For the second week running, Dronfield Town were edged out by one of the Northern Counties East League Division One front runners. A competitive fixture played out at the HE Barnes Stadium with goals from Rossington Main’s Adam Baskerville and Ross Hannah giving them a 2-1 victory after Connor Chapell’s penalty inspired a nailbiting finish to the game. Rossington rise to third in the table and Dronfield fall to ninth, albeit with only seven points separating the sides in third to tenth in the league.
Dronfield opened the brighter of the two sides. A Matty Ord long throw-in from the right hand side saw Sam Bebbington place his close range header just over the bar after only 2 minutes of play.
It was Rossington’s 21 goal strike pairing that got them off the mark in the 15th minute however. Former Matlock Town and Bradford City striker Ross Hannah produced the deftest of touches to free the prolific Adam Baskerville, who calmly stroked the ball past Lewis Naylor to make it 0-1.
Dronfield’s best efforts of the half came from set pieces. Ord’s corner in the 25th minute saw Dronfield skipper Stuart Hill go down in the box and amid the protestations, Aran Bovill headed into the hands of Rossington keeper Kain Johnson.
Six minutes later Bovill came up with a useful glancing header from another of Ord’s corners that whistled just wide of the far post.
The half concluded with Rossington substitute Jamie Green putting a left footed effort just past Naylor’s post having received the ball out on the left hand side.
The second half was an incident-packed affair.
Rossington doubled their lead 6 minutes after the restart. Dronfield right back Callum Riley was adjudged to have pulled back Green in the area with the referee pointing to the spot. The veteran striker Hannah stepped up to place the spot kick into the bottom corner with his left foot to make it 0-2.
Dronfield were motivated to stage a comeback after the early blow of the penalty. An Ord free kick from the left caused havoc in the area, the ball eventually falling to 7 goal top scorer Callum Mawbey, whose left footed attempt was beaten away by Johnson.
Dronfield did pull one back a minute later however. This time the referee decided that Rossington’s Gary Mundy had handled in the box and awarded the penalty kick to Dronfield. Town’s Connor Chapell placed his left footed kick to Johnson’s right to make it 1-2.
A series of contentious decisions came to a head on 66 minutes when Dronfield substitute Mark Fereday, himself only on the field for 8 minutes, was sent to the sin bin leaving the home side down to 10 men.
Dronfield weathered the storm until he returned but had Lewis Naylor to thank that the scoreline didn’t increase. He made point blank stops from Rossington’s Danny Deakin and substitute Manny Kianga and then spectacularly tipped away another goal-bound effort from Deakin to keep Town in the game.
Dronfield almost secured a point in added time. After his exploits in goal, Naylor went up for a corner. The ball fell to substitute Owen Lester at the edge of the area whose dipping shot came off the angle of crossbar and post and unfortunately for Dronfield, away to safety.
Despite the back to back losses, Dronfield have been competitive in both encounters and will now look to get back on track with the visit of bottom side Parkgate, themselves remarkable 6-0 victors over Nostell, next Saturday.
Dronfield Town: Naylor, Riley, Stewart, Mike Fereday, Hill, Bovill, Chapell, Pearson, Mawbey, Bebbington, Ord. Subs: Lester, Siddons, Knight, Mark Fereday, Gladwin.
Rossington Main: Johnson, Sherbon, Slater, King, Mundy, Young, Sheppard, Buckham, Baskerville, Hannah, Deakin. Subs: Green, Harrison, Kianga, Kitchen, Bell.
Attendance: 96
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