Worksop Town end winless run

The win takes the Tigers up into the playoff places and into fifth in the league, whilst Spalding United are down to 17th after the weekend’s defeat.

Worksop started brightly, getting themselves a corner early on. Michael Duggan in the Spalding goal punched the ball clear, which fell kindly to Smythe on the edge of the area, who saw his volley fly high and over the crossbar.

The first major chance of the game fell to the Tigers, when brilliant play down the line saw Mikey Dunn cross the ball into Vaughan Redford, who couldn’t get the ball out of his feet and saw his shot go just wide of the post.

Shortly after this, Spalding threatened the Tigers when Brownhill found himself through on goal, however, Malkowski was alert to the danger and saved superbly to keep the score level.

The Tigers took a deserved lead in the 35th minute when debutant Lewis Gibbens converted the ball home into the bottom left corner from a brilliantly taken free-kick by Connor Smythe.

Spalding nearly levelled not long after Worksop took the lead, Joel Brownhill again taking the shot on goal: however, this time he saw his strike go just over the bar.

Moments later, Worksop threatened to double their lead. Baxendale whipped in a corner, which was cleared out to the edge of the area where Cromack took a shot off. The ball was riffled towards the top corner, but Duggan expertly tipped it over the crossbar.

The second half of the game burst into life, when Spalding goalkeeper Duggan brought down Gavin Allott in the area as he was chasing a loose ball early on. Allott stepped up to take the penalty that he won and slotted past the ‘keeper, who dived the right way, into the bottom right corner.

Worksop nearly went 3-0 up shortly after. A well-worked free-kick found its way to Dunn on the edge of the area, who saw his looping shot saved in acrobatic fashion by Duggan.

Spalding nearly got back into the game in the dying moments when substitute Spencer Weir-Daley’s shot was expertly saved by Malkowski.