Frickley Athletic vs Stocksbridge Park Steels

Recap

It wasn’t quite a Boxing Day Massacre but what a powerful display, particularly 2nd half. ‘Let’s Talk About’ Frecks reckons it might be the best display under his management – some statement that!!

Bit of a reshuffle as Nathan Hotte & Oli Valentine were unavailable.

A fairly cagey start to the game with both sides testing each other but The Azzurri opened the scoring on 13 minutes when a defensive mix up put Jonny Margs through on goal & The Surgeon doesn’t miss them. Within 3 minutes we were back at parity as SPS equalised from a mysteriously awarded free kick.

But then the Blues started to turn the screw & a Tom Davie (more of him shortly) corner was flicked on by Margs, only to hit the post & bounce to safety.

Just before half time, another corner. Can Big Dog Davie find Margs again? No, he can’t as his corner was hit with such power, dip & spin that the SPSMan Utd loanee keeper couldn’t hold it & it was in the onion bag (not you Jerry) for 2-1. In many ways that was the pivotal & turning point of the game as Les Bleus came out for the 2nd half with the volume turned up way past 11.

We completely neutralised the visitors threat & it was a question of how many, not if.

Haze broke set off on a run & split the defence with a pass to set up Margs who turned the defence & stroked it past the keeper for 3-1 on 69 minutes. We were camped in the opposition half from this point & on 80 minutes Tom Davie squared the ball for Brad Wells to power home for number 4.

As if that wasn’t bad enough for SPS; with 3 minutes remaining Frecks pulled off a like-for-like substitution when he replaced Haze with Kyle O’Reilly. Kyle gave us such an awesome display of power, skill & craft that he had to fend off a barrage of calls from La Liga & Serie A clubs after the game.

4-1 was the final score & what a way to end 2019!!

WEBMASTER MOTM – this could have gone to quite a few of the squad. The back line gave TJ another quiet afternoon but he dominated his box again – Todd Jordan was a dominant force in a well organised unit. Holli & Currie just ran through brick walls again. Up top The Surgeon, The GOAT & The Beast were unplayable at times. But I’m awarding the Glitterball to a player who scored one, made one, hardly put a foot wrong all arvo & got a smack in the dial that felled him in the first half but he just got up & smashed his next defensive header away as if nothing had happened – well done Tom Davie!!!

TWITTER POLL MOTM – just to show that scorers get all the glory; Jonny Margs & Brad Wells were neck & neck but The Surgeon just pipped it. Tyler polled well too with Todd Jordan just behind him. Thank to everyone who polled – please keep voting after every game. All the votes get collated towards the Player Of The Month award which I will be starting work on once I’ve necked this pint of Baileys (drink responsibly people)

223 through the gate, which is much more like the numbers we should be getting. Thank you to everyone who attended & don’t make it a one off, we’d love to see you all again.

Nearly a week off now – next up we are away to Worksop on New Years Day. You can tell Bono if won’t be quiet at that one!!!