Improved Greens Undone By Ashby Sucker-Punch

The Greens were certainly improved from Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of Kimberley Miners Welfare but were undone once in each half by an in-form Ivanhoe side as Sam Grouse’s penalty and Will Mansfield’s close-range header did the damage on a damp night in Lincolnshire.

Player/Managers Tom Ward and Nathan Arnold made three changes from the side disappointingly defeated 3-1 by Kimberley Miners Welfare on Saturday afternoon, the headline of which saw Arnold himself start for the first time since his November arrival at The MKM Ground. The other two fresh faces saw duel-registered Finlay Armond return to action in a Greens shirt while central-defender Latrell Patterson also returned to the starting-line up after setting up Saturday’s consolation goal. The trio to drop out of the side were Ryan Flitton, Ryan Lennon and Sebastian Robbemond who all dropped to places amongst the substitutes bench. Visitors Ashby Ivanhoe meanwhile were 4-1 victors over Wisbech Town on Saturday afternoon and they made three changes from that side with Leavi Oshungbure, Benjamin Bradshaw and Will Groocock dropping out the side. Their places were taken by Charlie Adcock, William Robson and Jack Robinson.

It was the visitors who began the brightest and could well have led inside three minutes, Liam Flitton required to be behind Sam Grouse’s effort after he’d been sent through by Chris Acott. It was that ball over the top that was proving the most profitable outlet for the visitors, Grouse again sent through by a long sweeping ball from Harry Stewart – again he found Liam Flitton in fine form, the Greens keeper saving with his feet this time.

At the other end and the Greens finally forced a chance of the own, Akeel Francis working space before blasting over under pressure from Jake Conkay before Tristan Drummond was alive defensively to deny the lively Grouse with a fine close-range block. The visitors deserved breakthrough did arrive shortly after though after a coming together between Tom Ward and Sam Grouse in the box, and the latter dusted himself down to step up and send Liam Flitton the wrong way from the spot. The Greens did begin to find some passages of play and could have been level when Tom Ward crashed a header just over the bar from Tristan Drummond’s corner – but that was ultimately the closest the Greens came to a first half response.

It didn’t take long for things to get lively early in the second half when a scuffle broke out just two minutes into the half which ended with Charlie Ward in the book and Tom Ward, along with Ashby’s Liam Storher, sent for an early bath. At 10 vs. 10, the Greens did generate probably their finest opportunity to date when Gregg Smith knocked on for Ryan Flitton to flash an effort across goal, but the Greens soon made things hard for themselves as Finlay Armond and Charlie Ward were both sent to the sin-bin within an couple of minutes of each other, leaving the Greens with just eight men on the field.

The eight men did a commendable job in keeping Ashby at bay though, Ryan Flitton doing well to block Charlie Adcock’s effort before Sam Grouse, eager for a second, smashed just over the crossbar from an acute angle. The introduction of Ryan Lennon injected fresh impetus into the Greens and he forced a fine save out of visiting keeper Sam Taylor before Harry Stewart was in the right place to hook the lose ball off the line. It was Lennon again a few minutes later who was denied in similar fashion, this time he did beat Taylor’s despairing dive only to find the body of Will Mansfield in the way to block on the line before back at the other end, Charlie Adcock teed up Grouse to sweep inches wide of the post. Nevertheless though, the visitors soon did wrap the contest up and it was a simple enough job for Will Mansfield to head home Josh Thomas’ corner at the near post to wrap up a deserved victory for the visitors.

The Greens attentions now turn swiftly to third home game of the week when Eastwood Community visit The MKM Ground in United Counties League Premier Division North action on Saturday afternoon. Kick-off is set for 3PM.

Words: Oliver Atkin