Steeton 1 Campion 0

STEETON manager Roy Mason was once again forced to shuffle his pack as the number of first-team absentees grew.

Defenders Joe Mason, Sam Rooke and striker Ben Clarkson are all suffering long-term injuries, Tim Hird is suspended while both Jonah Smith and Alistair Morgan were unavailable for selection.

Steve Pearson returned after an injury lay off and Joe Park, who suffered an injury in last week's victory over Oxenhope Recreation was deemed fit enough to take a place on the bench.

Debutants midfielder Josh Eastwood and defender Matty Wilson (for Smith and Morgan respectively) both, along with all their team mates, gave sterling performances in this hard-fought and entertaining victory over Campion.

Striker Alex Yates retained his place in attack but unfortunately suffered an injury early in the game and was replaced by Nicky McNally.

The first-half was goalless with chances few and far between but both teams stroked the ball around smartly in an effort to break down each other's strong defences where Michael Rhodes stood out for the hosts.

Andy Briggs went closest for Steeton but his effort was smartly saved by Matty Keen in the Campion goal.

The early part of the second-half was much the same as the first, though, as the game progressed the hosts started to take the upper-hand as midfield quintet of Eastwood, Ben Richardson, Andy Holden, Toby Jeffrey and Elliot Scott started to have more success in supplying the attack.

The only goal came after an hour when some slick play down the right ended with Briggs hitting a cross shot which took a wicked deflection off a defender and beat Keen.

An equaliser almost came only two minutes later when a spectacular acrobatic volley from the edge of the penalty area just cleared the crossbar with the Steeton defence beaten.

The hosts should have doubled their lead five minutes after scoring but McNally's effort in front of an open goal went wide of the mark.

Goalkeeper Joe Mash, who had not had a particularly busy game, was three times involved in the game's late action: first he was forced to punch clear a threatening corner kick before pushing over a dipping long distance shot and in the dying minutes he had to be grateful to good covering by Pearson after losing possession of the ball on the edge of the penalty area.

Seconds before the referee blew for time Briggs tried one final long distance shot and was unfortunate to see the effort strike the crossbar.

Manager Mason said: "Given the number of players we have missing and we are constantly shuffling the pack it was a great win.

"It was a huge boost for us to bring in Matty and Josh and they both fitted in very well and to say they only met their new team-mates an hour before kick-off, I thought that they were both excellent and will be great additions to our squad."

As a result of this win Steeton moved up to third in the table with 27 points from 14 games.

Steeton: Mash, Rhodes, Scott, Wilson, Pearson, Jeffrey, Holden, Eastwood, Yates (McNally), Briggs, Richardson.