Ollerton Edged Out in Shirebrook derby

Report by William Lavelle.

Ollerton Town performed with credit but were unfortunately edged out by their promotion-chasing local rivals, Shirebrook Town, in a 2-1 defeat. Shirebrook have struggled in recent games against Ollerton but came in to this fixture on the back of seven straight victories and as such were able to end their three game losing streak to Ollerton. Funnily enough, all of Ollerton's previous wins were by a 2-1 scoreline but they found themselves on the wrong end of that scoreline on Saturday afternoon.
The home side set a high tempo early on and were rewarded with a goal from their captain Chris Timons. Jordan Claxton whipped the ball into a dangerous area and Timons was relatively unchallenged at the near post and powered a header home to give Shirebrook an early advantage.
Shirebrook proceeded to get the better of the early exchanges as former Ollerton player Sam Dockwray had multiple chances to extend the Shirebrook lead. Dockwray pounced on a poor clearance in the six yard box but was denied by Joey McCormack and also hammered a volley towards goal from the edge of the box but was once again denied by McCormack.
Shirebrook looked to be in complete control in the early stages but were pegged back against the run of play through Ollerton’s star striker Gav King. An Ollerton free kick was knocked down towards King in the six yard box and the prolific forward easily converted his 24th of the season to pull Ollerton level.
King’s goal gave Ollerton the confidence to begin to grow into the game and look far more threatening going forward but they were unfortunately pegged back by Shirebrook player of the season Kieran Watson. Squires long kick was unfortunately headed towards the Ollerton goal by Eden Homer and Watson clinically finished to round off a hectic opening 25 minutes.
Ollerton continued to search for an equaliser late on in the half but were starved of clear cut opportunities due to Shirebrook’s compact defensive work. Ollerton had a chance to level the game as Sam Stretton poked a ball through to Kyle Ludlow but his volley was always rising just over the bar as Ollerton ended the first half facing a one goal deficit.
Ollerton started the second half in a positive manner as Shirebrook 'keeper Warren Squires dropped Lewis Bingham’s corner which then fell to Ben Bowring at the back post but the centre half couldn’t generate enough power on his header. There were claims of an alleged handball when Bowring’s header towards goal was blocked but these claims were waved away by the match officials.
Shirebrook had utilised a fairly direct approach from the opening whistle but became even more direct throughout the second half and took no risks in terms of the playing the ball out from their defence.
Shirebrook had chances to kill off the game but weren’t quite able to put the game beyond Ollerton. Watson was denied his brace as his flicked header to the far post was once again well saved by McCormack and Daniel Williams then had a chance as the ball broke to him from a corner but his close range of effort was blocked by a wall of Ollerton and Shirebrook bodies on the line.
Ollerton went in search of an equaliser late on and built up a large period of pressure but still struggled to create any clear cut chances. The in-form Shirebrook team were able to effectively manage the rest of the game in a professional manner and took the sting out of a game which had been played at a high tempo in the first half to see out their one goal victory.