Sleaford exit FA Vase in Clipstone Sleaford Town played out a 4-0 defeat to Clipstone FC, with goals from Riley Hodgkinson, Tom Fleet, Rob Scope, and Kyle Bacon. Manager Matt Evans made three changes to the side that faced Retford FC on Tuesday night, with Elod Nadasdi, Andy Whalen and debutant Joe Nicholson coming in for the injured Ewan Dobson, as well as the absent Riley Wilkinson and Ben Ashall.

Sleaford started the stronger of the two sides, with Lewis Greenfield having an early opportunity after a flick from Lewis Rowland, turning his man and having a pop-shot at goal which trickled wide. However, the home side started to come into the game with two chances at goal, the first of which a shot which landed high over the bar, and the second a driven corner, which met an attacker, whose shot narrowly missed the top corner.

With 25 minutes gone, Harrison Ainslie was sent to have treatment after a cut on his arm. With 10 men, Sleaford had to dig deep to try to cut out the Clipstone attack, but it wasn’t successful. After an attacker was sent through, Jonasz Gadomski made a good save to deny an opener, but less than a minute later, Hodgkinson was set through on goal, and slotted it past the Sleaford ‘keeper, opening the scoring.

Then, right before half-time, a long throw met Fleet, who took a touch under pressure and slotted it underneath Gadomski and doubling the Cobras’ lead. The second half was dominated by Clipstone, as they worked well to stop any counter-attacks Sleaford worked on, and slowing the game down with professional fouls. With all this pressure, the Cobras started banging on the door as they looked for a valuable third.

Gadomski was called into making a very big double save, the first being a shot slapped away from a header across goal, and the second a long-range strike, which the keeper saved brilliantly to his right. With 15 to play, Clipstone had their third. A corner was hit into a body of players, and was met by Scope into the back of the net, wheeling away in celebration with a debut goal for the defender. Sleaford showed signs of intent late on, with substitute James Twigg having a good shot deflected behind for a corner, which was well dealt with by the Clipstone defence.

In the depths of added time, a corner from Clipstone met the head of Bacon, who flicked it into the back of the net from a tight angle.

With the full-time whistle being blown, the Greens saw themselves sink out of the FA Vase, with their intentions turning to a trip to West Bridgford on Tuesday night, set for a 7:45pm kick off.

Match report by Finley Smithson