Ollerton Bounce Back to Beat Bolsover

Report by William Lavelle.

After their first loss of 2018 last week against Rossington Main, Ollerton Town were able to respond well with a fairly comfortable 1-0 win over a hard working Bolsover side.
Ollerton manager Dave Winter went into the game with depleted options due to injury with key players such as Brandon Shaw, Sam Stretton, Lewis Bingham and Gav King all unavailable but he was able to welcome back George Pearce and Gaz Armstrong who were both long-time absentees. New signing Joey McCormack made his second debut for the club in goal.
Bolsover looked to sit back early in an attempt to absorb the Ollerton pressure but they arguably should’ve been 1-0 down after 10 minutes as Mark Carter saw his effort controversially ruled out. Sean Dickinson played the ball across to Carter who was able to strike the ball first time past Bolsover keeper Ryan Hopkins but Carter’s effort was ruled out for a suspect offside which supporters of both teams questioned.
Bolsover had a degree of success from long balls into the channels but neither team was really able to take control of the game in the first half, aside from a few half chances. William Harcourt found himself relatively unchallenged from a Bolsover free kick but his header was easily saved by McCormack and Carter saw his glancing header saved comfortably by Hopkins as the half ended all square.
The second half turned out to be a far more entertaining affair and it was Bolsover who looked more dangerous early with continued from wide areas. Oliver Perry was key to Bolsover’s encouraging start to the second half and his cross from the left wing was headed towards goal by Jake Ashton and it looked to have beaten McCormack, but Ashton’s header fortunately hit the post and went just wide.
Ollerton responded well to a poor start to the half and started to push the Bolsover defence further back and eventually reaped the rewards for their pressure as Sam West was able to break the deadlock in the 58th minute. Kyle Ludlow whipped a ball in from the left wing and wingback West was able to meet the cross and direct it past Hopkins to score a rare goal and give Ollerton a deserved lead.
Ollerton really started to dominate play after getting the first goal as Bolsover were struggling to get out, but Ollerton often overplayed the ball and attempted to be slightly too clever with their play instead of looking to kill the game off.
Ollerton had a few half chances throughout the half but almost squandered their one goal advantage when Joseph Bayne struck the ball across goal and towards the back post but Josh Thomas was unable to make contact with the ball when presented with the open goal.
This win continued Ollerton’s positive start to 2018 with a third win from five games to move Ollerton up to 13th to keep the momentum going as they look to secure a top half finish in their second season in the NCEL.