Pontefract Collieries improve attacking options in thrilling victory but 10-man Frickley Athletic lose out

Pontefract Collieries player-coach Gavin Rothery was pleased with his side's attacking play against Yorkshire Amateur.

Goals from Mikey Dunn, Joe Lumsden, Luke Hinsley and a Jack Lazenby penalty clinched a 4-3 win over mid-table Yorkshire Amateur and Colls are now 12 points above third from bottom Sheffield with six games left to play in the Pitching In Northern Premier League East.

It was Ponte’s first win in five games and they were much improved going forward against opponents who had beaten them 1-0 earlier in the season.

“It was an entertaining game, lots of goals and quite open at times,” said Colls player-coach Gavin Rothery.

“We tried to give the lads more offensive options and we did that, scoring four goals. We just need to find that balance now. Recently we had not been conceding many, but struggling to score a little bit and create chances.

“We’d not won for a while and had a couple of draws in there. We’ve looked pretty solid, but we needed to get the win and finish the season strong.

“We want to get back into winning habits and hopefully build towards the end of the season and take that into next year as well.”

Pontefract face a tough task to back up their win this Saturday as they travel to take on in-form Cleethorpes Town who are heading for the end of season play-offs.

Cleethorpes proved too strong for Frickley Athletic last Saturday, winning 3-0. However, all their goals came in the second half after they had been tested in the opening 45 minutes.

Frickley defended superbly to frustrate their free scoring hosts until the gamebreaking moment six minutes into the second half when Jack McMenemy netted from close range after an initial effort had hit the post.

The Blues had several strong shouts for penalties waved away and after one of them, for a handball, Nathan Perks made his feelings known to the referee and was sent-off.

By that stage Cleethorpes had recently gone two up through Jordon Cooke’s header from a corner and Dave Frecklington’s men were left with a mountain to climb.

The home team rubbed salt into the wound with an injury-time goal from Scott Vernon.

“Really proud of my players today, especially going down to 10 men again,” said manager Frecklington.

“They’ve given everything. Congratulations to Cleethorpes, proper football team and top management to boot.”

The defeat saw Frickley drop down a place to 15th in the table and they now face a crunch game at home to second from bottom Lincoln United this Saturday.

Challenging: Pontefract Collieries’ Mikey Dunn (above) challenges for the ball against a Yorkshire Amateur player. Below, left-back Ben Turner looks to get the ball forward. Pictures: Scott Merrylees