No Christmas Cracker As Ollerton See Red In Front of Bumper Crowd

Despite Christmas spirit still being very much in the air, there was little for anyone at Ollerton Town to be merry about on Tuesday after they turned in a below-par performance against Teversal, seeing two men sent off and losing 2-1 in the process.
In front of a bumper crowd of over 180, Ollerton let themselves down and in truth, despite going ahead through a fine strike by Mark Carter, the home side were always second best.
Two goals by former Ollerton player, James McCann, won Teversal the game and they would have won by more if they had converted one of the several chances they had in the dying stages.
The opening moments of the game produced little in terms of clear goal scoring chances though Teversal were perhaps shading proceedings. Despite this, it was Ollerton who took the lead on thirteen minutes. The ball came to Mark Carter on the edge of the area and he hit a terrific strike which left ‘keeper Joshua Turton with no chance.
Scoring the opening goal didn’t settle Ollerton down however and two minutes later, Teversal were level. David Cockerill was given time twenty-five yards out and he dinked the ball over the top of the Ollerton defence, allowing McCann to run through and lob Scott Gretton.
Mark Carter saw a long ranged effort tipped over the bar well by Turton before Sean Dickinson dragged a good chance wide for Teversal with both teams searching for the lead.
The teams went into the half level at 1-1 but Teversal boss Dean Short will have been the happier of the two camps, with Ollerton receiving some harsh words at half time.
Unfortunately, Ollerton failed to produce a reaction and ten minutes into the second period, Teversal went ahead. A cross into the area was headed out and from twenty yards out, McCann hit a first time effort into the top corner to get his and Teversal’s second.
Ollerton’s task was made more difficult ten minutes later as they went down to ten men, Ben Bowring raising his hands to the face of a Teversal player after an off-the-ball incident, giving the referee no choice.
Things seemed to go from bad to worse as with around fifteen minutes left, Ollerton were reduced to nine. Booked for a foul in the first half, Kyle Ludlow was shown a second yellow for a foul which some of the Ollerton faithful felt was slightly harsh.
With the score still at 2-1, Ollerton’s nine men still had to believe they could pull off a Christmas miracle and rescue something from the game.
At the other end of the field, Teversal were finding it easy to cut through Ollerton’s defence and McCann wasted several chances to seal his hat-trick whilst Cockerill missed a sitter from a few yards out which would have made the score line more emphatic.
In the end, 2-1 was enough to give Teversal the win whilst Ollerton have the perfect opportunity to bounce back from this disappointment, as they travel to Teversal for the reverse fixture next Tuesday night.