Cheadle Town Vs Castleton Gabriel's

Castleton stuck with the side that put six unanswered goals past Daisy Hill the previous week and would hope to keep up their excellent scoring form going into the game with Cheadle.

Gabs were hoping to get off to a quick start, but that didn’t materialise as Cheadle proved resilient and held off some early Castleton advances.
Both Andrew Pheby and Brad Barrington came close to opening the scoring early on, but some last ditch Cheadle defending held back an opening goal, for now atleast.

At the opposite end Mark Canning had to make several excellent saves, in particular Cheadle’s Andy Lindon having his powerful shot pushed over the bar by the Gabs stopper.

After 34 minutes the break through came. After some dogged play in the middle of the field, Andrew Pheby flicked the ball on for striker Brad Barrington, who showed great strength to hold off the Cheadle defender, and rifle a shot past the stranded keeper. 0-1.

Castleton could have doubled the lead but the Cheadle keeper made some excellent saves to deny Castleton a second goal. .

After 43 minutes the game was levelled. Cheadle’s Andy Lindon was given the ball on the left flank, and with acres of space he curled a shot over the head of keeper Canning and into the back of the net from 25 yards out. 1-1. Half time.

Cheadle went on the attack immediately in the second half. And very soon had taken the lead. Some slack defending resulted in the ball falling to Arron Riley who slid the ball into the back of the net. 2-1.
Castleton were then given a life line when Cheadle left back Ben Roberts was sent off for a two footed lunge at a Castleton player, the referee has had no hesitation in showing him the red card. Five minutes previous Roberts had received a yellow card for a similar challenge on Pheby.

Hoping to capitalise on the one-man advantage Gabs surprisingly did the opposite and conceded another goal. A defensive mix-up allowed Adie James who had come on only moments before, score with his first touch of the game and claim Cheadle’s 3rd of the afternoon. 3-1.
Unwilling to sit back and accept a defeat, Castleton went on the attack and threw everything they had at Cheadle, and this paid dividends as after 80 minutes, Substitute Todd Hayes layed the ball on for Simon Riley, who from 25 yards, unleashed a powerful shot and through a sea of bodies flew into the back of the net. 3-2.

With only minutes to spare Castleton pressed for the equaliser. Then after 90 minutes after a relatively quiet game, striker Andrew Pheby broke free of the defence, and from 6 yards out, calmly slid it round the Cheadle keeper to equalise with only moments to spare. 3-3. A very vocal crowd had been silenced by the southern hit-man who had unbelievably started the season a right back! And the final whistle was blown.

A very entertaining afternoon of football at the Park Road Stadium, some excellent goals and a brilliant fight back from the Gabs will give them confidence going into this Saturdays fixture against local rivals Oldham Town.