Match Report: Redcar Athletic 3-1 Lancaster City

One of the longest away days this season was crossed off the list early, as we travelled to Leicestershire to take on Quorn

Three away fixtures split by a home win against Lancaster City, with the Dolly Blues looking to get another three points and fix their shaky start to the season

What followed, instead, was a Redcar Athletic match that saw a second half akin to what we had produced last season.

We started this match on the front foot, as we often do, with Andrei’s physicality proving to be a problem for Lancaster’s defence.

However, the first real chance came for the visitors, as a strike on goal was cleared by the feet of Josh Mazfari.

Up the other end, a stellar cross from Curtis Round landed at Andrei Ardelean’s feet, though Lancaster’s defence did deal with the opportunity.

More chances came for the Steelmen, with Bosh putting an attempt wide before, a minute later, he stretched, got a shot off, and watched the ball agonisingly go wide.

It was starting to look like a game of many chances and no goals, until we did take the lead in the 25th minute, as a Connor Smith cross sneaked past the keeper’s near post and bounced off the line, into the path of Adam Boyes, who did tap it home with little difficulty.

He was on the scoresheet, and we had taken the lead

The ten minutes that followed were fairly uneventful, but the passage ended with the visitors equalising, as a ball across the box found their man unmarked at the back post, and he was able to tap it in

A few decent chances for us did come, and frustratingly go, and the half-time whistle sounded with scores level, and plenty of chances had

Whatever was said at halftime did work as we proceeded to stop Lancaster from scoring throughout the remainder of the game

Though there were chances for them to get back into the match, with a pair of chances early on, both ended up going astray

We then won a corner in the 51st minute as the ball was clipped behind. A Curtis Round set piece then followed, played into the back post. It was nodded down by Danny Rowe to his own feet, and subsequently smashed into the net, giving us the advantage.

We then looked to nearly get another goal, as a ball over the top found Bosh, who tried to take it around the Lancaster keeper, though it came to nothing as they regained possession.

More great chances for the Steelmen were produced, with some solid efforts from Oscar Fletcher resulting in him being crowded and denied from advancing, though his dribbling still meant he created a few chances for himself and others.

A solid strike from JJ was parried into the path of Bosh, though the suddenness of it meant our striker was unable to capitalise, with the shot going over, with another strong strike moments later being gathered properly by Lancaster’s keeper.

However, we did bag another goal eventually, in what was a brilliant bit of play from four of our 11 players

A JJ Bartliff header in midfield was played forward to Andrei, who took the ball under his control before laying it back to Curtis

Curtis proceeded to then whip the ball in, and a glancing header from Bosh steered the ball into the far corner, putting us 3-1 up and all but confirming a second win of the season

We made changes, with Owen, Louis, Ciaran and Luke all coming on, and despite a few vague chances, the visitors never really threatened, with the full-time whistle being accompanied by a lot of cheers from the home support

Up next is a trip to Warrington, before we head back home to take on Emhley on Tuesday, and United of Manchester the following Saturday

Hope to see you at all three!

Lineups:

Redcar Athletic: Mazfari, Guru [Banks, 84′], Round [Spalding, 85′], Bartliff, Rowe, Lay (C), Smith, Fletcher, Boyes, Fewster [Burns, 70′], Ardelean [Johnson, 70′]

Unused subs: Burgess

Lancaster City: Kelly, Bailey (C) [Amison, 75′], Sanogo, B. Moonan, Oliver, Grand [C. Bailey, 62′], Tweedley, D. Moonan [Leigh, 76′], Evangelinos, Nolan [Bailey, 63′], Lawson [Caine, 63′]

Unused subs: N/A