Report by North Derbyshire Radio’s David Bell.
In a performance that was chalk and cheese to an excellent Tuesday evening display against Pinxton FC, Dronfield Town were soundly beaten at home to playoff challengers Stapleford Town. Despite the hosts only being a goal down at half time, the Nottinghamshire side ran in four unanswered goals in the second forty five minutes to claim an emphatic 5-0 victory. Max Taylor started the rout in the first half with George Harrison, David Olatomide, Aaron Lamb and Jack Messom compounding the misery for Dronfield. Town need to pick themselves up immediately as another playoff-seeking side, South Normanton Athletic, are the visitors to the Stonelow Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The tone of the game was set in the opening minute. Stapleford’s Lewis Clough took a punt from deep which missed the target but signalled their intentions from the off.
The twelfth minute mark saw Stapleford use a neat short corner routine that saw Max Taylor turn and shoot left footed that brought out an excellent low stop from Dronfield’s Lewis Naylor.
The pressure continued. A left flank delivery from Cian Lyon led to Naylor tipping over the bar from Charlie Jackson’s sidefoot and Dronfield suffered a blow on 18 minutes. Tom Gladwin, making his 200th appearance for the club, suffered a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Joe Turner.
Stapleford took the lead shortly after. It was Max Taylor once again, who had time to pick his spot and his low left footed drive beat Lewis Naylor into the bottom corner of the goal to make it 1-0 to the visitors.
Dronfield shuffled the pack on the half hour mark with Callum Mawbey moving from the left hand side of defence up into attack but it had little impact as Dronfield were relieved to go in at the break only a goal behind.
Any expected reaction to going down following the half time team talk didn’t materialise. Dronfield rang the changes once more with Alex Appleyard and Connor Chapell replacing Arran Bovill and Matty Ord as well as Max Hatton coming on for Charlie Stewart, who had also picked up a knock but the only thing that materialised was yellow cards for Dan White and Dan Shelbourne.
Stapleford got their second on 66 minutes. As the visitors pressed forward, the ball was fed back to George Harrison, who made no mistake from the edge of the box, despatching the ball into the bottom corner at 2-0.
The trickle of goals soon became a flood. Four minutes later, Stapleford substitute David Olatomide found himself clean through and had the easy task of slotting past Lewis Naylor for the third of the afternoon.
A mere four more minutes elapsed when they got their fourth. Olatomide crashed the ball against the crossbar but Aaron Lamb was on had to stroke home the follow-up to make it 4-0 and the points were wrapped up in the 80th minute.
Dronfield’s defence was found wanting again and another Stapleford substitute, this time Jack Messom, was left to put the ball into the net and conclude the scoring for the afternoon at 5-0.
This was clearly a game that Dronfield need to park and move on. They have demonstrated that they have the ability to be competitive in the UCL despite the occasional blip like Saturday’s. The opportunity to put things right comes quickly with the visit of South Normanton Athletic to the Stonelow Stadium on Tuesday evening. The Shiners were Central Midlands Premier South champions last season and currently occupy the final playoff place so another challenging fixture undoubtedly awaits.
Dronfield Town: Naylor, Vardy, Mawbey, Stewart, Shelbourne, Gladwin, Ord, Bovill, Rhodes, White, Bancroft. Subs: Pashley, Hatton, Chapell, Turner, Appleyard.
Stapleford Town: Brown, Clough, Lyon, Howes, Sharman, Hales, Lamb, Upton, Taylor, Harrison, Jackson. Subs: Cassady, Russell, Kruk, Messom, Olatomide.
Attendance: 103
