Steeton's Reilly is spot on (From Craven Herald)

Steeton's Reilly is spot on as leaders avoid banana skin

3:42pm Thursday 17th January 2013 in Sport

Steeton 2 Overthorpe 0

Steeton increased their lead at the top of the West Riding County Amateur Premier Division following a hard-fought victory over basement side Overthorpe.

With the visitors full of confidence following their win at Lepton, the Chev-rons knew they would have to be on top of their game.

The side showed one change from the win at Salts, with Matty Kershaw coming in to replace the unavailable Sam Rooke.

Steeton started the game brightly and carved out a few half-chances, with the closest being when Lee Reilly headed Andy Hol-den’s excellent corner wide of the target.

Joe Park cut in from the left and fired over before Arley Barnes tried his luck from distance following good work from Jamie Longley.

Longley himself went close, while at the other end Jimmy Christian and Mich-ael Rhodes protected keeper Phil Rishton well.

In fact, he had very few things to deal with except back-passes as the visitors were intent on putting men behind the ball and going long at every opportunity.

Reilly had an effort well saved and Pete Hanson tried to open things up, feeding Barnes, but again a great last-ditch tackle saw both sides head into the interval on level terms.

While Steeton had the lion’s share of possession, they were starting to get a bit frustrated at not making the breakthrough their territorial advantage warranted.

Longley again went close and Holden fired a free-kick which the keeper did well to parry.

The home side finally made the breakthrough on the hour-mark as Reilly burst into the box and was felled as he went through. Referee Graham Ashing-ton had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Reilly dusted himself down to confidently dispatch the kick.

Andy King had a great opportunity to make it two but he opened his body up too much and his shot went narrowly wide.

However, five minutes later Steeton settled it with a carbon copy of the first goal.

Reilly was again brought down as he bore down on goal and the striker composed himself, despite having to re-spot the ball, to make the game safe for the home side.

Park should have inc-reased the lead when he arrived late in the box following good work from Danny Riley and fired over.

But the result was no more than the home side des-erved.

Boss Ray Mason believed that patience was the key to victory.

He said: “It was a bit of a potential banana skin for us.

“We had 80 per cent possession and didn’t get the early goal, which maybe made us anxious at times.

“But Rob Horton and I spoke to the players at half-time about being patient and waiting for our chances, which would come.

“It was important to keep our shape and not go too gung ho – we are not going to win every game by four or five goals so we were pleased with a 2-0 and that’s two clean sheets in the past three games.”

Steeton are at home to Hall Green United on Saturday.

Steeton: Rishton, Rhodes, Park, Christian, Kershaw, Whiteoak (PJ King), Holden, Barnes, Reilly, Hanson (A King), Longley.