Sleaford fall to ten-man Staveley
Matt Evans took plenty of positives from his Sleaford Town’s side’s performance on Saturday despite a narrow defeat.
Sleaford hosted Staveley Miners Welfare at the PSZ Direct Stadium, losing 1-0 thanks to an early goal from Jack Deakin.
The game didn’t come without ill-discipline, however, with Tom Wood seeing red just after the hour mark for a second bookable offence, leaving Staveley on the back foot for the remainder of the match.
The only goal of the match came in the seventh minute, and was the first piece of action from kick-off.
A headed clearance from Ben Coleman found the feet of Carter Tingle, whose first time pass found Wood who placed the ball into the path of Deakin. The number ten’s shot was low towards the bottom corner, beating Josh Wilson who couldn’t quite do enough to stop the shot.
Despite creating several chances, Sleaford couldn’t get level, Wood’s dismissal also unable to prove a turning point as the visitors held on.
Evans said afterwards: “I was really pleased with the way the boys conducted themselves in keeping going to the end, but as has been the case a lot this season we gave ourselves an uphill battle.
"We’ve analysed it and gone over it but can’t quite find the answer yet as to why we keep having such poor starts.
"As the game went on I thought we got better and better but Staveley defended really well, especially when they went down to ten men, so it was a difficult day in difficult conditions.
"We just didn’t have that final bit of quality to get a goal and to get a point or kick on.
"We’ve got a great following who want to be here [the crowd was nearly 200 for Saturday’s game] and I’m just disappointed we can’t get them more points, but we’ll keep plugging away and hopefully they’ll keep coming to support us.”
Town now turn their attention this Saturday to a trip to Swallownest who they faced on the opening day.