Ollerton End Winless League Run

Ollerton Town secured their first league win since the middle of August after beating Nostell MW 2-0 at a very windy Walesby Lane on Saturday afternoon. It had been 11 games since Ollerton had collected the three points but after recent cup wins against Retford United and Arnold Town, Dave Winter's side were still in good spirits and they were the better of the two sides all afternoon on Saturday.

'The Town' appeared to be the dominant team right from the start and in the 5th minute Lewis Bingham was able to slip past his marker and play in Ash Shannon who was able to curl a low effort into the bottom right corner for his second goal in consecutive home games to give Ollerton an early lead.

Ollerton continued to look like the team in the ascendency and almost doubled their advantage as Ben Bowring headed Bingham’s corner towards goal but a great reaction save from Aiden Tyas kept Nostell firmly in the game.

Nostell had failed to create any noteworthy chances in the opening 20 minutes although they’ll feel like they should’ve equalised just after the 20 minute mark when a long through ball put Billy Mole through on goal who then proceeded to blaze a guilt edged chance over the bar.

Ollerton continued to look like the stronger team and throughout the half they seemed to adopt a far more technical approach and played the ball on the ground far more than in previous games which really allowed them to test Nostell’s defensive resolve. In the 24th minute Ollerton’s Sean Dickinson played a simple low cross into Kyle Clarkson who then slid the ball across to Brandon Shaw but he was unfortunately unable to outfox Nostell’s Aiden Tyas.

Bingham then found himself in space on the right wing and was able to cut the ball back to Dickinson who slipped in Josh Bowkett but his eventual left footed shot from just outside the 6 yard box was deflected wide for a corner.

Ollerton at this point could’ve wrapped up the game with the quality and quantity of chances. Nostell managed to push their way out of their own half for the last 5 minutes of the half but couldn’t create anything meaningful as Ollerton went into the break a goal up.

The second half of this contest proved to be far less eventful and both teams appeared to be restricted to more long range shooting for most of the half.

A smart piece of interplay between Dickinson and Bingham left Dickinson with enough space to play in Clarkson but he wasn’t able to strike the ball with any kind of conviction.

Nostell's second half performance was a clear improvement on their first half showing but all they could muster was a few scuffed long range attempts from Jamie Miller which never really seemed to trouble Ryan Brooks in the Ollerton goal.

In the latter period of what was quite a drab second half performance from both teams, Dickinson was able to cap off a classy performance by drawing a penalty from a clear foul while trying to strike the ball on the volley. Ollerton had been practicing penalties in training midweek to try and end their recent hoodoo from the spot and it seemed to do the trick, captain Sam Stretton stepping up to send Tyas the wrong way and cap off an accomplished performance from his side.

Ollerton may have been slightly disappointed in the fact that the margin of victory was only two goals, but the level of performance which was shown in the first half can only be seen as a positive and they will have welcomed what was a rare clean sheet.

Report by William Lavelle.
Photo by DC Photography Retford