Ollerton Secure First NCEL Win To Progress In The Cup

Ollerton Town won their first ever game at Step Six of the football pyramid on Wednesday night, after a 2-1 win over Worsbrough Bridge in the NCEL League Cup. It was the perfect response by Ollerton who were left disappointed after a 92nd minute penalty meant they lost Saturday’s opening league game v Grimsby Borough.
The game itself, despite its historical importance to the club, won’t live long in the memory as it became very scrappy at times, with Ollerton having to hold on for the win after Worsbrough placed them under severe pressure late on.
The opening ten minutes of the game proved to be eventful for the home side. Goalkeeper Gavin Saxby was forced off with an injury but thankfully Ollerton had Simon Smith on the bench to come on and replace him.
Within seconds of Smith taking to the field, Ollerton also took the lead. Lewis Bingham, who scored Ollerton’s first ever goal in the NCEL on Saturday, kept us his good form, latching onto a through ball before bending a shot past Jon Davies and into the top corner.
Lee Garside had a good opportunity to get Worsbrough back into the game, but when he was played through, Smith was quickest to react and he smothered the ball.
Josh Dodd and Sam Dockwray both saw efforts easily saved by Davies whilst Mitch Wilshere and Alex Jones both fired well over as Worsbrough went into the half time break one-nil down.
After scoring their first goal ten minutes into the first half, Ollerton then repeated the trick as they doubled their lead ten minutes after the restart, and what a goal it was too. Bingham brilliantly controlled a Smith goal kick, and after he passed across to Josh Bowkett, the 19 year old beat three defenders before firing a rocket into the bottom corner to leave Davies helpless and score his first goal for Ollerton.
A second goal put Ollerton into a more comfortable position, but they soon saw that slip away as Worsbrough halved the deficit, Garside scoring with a low shot from inside the area.
The rest of the game became somewhat of a battle but the best chance probably fell to Ollerton after the best move of the half. Good inter-play between Bingham and Dockwray put Bowkett through on the right side of the area, but after he pulled the ball back to Dockwray, Worsbrough got enough men back to clear the ball off the line.
In the end, Bowkett’s goal was enough to give Ollerton what was probably a deserved win in front of a bumper crowd of around 100. The win secures Ollerton an away trip to Harrogate Railway in the second round, next Tuesday, in what will be a very tough tie.