Ollerton Suffer First Defeat of 2018

Ollerton Town slipped to a somewhat undeserved 1-0 defeat against a persistent Rossington side despite a fairly impressive performance by Dave Winter's men.
Ollerton dominated periods of the game but weren’t able to convert their chances and a late goal was enough to end Ollerton’s unbeaten start to 2018.
The first 25 minutes were very cagey from both teams but Ollerton looked to be the more offensive minded team and the more likely to score. Ollerton had the first real chance of the game as Sean Dickinson's ball in behind the Rossington defence found the overlapping Brandon Shaw who cut inside onto his right foot but saw his close range effort well saved by Dan Morton.
Ollerton continued to press the action for the rest of the half, with Gav King central to Ollerton’s good play throughout the opening 45. King created space on the edge of the box before seeing his shot cannon of the crossbar and then saw his second effort of the half well saved by Morton who closed down the angle well in the one-on-one situation.
Rossington really struggled to create anything of note in the first half but were still able to get to half time all square but they looked to be far more competitive in the second half. Danny Bulman saw his low effort well saved by onrushing Ollerton 'keeper Ryan Brooks and at the other end Dickinson will have been disappointed that he wasn’t able to find the target with his right footed volley from inside the box.
The second half continued to showcase an end-to-end match and Ollerton will have been disappointed to not take the lead through substitute Mark Carter as King chipped a ball towards the back post but like his headed effort against Brigg last week, it was headed low and well saved by the goalkeeper.
Rossington had looked to be fairly ineffective for the first hour of the match but arguably had their best chance of the game as Brooks was only able to parry a Rossington effort towards the centre of his goal and when a goal looked certain for Rossington, Ben Bowring was able to heroically clear the ball off the line to keep the game at 0-0.
Shortly after Ollerton could’ve nicked one at the other end an Shaw whipped a ball to the back post but Carter wasn’t able to make contact for what would’ve been a certain goal.
Rossington continued to press forward against an increasingly vulnerable Ollerton defence and a relatively unchallenged Lee Holmes will have been disappointed to head over from just a few yards out.
In the 86th minute Rossington eventually broke the deadlock after a decisive counter-attack. Curtis Mann got away at pace and he was able to muscle Bowring off the ball on the left wing before cutting inside and calmly slotting past Brooks.
Ollerton threw everything at Rossington in the final stages of the game but they were unable to find an equaliser and slipped to a disappointing first defeat of 2018.
While the result itself was disappointing, the overall performance was enough to gain at least a draw and Ollerton can still be optimistic off the back of recent performances.