Ollerton End League Season With A Win!

Ollerton Town ended the 2017-2018 NCEL Division One season as they started, with a victory at home, as they survived a late Selby Town fightback to record an impressive 3-2 win.
The home side looked to be more effective early on but struggled to create an abundance of chances. Thankfully in the 27th minute they were gifted an opportunity as a poor goal kick from Selby goalkeeper Christopher Barratt was pounced upon by Gav King and Ollerton’s top goal scorer easily fired into the net from close range to give his side the lead.
It was important for Selby to respond well to conceding the first goal but within two minutes of conceding the first, Lewis Bingham was fouled inside the box to give Ollerton the chance to double their lead. Gav King took the responsibility and calmly struck past Barratt for his 26th goal of an impressive individual season.
King threatened to complete his hat-trick in the first half but this time it was Barratt who came out on top as King’s volleyed effort stung the gloves of the Selby shot stopper to keep the visitors firmly in the game.
Selby threatened late on in the half but Liam Flanagan, who has been in superb form for Selby all season, didn’t have one of his finest days in front of goal. He outmuscled Moody down the left wing but saw his effort on goal from the tight angle well saved by Ollerton’s Joey McCormack before, only a minute later, he squandered a clear goal scoring chance with a poor left footed shot.
The visitors had endured quite a passive first half but came out with renewed belief in the second half and looked to be a far more threatening outfit. Flanagan once again had the chance to get Selby back in the game as he was in the perfect position to receive Dale’s cutback but he blazed over from close range.
Selby had started to grow more and more into the second half with most of the game being played in the Ollerton half however with just over ten minutes to go, the hosts seemingly killed the game with a third goal. The versatile and ever-reliable Callam Atkinson, who had only made the starting line up due to a late injury to Kyle Ludlow, got on the end of Sam Stretton’s lofted ball to the back post before heading over the onrushing Barratt.
Ollerton looked to be in complete control of the game at 3-0 but the score line forced Selby to go for it with the play-off hopefuls seemingly changing to a very attacking, front four.
Their all-out attacking mentality paid off with 8 minutes to go as Selby’s captain Gary Collier fired past McCormack to cut Ollerton’s lead to two.
Selby then had the ball in the back of the net again but were denied by an offside decision much to the relief of the Ollerton faithful.
Only a minute later however, Jordan Snodin converted from a corner to halve the deficit to just one, leaving those of an Ollerton persuasion very nervous with only a few minutes left on the clock.
Winter’s men looked content to sit back in an attempt to hold on to all three points but they were nearly saw the victory slip from their hands but thankfully Flanagan could only direct his late header against the crossbar.
In the end, Ollerton held on for a deserved win which saw them end the league campaign on a high ahead of Wednesday night’s cup fixture at home to Grimsby Borough.