GRANTHAM TOWN 2 SKELMERSDALE UNITED 2

TOMMY LAWSON HAPPY WITH POINT

GRANTHAM TOWN 2 SKELMERSDALE UNITED 2

By Neil Leatherbarrow

Tommy Lawson said he was happy to return home from Lincolnshire with a point on Saturday. When asked after the match he said; “We had just eleven fit men, we faced very physical opposition and had to make a long trip to play the match, added to that we had the spirit to fight back from behind twice, the second time to a dubious penalty, of course I am happy with the result.”
The injury situation at Stormy Corner is really biting. Skelmersdale had only three substitutes on the day and all three were under 18 years old, thus motivating Tommy to add; ”Such was the physicality of the opposition, it would have been unfair to have thrown a youngster on in a game like that, so the eleven that started had to do the entire 90 minutes.”
On a windy afternoon, after a good opening by Skelmersdale, Grantham started to exert pressure, forcing Martin Fearon to make one very good save with his foot from Lee Shaw.
In the fifteenth minute Fearon made another stop, this time palming a Rhys Lewis effort for a corner. From the corner Greg Smith put in a header that was blocked and only half cleared, allowing Smith the room to force the loose ball into the Skelmersdale net.
Skelmersdale reacted well and in the 28th minute Ged Kinsella held up the ball on the edge of the Grantham area and set up Louis Corrigan, but home goalkeeper Jake Turner saved his shot.
Six minutes later Corrigan crossed and Kinsella at the near-post went very close to equalising.
In the latter stages of the half Grantham asserted again, Shaw hit the woodwork and Phil Mooney cleared the ball to safety.
Grantham had done well against the wind in the first-half, Skelmersdale were to do better against it in the second-half and after 53 minutes it was level again. A Kenny Strickland free-kick was headed on by Tony Rendell and Kinsella at the far post provided a finely weighted angled chip over Turner into the net.
Two minutes later home keeper Turner pulled off what was arguably the save of the match. After running onto a through ball Kinsella pulled the ball back to Chris Almond who was playing a centre-forward role, Almond’s shot from around 15 yards looked a sure fire goal, but Turner managed to block the ball clear. It really was a top stop.
A long ball caused problems for Skelmersdale but just as they appeared to be dealt with Grantham won a penalty. The ball bounced out toward the corner of the penalty area with Rendell in pursuit, just as he reached it he was leaned on by Mike Hollingsworth and adjudged to have handled the ball, at best an extremely harsh decision, especially as you might even have given a foul in Skelmersdale’s favour for the push, Lee Beeson putting the spot away well to make it 2-1.
From then on it was a struggle for Skelmersdale. The day had been one where it was easier to defend than play constructive football so chances were few.
On 83 minutes Almond nipped onto a short pass near the penalty spot, he went down under a clumsy challenge and a penalty was given. If it was dubious, it was no more dubious than the one that had given Grantham the lead originally. Strickland was captain on the day and completed a real captain’s performance by emphatically slamming the penalty kick into the net.
Skelmersdale had deserved something from the game. Neither team had played fluent football and it was a battle throughout, but they had stuck to the task well when it would have been easy to accept a narrow defeat. As such they will be looking forward to Tuesday night’s game at home to Buxton with some confidence.

GRANTHAM TOWN: Turner, Meadows, Emmott, Purcicoe, McGowan, Gorman, McGhee © Beeson, 24), Lewis, Smith (Beckett, 78), Shaw, Hollingsworth Subs (not used) Saunders, Vagoroso, Walker

SKELMERSDALE UNITED: Fearon, Fernandes, Holden, Hardwick, Rendell, Staunton- Turner, Mooney, Strickland ©, Almond, Kinsella, Corrigan Subs (not used) Donaldson, Heron, Owen

Referee: D. Middleton Attendance: 203