Frickley Athletic 1-0 Stourbridge

Despite having most of the play, particularly once Frickley had been reduced to ten men with almost half an hour to play, Stourbridge could not find a way past a determined Frickley defence.

Manager Gary Hackett made changes to the team from last Saturday's narrow win at home to Matlock Town. Leon Miles came in for his debut after signing from Chasetown in midweek, whilst Chris Knight and Will Richards returned after illness and suspension respectively. Drew Canavan (work commitments) and Reece Hales (injury) were unavailable.

After a quiet start to the game, with few real chances at either end, Luke Benbow headed over from a Leon Broadhurst corner on 20 minutes before Brian Smikle forced the first serious save of the game from Sam Leigh in the home goal four minutes later. Kayelden Brown played the ball through to Smikle who advanced before shooting, only to see Leigh dive low to his right to make a smart stop.

Frickley went close on 28 minutes with a dangerous ball across the box which was cleared at the far post for a corner, before the decisive moment of the match came on 31 minutes.

Miles was caught out by a through ball and the lively Reece Thompson advanced on goal, only for the Stourbridge man to bring him down from behind. There were no arguments about the award of a spot-kick, although perhaps surprisingly the referee did not produce a card of either colour for Miles. Matt Bloor, meanwhile, sent Dean Coleman the wrong way to open the scoring.

The Glassboys responded almost immediately with a Smikle shot deflected narrowly wide, and then Benbow saw his 35th minute free kick also deflected over the crossbar from the sort of position that would have had the absent Canavan licking his lips.

At the other end, John Cyrus might have done better with his header from a corner on the stroke of half time, but fortunately for the Glassboys the ball dropped onto the roof of the net with Coleman struggling.

Frickley twice came close to doubling their lead early in the second half. Firstly, Thompson lobbed the advancing Coleman from the corner of the penalty area, and the Glassboys keeper was relieved to see the ball drop just wide of the upright, and then Coleman redeemed himself on the hour with a fine diving save from Thompson again.

However, the match was to take a twist in Stourbridge's favour just two minutes later. A ball over the top gave Benbow the chance to out-muscle Matt Young and he appeared to have eluded Young's challenge until the Frickley man brought him down. Referee Matthew Donohue instantly reached for his red card, although with the incident taking place well outside the penalty area, and with at least one defender appearing well positioned to cover, the dismissal was debatable to say the least, particularly in light of Miles's earlier escape. Young, to his credit, did not argue.

From that point onwards Stourbridge began to assert increasing dominance, helped by the introduction of Josh Morgan-Parker, who proved a constant menace to a home defence which creaked occasionally but refused to crack, whilst Coleman was rendered largely redundant at the other end.

Benbow shot wildly over on 67 minutes after a probing run from Morgan-Parker, and then a shot from the edge of the box by Broadhurst was saved by Leigh after 76 minutes, with the keeper then alert to smother Richards' follow-up effort.

With seven minutes remaining, Benbow drove the ball across the edge of the six-yard box, with the lunging Morgan-Parker just unable to connect, and then in the third minute of added time a frenetic scramble saw Leigh block shots from Broadhurst and then Brown, before Morgan-Parker's follow-up was cleared off the line by Macauley Parkinson to sum up a frustrating afternoon.

The Glassboys remain 11th in the Evo-Stik League Premier Division table, 8 points adrift of the play-off places.

Stourbridge: Coleman, Smikle, Miles, Williams, Richards, Brown, Connolly (Morgan-Parker 66), Broadhurst, Benbow, Fitzpatrick (Kenny 71), Knight.

Unused substitutes: Quaynor, Kalenda, Tye.

Attendance: 180.