Sleaford Town 1 - Deeping Rangers 2

The Greens were very much in the ascendancy during the first half at a rainy Longwater Stadium even after falling behind to Elliott Foster’s 5th minute opener. Dominic Kew’s expertly dispatched equaliser was the least the Greens deserved at the break but a lacklustre second period ultimately saw them fall to Dan Dougill’s scrappy winner early in the second half.

The Greens didn’t get off to the best of starts at a rainy and cold Longwater Stadium and found themselves 1-0 down inside five minutes when Matt Carter’s long sweeping ball forward evaded everyone bar Elliott Foster, who was on hand to calmy slot beyond the onrushing Liam Flitton to put this visitors in front. That setback did not deter the Greens and they soon went about trying to find a leveller and were mightily unlucky when Ryan Lennon shrugged off his marker to swivel and release a shot that was well blocked by the sprawling Aaron Butcher.

At the other end, the Greens were still looking vulnerable in tough, slippery conditions and Liam Flitton was lively to produce an excellent hand to tip Callum Davies’ powerful drive around the post before, from the resulting corner, Avelino Vieira was very nearly the beneficiary of an uncharacteristic slip from Liam Flitton who just managed to recover in time to steal the ball away from the Deeping attacker. That served as the wake-up call that the Greens needed and they were soon level when the ball fell to Dom Kew on the edge of the area and he set the ball out and curled a wonderful effort right into the top right hand corner of the net.

From there, the Greens took control of the game and some in the ground thought that Jacob Fenton had snatched the lead for the hosts when his free kick rippled the wrong side of the net before Fenton turned provider, this time for Sebastian Robbemond to blast well over the crossbar from a favourable angle. Then Dom Kew very nearly produced a carbon copy of his leveller five minutes from half time, the ball again falling to him on the edge of the box, but this time he swept his effort just over the crossbar instead.

Despite that relative first half domination, the Greens were soon to fall behind just after the break once again. The warning signs were there when Flitton was required to acrobatically tip Elliott Foster’s effort over the crossbar, before Foster regrouped to deliver the corner that was bundled home at close range by Dan Dougill to put Rangers back in front. From here, the Greens struggled against the conditions and a gritty opponent and really failed to properly trouble Butcher in the Deeping goal.

Siddons tried the spectacular from Fenton’s chest down but could only power well over the crossbar while Fenton’s tame header from Don Kew’s cross was easily scooped up by Butcher. It was Fenton again a few minutes later who did well to cut inside into space but could only find Butcher again with a curling effort before the Deeping keeper was up to pluck a Tom Siddons effort out of the air. From here, the Greens huffed and puffed but never really created any chances of note, leaving Deeping the relatively simple task of seeing out three points that took them above the Greens and into the play-off places in Premier Division North.

The Greens will now immediately look forward to another huge United Counties League Premier Division North Lincolnshire derby, as Lincoln United visit the Longwater Stadium – kick-off on Saturday is set for 3PM.

Words: Oliver Atkin