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Ossett Albion produce stunning fightback to keep survival hopes alive
Ossett Albion 4 Radcliffe Borough 2
RELEGATION-threatened Ossett Albion showed that there's still plenty of fight left in them after securing a first win in eleven outings with a sensational performance against high-flying Radcliffe last night.
Eric Gilchrist's men looked set for another UniBond Division 1 North defeat as they trailed 2-0 at half-time at a rain-soaked Warehouse Systems Stadium.
But a superb second-half turnaround gave Albion a much-needed three points, and a much-needed confidence boost to boot.
The match was one of just a handful that beat the heavy rainfall throughout the UniBond League and credit must go to Albion groundsman John Hirst for getting the pitch in a playable state.
And, despite the less-than-ideal conditions, both sides put on an entertaining display of football.
The first-half belonged almost completely to Radcliffe Borough, who have been freescoring of late, but they were hugely assisted by a brace of Albion errors that helped the visitors to a 2-0 cushion at half-time.
In the visitors' first real attack Ben Wharton smashed a long-range effort towards goal and the shot slipped through Albion stopper Ben Saynor's hands and into the back of the net.
The Albion stopper found Wharton to be a real handful in the first half and conceded a penalty for a foul on the Radcliffe attacker after a sloppy back-pass by Lee Connor left him stranded.
Eddie Stanford converted the penalty to double the visitors' lead and leave Albion with a mountain to climb.
Gilchrist's men rarely threatened the Radcliffe goal, a Chris White shot which flashed wide of goal being the best chance in a half to forget for the hosts.
But whatever the Albion boss said to his troops at the interval certainly worked as the hosts looked a completely different team on the resumption.
The Dimple Wells club haven't scored four in a fixture all season but they went goal crazy in a 12-minute purple patch to turn the game completely on its head.
Ten minutes after the restart Jason Bentley reduced the arrears when he fired an effort through a sea of players to give Albion hope.
It got better barely four minutes later when Lee Connor drilled in the equaliser from a Michael Senior corner kick.
Senior was a key cog in Albion's turnaround and he put the hosts ahead when another corner kick drifted into the back of the net after the Radcliffe stopper got in a tangle with one of his defenders.
Albion's midfield general then drilled in a first-time shot from the edge of the box to give the hosts a two-goal cushion and complete a superb win.
Albion: Saynor, Jackson, Cook, White, Connor, Riordan, Senior, Parker, Hamlet, Bentley, James. Subs: Thornton, Popplewell, Campagna, Hobbs, Hague.
See Friday's Wakefield Express Sport for all the latest sports news from around the district.
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Weather for Wakefield
Saturday 19 May 2012
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Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 10 C
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