Positives to Take From Shirebrook Defeat!

Ollerton's first game of pre-season saw them defeated 2-1 by Shirebrook Town on a very hot summer's evening at Langwith Road.
Ollerton were originally set to face Clipstone FC in pre-season but when their Manager, Chris Millington, left to take over the reigns at Shirebrook, he took the fixture with him.
He also brought with him the squad that won the North East Counties League Division 1 last year which meant Ollerton's first test of pre-season was always going to be a tough one.
The large majority of last season's squad has stayed at Ollerton whilst Manager Dave Winter has also added several new faces in the form of Tom Cook, Paul Burgess, Jamie Tryner, Sam Stretton and Lewis Bingham who have all joined from Thoresby whilst local lad, Jamie Charlton, also made his debut for the club.
All of these new players featured last night and it was Jamie Charlton who got Ollerton's goal, latching on to a pass from Tryner before calmly slotting past Shirebrook's Dale Shephard.
This put Ollerton back in contention after going 2-0 down. Shirebrook's first came in the opening few minutes as they headed in at the near post after a well-worked move.
Due to the scorching heat, and the pre-season nature of the game, the match was divided into 30 minute thirds. Shirebrook's second came during the last period. A freekick from a central position was brilliantly struck and left Ollerton 'keeper Shaun Taylor stranded.
Ollerton struggled in the opening exchanges but as the game went on they grew more and more into it and matched their opponents for much of the game. With the clock ticking down, Shirebrook seemed to tire and Ollerton took advantage.
First Charlton got his goal to half the deficit and then moments later, he nearly levelled things up. He was played through 1-on-1 on his lobbed effort beat Shephard and seemed to be heading into the goal, unfortunately it clipped the outside of the post and bounced back out into Shephard's grateful hands.
Despite the defeat, there was still lots of positives to be taken from the game from an Ollerton perspective. The players looked fit and once they all found their feet, they played some nice stuff and got the ball down well. Arguably the most important factor was that all of the players put pen to paper and signed on for the coming season with many of the new faces attracting interest from rival clubs.
Ollerton's next game is on Saturday 11th, at home to Rainworth Miners Welfare.

OTFC Team: S.Taylor; G.Armstrong, P.Burgess, J.Schofield, L.Carver; S.Stretton, C.Stanton, J.Tryner; C.Hewitt, J.Charlton, L.Bingham

OTFC Subs: T.Cook, K.Clarkson, W.Horton, J.O'Callaghan, C.Atkinson

Decent 1st game for Ollerton tonight against a really strong brook.. All lads signed up tonight which is a bonus just hoping Cobb is ok..— Stephen Bodle (@bodle1) July 1, 2015