Stokesley Sports Club FC (1st team) - Report



Crook Town 2 vs 0 Stokesley Sports Club

Stokesley Snow Luck in Crook.

This game looked for a long time in doubt with over night snow covering most of County Durham, the Crook groundstaff doing a tremendous job of clearing the playing surface and whilst a bit heavy it looked in great condition.

The management had a wealth of talent to choose this week and went with experience.

Bivens, Foley and the influential Kamara all started with Craig Toman getting a debut in centre midfield.

Stokesley started brightly putting Crook on the back foot but it was'nt till the 20th minute before Redman unleashed a 25 yarder which was tipped over by the keeper. From this moment Stokesley stroked the ball round as well as they've done all season, one particular move gaining a ripple of applause from the home support. Toman fed Foley, Redman switched to Bivens who's low shot was only whiskers away from the goal. This domination of the half deserved more but alas the half remained goalless.

Crook's experience started to show through after the break although the visitors continued to press, Bivens at times, linking well with Jones absolutely terrorised the Crook defence with his trickery. Willey was always on duty to clear any rare attacks, blocking one on one's appearing to be his speciality of the day.

A long range effort struck Willey's bar bouncing straight back out and the Crook forward reacted quicker to head home. 1-0

Again Stokesley pressed, the hard working Hodgson narrowly heading wide and sub Wilkinson shaving the post with a header late on.

Alas on the break Crook went further ahead with a text book header back across goal and into the net. 2-0

This was a much improved performance against one of the better sides in the league, Stokesley's football was something to behold at times the players and management should be proud of their efforts. It speaks volumes of Stokesley's play that Crook's MOM was the keeper. The league table doesn’t lie though and great performances need converting, this will no doubt be the next step in the tale of Stokesley's season.

Assistant manager Chris Lax said: “I was disappointed to lose as I thought we were a match for Crook in the first half and created a couple of decent chances and passed the ball around well. They took their chances and we didn’t, but there are plenty of positives to take from the game.”

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STOKESLEY SPORTS CLUB FC

www.pitchero.com/clubs/stokesleysportsclub