Dronfield Town finally got the reward their recent performances have merited with a hard-fought 1-0 victory on the road at Beverley Town. An 84th minute strike from substitute Matt Crowe summed up yet another never-say-die display for the Derbyshire outfit, who climb to 13th and 10 points clear of the relegation zone in the Northern Counties East League Division One. The game suffered a rather chaotic ending with two dismissals and a disallowed second for Dronfield but it is the men from S18 who head into a Tuesday night encounter at Harrogate Railway Athletic much the happier for their afternoon’s endeavours.
Dronfield gave a debut to former Blackpool FC player Cameron Hill and he had an almost immediate impact. After just 5 minutes, Callum Mawbey’s header was laid off by Sam Bebbington to Hill, who fired over the bar.
Hill and Dronfield took the game to Beverley in the opening 15 minutes but the hosts started to find their feet shortly afterwards.
Scott Phillips flick on saw Lewis Naylor having to save from Joe McFadyen at close quarters and just two minutes later, Harry Griffin’s shot from the edge of the area was deflected past the post with Naylor scrambling to cover.
Naylor again came to Dronfield’s rescue on 33 minutes when a short pass from Phillips to Griffin saw the visiting stopper make a great save to his right hand side.
A competitive first half saw Beverley’s Joe McFadyen and Dronfield’s Callum Mawbey collect yellow cards and Dronfield boss Chris Millington also went into the book for dissent as officialdom rather superceded events on the field.
Having weathered everything Beverley could throw at them in the first half, Dronfield visibly grew in the second half. After the host’s Olly Baldwin fired over on 51 minutes, it was Dronfield’s turn to push forward.
On 59 minutes, Joe Pearson turned his man inside out before bringing out a useful save from Beverley’s Ben Voase, Cameron Hill just missing out on the follow up.
Callum Mawbey burst free down the left on 62 minutes, his low cross just evading a sliding Sam Bebbington in the 6 yard box.
Mawbey repeated the feat 3 minutes later, pulling the ball back to the penalty spot, where Hill placed his sidefooted effort just past Voase’s far post.
Naylor again came to the men in red and black’s rescue on 73 minutes, saving at point blank range as Beverley underlined the competitive nature of the encounter.
The deadlock was broken on 84 minutes by the visitors. Beverley protested that Dronfield substitute Matt Crowe was offside from a flick on but the striker had the presence of mind to round the keeper and slip the ball home from close range to give his side the lead.
The game descended into chaos in the closing minutes. Beverley’s Reece Moody saw red for a high tackle and the East Yorkshire side had striker Scott Phillips sin-binned just inside added time as the officials struggled to keep control.
Dronfield almost claimed a second four minutes into added time. Crowe stumbled over the ball but managed to stab it forward to Sam Bebbington, who fired cooly home only for the goal to be ruled out despite no apparent flag from the assistant referee.
Another 100% shift from Dronfield finally brought its just rewards with the three points breaking a five game losing streak in the league. Town return to action on Tuesday evening, making the lengthy journey to third place Harrogate Railway, who are looking to embed themselves in the playoffs at least for a second season running.
Beverley Town: Voase, Knaggs, Heward, Griffin, Plummer, Piercy, Start, Ofori, Phillips, McFadyen, Baldwin. Subs: Moody, Adams, Stafford, Stone, Onyaka.
Dronfield Town: Naylor, Riley, Gladwin, Fereday, Wright, Hatton, Adams, Mawbey, Bebbington, Hill C, Pearson. Subs: Hill S, Siddons, Knight I, Knight C, Crowe.
Attendance: 206
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