Skegness Return to the Coast With Three Points!

Ollerton Town slipped to a somewhat harsh 3-0 defeat at the hands of Skegness Town on Saturday in one of a handful of games in the Northern Counties East League to survive the weather.

The visitors took the lead just before the interval after what had been a fairly even opening forty-five but a red card for Ollerton early in the second period changed the complete dynamic of the fixture with Skegness being able to pick Ollerton off on the counter-attack late into the game.

The early exchanges brought back memories of Ollerton's recent trip to Emley with extreme heavy wind taking hold any ball sent into the air. Both teams struggled to adapt to the conditions with an ambitious long range effort from the visiting William Britton being the only shot attempted in the opening forty minutes.

The first half had been rather uneventful and it looked inevitable that the match was set to be all square, but the second shot of the game saw Britton’s low shot squirm under James Leverton in what were wet and windy conditions before Gary King poked home at the back post into an open net on the stroke of half time.

Ollerton could remain optimistic going into the second half as there appeared to be little between the two teams based on the first half display, but this optimism was drained away as Chris Timmons received his marching orders just three minutes into the second period for an alleged elbow.

Dave Winter’s men reacted well to going down to ten men and almost levelled just a few minutes later as Liam Cooper looked set to fire home in the aftermath of a corner but Ben Sibbick blocked on the line to protect Skegness’s slender one goal lead.

Ollerton were then provided with another opportunity to draw level just before the hour mark as Gav King was chopped down in the box and a penalty was duly awarded. Captain Sam Stretton stepped up but his well struck penalty to the bottom right corner was impressively pushed onto the post by James Lambley.

Ollerton continued to push forward and made the late switch of bringing on Ellis Wright in favour of Alex Sennett but the resilient Skegness defence held strong.

Skegness’ fragile one goal lead remained until the dying embers of the game but eventually the visitors were able to take advantage of an Ollerton side who were chasing the game as substitute Jordan Smith finished off an incisive counter to finish the game in the 86th minute.

With Ollerton deflated and still committing men forward, the visitors then struck a second on the counter through Joshua Morrall to send Skegness into a three goal lead, a scoreline that perhaps reflected harshly on Ollerton given the balance of play.