Report by North Derbyshire Radio’s David Bell
Two late goals saw Dronfield Town slip to defeat at home to playoff-seeking FCV Grace Dieu in their latest UCL Division One fixture. Town matched the Leicestershire-based side for long periods but two lapses in play allowed chances for Cornelious Olajide-Oriowo and Nathan Linden that they took to secure the three points. Back-to-back defeats sees Town slip to 13th in the table ahead of a journey to 8th ranked Dunkirk FC next Saturday.
Although both sides played some neat football in the first 45 minutes, chances were at a premium. The early stages were played out in the Dronfield half and it took fully five minutes before the first Town attack resulted in a Matty Ord corner.
Dronfield’s pressing game seemed to un-nerve the Academy outfit – Arthur Pashley catching the eye on several occasions and his cross was cut out by Lorcan Morrissey in the Grace Dieu goal after 15 minutes.
The first real shot of the game didn’t come until the 23rd minute when Matty Ord blasted well over the bar from the edge of the box as the neat football continued but the chances didn’t.
A few niggly challenges saw Grace Dieu’s Ernest Osaretin and Dronfield’s Matty Ord go into the book and Grace Dieu’s best effort of the half came when Cornelious Olajide-Oriowo dinked over the bar from close range.
The second half had a great deal more incident. Only four minutes had elapsed when Lorcan Morrissey appeared to have handled outside his area but neither the referee or his linesman had any interest in Dronfield’s claims.
Just short of the hour mark, Sam Bebbington headed into Morrissey’s hands at the back post from Connor Chapell’s deep corner and on 67 minutes, Dan Shelbourne’s turn and shot from 6 yards out was turned round the post by the busy Grace Dieu stopper.
Dronfield introduced Luke Walker from the bench in place of Bebbington and he had an immediate impact, winning a couple of useful flick-ons. 74 minutes had gone when the striker’s overhead kick went just wide of the goal from 6 yards out.
The visitors were never out of the contest however and they broke the deadlock on 77 minutes. Grace Dieu broke fast after Dronfield had turned over possession and despite Cornelious Olajide-Oriowo coming under challenge from Tom Gladwin, his shot had enough power to reach the back of the net and make it 1-0.
The second goal came just three minutes later. Again Dronfield played themselves into trouble in a defensive area allowing Grace Dieu substitute Nathan Linden to get his shot off from 12 yards out that cannoned off the post and into the goal at 2-0.
Dronfield went to their bench in a quadruple substitution that saw Gladwin, Ord, Chapell and Reardon leave the game to be replaced by Simpkins, Butchart, Appleyard and McKenzie-Grey but their introduction was too late to have any major impact and it was the visitors who left with 3 points.
Town drop one place to 13th as a result of their second successive defeat. Nine games remain in the UCL season remain for Chris Millington’s team to achieve their best possible finish, starting with a trip to Nottingham next Saturday to take on 8th placed Dunkirk FC. Dronfield were 4-1 winners in their last encounter but the Notts side have improved dramatically since then so another tough game is on the cards.
Dronfield Town: Naylor, Reardon, Gladwin, Watters, Shelbourne, Mawbey, Chapell, Bovill, Pashley, Bebbington, Ord. Subs: Appleyard, Butchart, McKenzie-Grey, Simpkins, Walker.
FCV Grace Dieu: Morrissey, Al-Oyouni, Ahmed, Merrick, Lindley, Halliday, Olajide-Oriowo, Elekwa, Osaretin, Weir-Daley, Hallaci. Subs: Linden, Turrell, Gaye, Farouq.
Attendance: 67
Image: Michael South Photography
