Steeton 1

Longridge Town 3

STEETON'S unbeaten record at their new Cougar Park home came to an end in Hallmark Security League Division One North.

The hosts were slow starters as it took only five minutes for Gary Basterfield to open the scoring. Paul Turner released the left wing-back and he supplied the finish to give his team an early lead.

Steeton's first chance came only minutes after. The returning Angus Maney sprinted down the left and played in Ben Clarkson, Clarkson laid it off to his strike partner Aaron Hollindrake, but the skipper couldn't beat the goalkeeper.

The Chevrons began to take a little foothold in the game after going a goal down, Ben Richardson combined with Hollindrake and Jordan Wilmore couldn't keep his effort down.

Then, a deserved equaliser came, Toby Jeffrey whipped in a wonderful ball, Hollindrake found the 'keeper in excellent form. However, he couldn't prevent Maney smashing in off the crossbar.

Longridge came forward looking for the goal to go ahead. On two occasions Jay Hart found himself with shooting space, unfortunately for Steeton on the second occasion he made no mistake as Steeton once again conceded not long after scoring.

It could have gone from bad to worse but for Stevie Pearson's interception which prevented Hart bearing down on Alfie Stevens-Neale.

With less than half an hour gone, Mason was forced to change his hand. Elliot Scott limped off, replaced by Alistair Morgan.

Stevens-Neale was called into action soon after, but he managed to smother the ball to safety.

However there was nothing Stevens-Neale could do about Longridge's third. A mistake from Pearson let Basterfield in again and he made no mistake in firing in his second on the stroke of half-time.

To make matters worse, Hollindrake was forced off, leaving Steeton with just the one change left. Gary Driscoll replaced him.

The visitors were then reduced to 10 men on the hour. Tom Ince received him marching orders for what appeared to be foul and abusive language towards the official.

Steeton saw this as an advantage and less than a minute later, Lee Dovey found himself receiving applause again. Jeffrey's cross-turned-shot was goal-bound until a fingertip save.

With 20 minutes to go, a tactical alteration was made. Joel Birks came on for his first appearance of the season, replacing centre-half Tom Leach.

Freddie Maddocks, Pearson and Morgan made up the back-three. Jeffrey and Maney were the wing-backs. Wilmore moved into the centre, with Birks. Ben Richardson supported the two strikers, Clarkson and Driscoll.

Driscoll was kept out once more by Dovey, his header was goal-bound but Dovey had other ideas, clawing out the effort before preventing the corner.

There were a couple of late efforts. Ben Richardson let fly on a couple of occasions, only to find Dovey in fine form again. Alistair Morgan prevented further embarrassment with a fantastic last-ditch tackle.

Steeton travel to Northallerton in the FA Vase second qualifying round on Saturday.