N C East Prem Div                                   Sat 04 February 2006

ARMTHORPE WELFARE                 1        GLASSHOUGHTON WELFARE                  0

DESPITE CONTINUING IN A POSITIVE FRAME WELFARE WERE CRUELLY ROBBED OF A DESERVED SHARE OF THE SPOILS, SUCCUMBING TO A ‘SOFT’ GOAL IN THE CLOSING MINUTES.

Manager Steve Learoyd, still ringing the changes to find a winning formula, welcomed back veteran defender Paul Mattison to the heart of a defence that was under early pressure from a lively home attack.

After the initial sorties both teams settled to play some good football on a typical bumpy mid season surface but despite a lot of promise neither keeper was rarely called upon to effect any real save, although the visitors had a let off when home striker Clint Marcelle headed over from a perfect cross and Glasshoughton’s Simon Brooker forced home keeper Gary Strephan to turn over a downward header.

From the interval restart both teams continued to cancel each other out and in a frustrating period Glasshoughton conceded a series of unnecessary free kicks which kept them under pressure.  As the game progressed Welfare began to enjoy a slight edge and Armthorpe were relived to see an Andy Seed shot take a wicked deflection and spin round the upright for a corner kick.  In a quick break away Lee Parker hit the fiercest shot of the game, which looked goal, bound all the way until Strephan finger tipped over.

As the game went in to the closing stages both teams looked to have settled for a share of the points but on 85 minutes following a corner kick a miss-hit punt forward from Armthorpe’s Giovanni Charchedi somehow evaded a number of defenders to finish in the back of the net, and despite a final effort the visitors were unable to retrieve the situation.