South Division play-off semi-finals review

In front of a crowd of 517 at the Oval, two early goals proved enough to see the Greenbacks through in a nervy tie against the Scholars, who only finished a point behind their hosts in the regular season.

In only the fourth minute, Khaellem Bailey-Nicholls went on a mazy-run, leaving defenders behind, to finish clinically past Curtis Pond to give Bedworth the lead. Playing into a gusting wind with driving rain, the Greenbacks added their second after 13 minutes when a cross from Luke Rowe was powerfully headed home by Luke Keen.

That looked to be that but in the second minute of five added on at the end of stoppage time, the Scholars were given a lifeline as Chris Baker went over a challenge by keeper Dan Crane for a penalty. Jack Langston stepped forward to blast the spot-kick home to make it 2-1.

History reveals that often it makes little difference where teams finish in the regular season when it comes to the lottery of the play-offs. And that was proven once more as Frickley Athletic, who finished in third place, lost out to a Stamford AFC side who they'd finished 11 points clear of, as well having beaten twice in the season.

In front of a crowd of 536 at Westfield Lane, it was the visitors who drew first blood after 21 minutes when a cross from Ben George found Rob Morgan, who looped a header into the net. And on 34 minutes, the Daniels shocked the home crowd by making it 2-0 when Frickley's defence failed to deal with a long throw and Kieran Wells stepped up to fire home a penalty after Dan Burns was adjudged to have handled.

Stamford successfully managed the rest of the game until the 67th minute when they were reduced to ten-men after Wells was shown a straight red card after catching Frickley keeper Jake Turner late to a through ball.

Turner was injured in the process but soldiered on for a while before being replaced by sub keeper John Stancliffe. And he was involved in the home side`s goal which came five minutes into stoppage time. Stancliffe, up for a set-piece, managed to divert the ball goalwards and Jacob Hazel converted from close range past Stamford keeper Dan Haystead.

Images courtesy of Onionbag Photography & Pamela Mullins

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