Dronfield Town endured a frustrating afternoon at the HE Barnes Stadium, going down by 3-2 against Selby Town. Dronfield’s managerial trio of Chris Millington, Nick Siddons and Chris Bullock were unable to mark their 200th game in charge with a victory as Connor Qualter, Charlie Clamp and Liam Flanagan capitalised on the few chances that the visitors had to take all three points back to East Yorkshire. Callum Mawbey and Matty Ord were the Dronfield goalscorers and despite the pressure they brought to bear in the Selby half, they were unable to trouble Jody Barford in goal unduly. A trip to third placed league newcomers Horbury Town now awaits the North Derbyshire side.
After a bright opening, Dronfield found themselves on the back foot after only three minutes. Selby’s Harry Clapham stabbed the ball goalwards where it was headed home by Connor Qualter; the Dronfield faithful audibly claiming the Selby man was offside.
The goal stood however and the remainder of the forty five minutes saw Dronfield spend long periods in the Selby half but to no avail. Young striker James Lindores hit an inswinging free kick into the grateful arms of Barford on seventeen minutes but it took until the half hour mark until Dronfield threatened again.
Joe Pearson’s super delivery from the right flank evaded the Dronfield attack, in particular Callum Mawbey at the back post and this was followed up by Lindores in a similar fashion six minutes later; again no-one able to make contact from a useful cross.
A sustained spell of pressure concluded on forty two minutes when Mawbey failed to connect with a right footed swing at the ball after another decent right wing cross and things went from bad to worse for Dronfield in added time.
Flanagan broke free down the left hand side and passed to the top of the area where Charlie Clamp was on hand to rifle home and give Selby a 2-0 lead.
Dronfield withdrew Joe Pearson shortly after the restart for Matty Ord and the lift in the display was visible.
On fifty six minutes, the Derbyshire outfit pulled one back. A testing Charlie Stewart inswinging corner found a stooping Callum Mawbey, who expertly placed his free header into the back of the net to make it 1-2.
The game opened up as Dronfield chased an equaliser and Selby sought to exploit the space left behind. Flanagan had a twenty five yard free kick smothered by Lewis Naylor at the second attempt on sixty eight minutes and Dronfield followed that up two minutes later with a long range drive from Mawbey that just skipped past the far post.
Selby were reduced to ten men, albeit temporarily, on seventy three minutes when Henry Rollinson was sent to the sin bin. The ill-tempered passage of play continued as Flanagan and Morray for Selby and Dronfield’s Billy Wright also went into the referee’s notebook.
Dronfield’s failure to capitalise on the man advantage was exacerbated when Selby took a 1-3 lead two minutes from time. An error in defence saw Flanagan take the ball on and make no mistake in slotting past Naylor in the Dronfield goal.
Dronfield got a consolation five minutes into added time. A free kick on the corner of the box was finished through the crowd low into the bottom corner by Matty Ord but with the whistle blowing almost immediately after, it was Selby who took the three points on their journey home.
Dronfield head to league newcomers Horbury Town next Saturday. Despite the loss, Dronfield remain in eighth place ahead of the visit to the Wakefield-based outfit.
Dronfield Town: Naylor, Riley, Stewart, Lester, Wright, Bovill, Flower, Pearson, Bebbington, Mawbey, Lindores. Subs: Knight, Ord, Rooke, Crowe, Hill.
Selby Town: Barford, Rollinson, Clark, Morray, Gothard, Qualter, Fish, Stephenson, Flanagan, Clamp, Clapham. Subs: Ward, Cooper, Davison, Vass.
Attendance: 96
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