing a low save from his namesake in the home goal.
With The Ambers well in control, the inevitable happened midway through the half when Alex Varley’s attempted clearance was charged down by Aldrich and when the ball was delivered into the six yard box, Fogarty was on hand to poke it over the line to give Albion a fortunate lead.
With Mohammed prompting from a central role, The Ambers continued to flood forward at every opportunity but some wayward finishing combined with some excellent positioning from keeper Smith kept them at bay. Marley Grant had a low effort saved before Hobson headed over, Smith dropped a volley onto the roof of the net and the impressive Pugh forced another top save from the goalkeeper.
Play switched to the other end in a quick break upfield, and Fernando missed the target badly when through one on one, before Howarth latched on to a goal kick, dribbled his way through and finally beat Smith, but his long range effort skimmed the cross bar.
As the referee blew for half time, there was a feeling amongst The Ambers support that the points were very much still up for grabs given the excellent performance in the first period, and the way the visitors started the second half only reinforced this view.
Howarth drove into the area and fired the ball across the six yard box with no one there to get on the end of it, before the home keeper excelled once more as he saved a Josh Dacre effort at point blank range. The home side though were still looking dangerous when they were able to get forward and Aldrich had two great chances in the space of two minutes which he was unable to convert.
At the other end, Pugh’s driven cross once again evaded everyone arriving in the six yard box and it was beginning to look like one of those days, especially when Aldrich was first to react when his first shot was blocked, and he doubled Albion’s lead just after the hour.
Positive substitutions in the shape of Ant Mackie and the long awaited return of Leon Osborne were made, but it was Dacre again who came closest to pulling one back but his back post header was saved on the line, before Pugh raced through and after a mix up at the back, the winger spun and shot against the outside of the post. However just a minute later, the resilient home defence was finally breached when Osborne was on hand to fire home from Pugh’s cross and The Ambers dared to dream.
Callum Walton then came on and The Ambers reverted to three at the back allowing Smith and Alfie Eagle to bomb forward which they were more than happy to, but after Hobson fizzed one wide, it was Aldrich at the other end who dragged an effort off target as the entertaining game flowed from one end to the other.
With just three minutes left, and The Ambers queueing up to get a clean shot away, Smith popped up in the box and had his ankle clipped leaving the referee no option but to point to the spot, and up stepped Howarth to fire home the penalty despite a valiant attempt to save it from Smith.
The collective tails were well and truly up now, and it was almost inevitable that this hungry Ambers team would go for the jugular as the game went into injury time, and after an almighty scramble in the box, Eagle’s cross was eventually poked home by Osborne leading to delirious scenes both on and off the pitch.
There was still time for a scare at the other end as Albion threw everything forward but The Ambers stayed solid to gain their first away points of the season after a fine performance.