THE66POW: Frickley Athletic 1 v AFC Fylde 1

Tuesday 20th November 2012, at Westfield Lane
Evo-Stik Northern Premier League
Frickley Athletic (1) 1
Gavin Allott 45 pen
AFC Fylde (0) 1
David Buck 73 OG
Admission £9, Programme £1.50, Attendance 196

For John Uttley

Frickley Athletic:
Tom Woodhead, Terry Barwick, David Buck, Jake Picton, Luke Danville, Danny Stimpson, Chris Howarth (Jason Yates 85min), Matty Bloor, Luke Hinsley, Gavin Allott, James Ghaichem
Unused subs - Luke Jeffs, Chris Wood, Joe Davies, Zack Levers.
AFC Fylde:
Ben Hinchcliffe, Steve Haslam, Adam Sumner (Paul Jarvis 60min), Matt Hughes, Michael Taylor, Bradley Barnes, Joe Booth, Harry Winter (James Dean 60min), Adam Farrell, Michael Barnes, Richie Allen
Unused subs - Glenn Steel, Jack Dorney, James McCarthy.

Penalty!

If only Frickley Athletic could reproduce some of their home results on the road, they would be bombing up the Northern Premier League table by now, because Westfield Lane's become something of a fortress over the months of October and November for the Blues.

7 games in all competitions at the Lane since the narrow defeat at Harrogate Town's Wetherby Road ground in the FA Cup, as seen them win 6 and draw 1.

That's very impressive by anyone's standards.

Their next home game is on Friday November 30th, against opposition that they have already beaten (6-2) in the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup this month.

Before that Frickley face a trip down the A1 to Grantham Town on Saturday, who they are now level with on points in the league following tonight's very entertaining draw.

Following a rather sombre minutes silence for John Uttley, Frickley came straight out of the blocks and put their Lancashire visitors under the cosh, from the moment the referee sounded his whistle to start the game.

Gavin Allott had three great chances to put the home side ahead and Chris Howarth fired narrowly over the bar too, as the Blues strove to get a grip on the game, but with half time getting ever closer, it looked as though they were going to have to settle for going in with honours even at the break.

Against the run of play, Adam Farrell nearly put AFC Fylde ahead with five minutes of the first half remaining, but Tom Woodhead pulled off a great save and did well to tip the ball over.

In stoppage time, both Gavin Allott and Luke Hinsley had efforts on goal cleared off the line, before Mike Taylor felled Allott in the penalty area and the referee pointed to the spot.

Ben Hinchcliffe in the AFC Fylde goal, delayed the game momentarily with a slight burst of histrionics aimed at the ref, but Gavin Allott, kept his cool, didn't let the hold up break his concentration and drilled the ball home to give Frickley the lead and cap off a great individual and team performance for the first 45 minutes.

HT - Blues 1 v Coasters 0 ... if truth be told, Frickley ought to have had a couple more before the break.

After the restart, the tempo of the game was still just as high, but the visitors were getting more into it now ... and Tom Woodhead was called into action twice in the space of a few minutes, to deny both Harry Winter and Joe Booth.

Adam Sumner looked as though he had forced an equaliser in the 53rd minute, but his shot was cleared off the line and Andy Farrell skied the ball over the crossbar from the rebound.
Jake Picton came close, twice, for the Blues, when he hit the underside of the crossbar after beating Ben Hinchcliffe and shortly afterwards, headed just wide from an in-swinging corner kick.

It looked as though Gavin Allott was on the cusp of claiming all three points for Frickley, when he took the ball round Ben Hinchcliffe, but he miss kicked his shot from just outside the 6 yard box and the Coasters heaved a sigh of relief.
On 73 minutes the visitors were level. They had played well in an end to end second half and deserved something from the game, but their equalising goal was dead lucky. Paul Jarvis put a cross into the Frickley area, that caused a chaotic scramble in front of Tom Woodhead's goal and David Buck got the unfortunate last touch as he put the ball past his own keeper.
Both sides were still creating chances and going for a winner, Luke Hinsley hit the post, Allott had an effort saved by Hinchcliffe and Jake Picton had a shot cleared off the line as the Blues went for glory, before Adam Farrell somehow managed to squander two gilt edged chances right at the end.
A draw, in my humble opinion was a fair result. And given the amount of chances both sides created, it could have been 4 or 5 all.
FT - Frickley Athletic 1 v AFC Fylde 1

I don't think you can say fairer than this very honest and magnanimous, post match overview by the AFC Fylde manager David Challinor that appeared on their website:
“I think if we’d have gone in at half time still 0-0 we’d have been lucky - we didn’t start right and there was some harsh words spoken at half time.
“When you come to these places, you expect them to give their all and they did that.
“We didn’t deal with that in the first half, but in the second half we came out brighter, changed our shape a little bit and went for it.
“Certainly for the last half hour we created a lot of chances but just didn’t stick them away and to be fair if we’d have won the game it would have been a little bit unjust on them as they did well.”