Swans narrowly lose out to Albion Sports

Barton Town failed to make their chances count in a narrow 2-1 defeat to Albion Sports at the Easy Buy Stadium. Robbie Fox put the visitors ahead after eight minutes before Ryan Conlon doubled the lead in the second half. Tom Waudby scored on the hour mark to halve the deficit but couldn’t find an equaliser.

There were three changes to the side that exited the NCEL League Cup in midweek. Will Waudby and Fraser Papprill returned in place of Matt Clayton and Iwan Heeley, who both dropped to the bench. Josh Smaller also returned in place of the unavailable Josh Lacey. Brook Dennis was back on the bench as well as Henry Cook, returning from injury after a month out.

It took just two minutes for some action, A Barton attack, which saw Papprill’s turn and shot blocked, resulted in an Albion counter. Owen Davey’s excellent last-ditch block denying the Lions. Five minutes later however the visitors were in front.

Robbie Fox, currently the NCEL’s top scorer, ran in down the right and powered his shot past Ryan Musselwhite to score his 25th goal of the season. Moments later Fox almost doubled his lead when he was played in down the right again. His shot rustled the side netting and out for a goal kick.

The Swans’ first chance came when Sam Cable received the ball on the left and ran across the edge of the box, before shooting over the bar. The Swans were starting to turn the screw, an excellent Eisa Faulding tackle denying Tom Waudby who had made space in the area to shoot.

A Will Waudby free kick was well saved by Harry Allen in the Albion goal before the Swans’ best chance of the half came on the stroke of half time. An excellently timed through ball saw Cable run in one on one, but the striker’s low shot was saved by Allen and cleared.

Ten minutes into the second half and Papprill came inches away from equalising, heading a free kick just over the bar. This would prove costly as the Swans were two down moments later.

An Albion shot was blocked by the Swans defence, but the rebound fell to Ryan Conlon, whose first time strike rolled past Musselwhite into the bottom left corner. The Swans made to pay for missing their chances.

On the hour mark the Swans won a corner. Harrison Coley curled it in and Tom Waudby rose highest to head it in. The forward now on 22 goals for the season, matching his tally for last season.

Brooklyn Dennis was introduced on 73 minutes but two minutes later went down with a knee injury. He was stretchered off and taken to hospital to have it examined. James Playford replacing him.

Try as they might it was the same old story for the Swans, plenty of good possession based football but no end product in the final third. Another defeat and another opportunity missed to climb the table and capitalise on poor results for the teams in and around the Swans.