Denied unlikely double in last home fixture

Ollerton’s 3-2 win at Hallam was one of the standout moments in their debut season in the Northern Counties East League, but they were unable to repeat that success.

An understrength side were no match for Hallam’s promotion hopefuls.

Despite missing several key players, Ollerton manager Dave Winter would have been happy with his side’s start.

In an even opening half-hour Ben Bowring and Ashley Shannon both fired just over.

Hallam had a good chance to take the lead on 25 minutes when Kieran Watson broke through. After rounding Scott Gretton, Watson teed the ball up for Scott Bates, but the attacker made a mess of the chance and Ollerton cleared.

There was no let off for the hosts just after the half hour, however, when Bates made amends for his earlier miss, tapping into the net after Ollerton failed to clear a cross from the right.

Hallam doubled their lead to all but seal victory at the start of the second half.

A cross found Michael Blythen, who did well to direct the ball past Gretton and into the net.

With a quarter of an hour remaining Hallam added a third goal as Callum Greaves was able to fire home from the edge of the area.

Ollerton worked hard to get back into the game, but were unable to test the visitors.

Hallam nearly added a fourth late on, but were denied by a superb double save from Gretton.