Worksop Town fall to third successive home defeat after early red card against Morpeth Town

Manager Craig Parry was disappointed with how the game went, saying: “I think the game changed after five minutes with the red card.

“In all honesty, I'll have to look back again to see if it's a yellow or red.

"There's no doubt it's a foul. I'm not sure it's a red, but the game completely changes.

“It's not 10 men with five minutes to go or 20 minutes to go. It's 10 men with 85 minutes left of the game and its not easy at all.”

Worksop started the game brightly, with an early chance coming when a cross found captain Hamza Bencherif, who chested the ball down for Vaughan Redford’s side-footed shot which narrowly missed the top-right corner.

However, the match took a dramatic turn when Luke Shiels was shown a red card for a challenge on Jerome Greaves.

Shiels appeared to go for the ball but connected heavily in the follow-through, leaving Worksop a man down.

Undeterred, the Tigers quickly adjusted, moving Josh Wilde to centre-back and bringing on Mason O’Malley at left-back, with Redford sacrificed.

Despite Morpeth’s numerical advantage, Worksop remained on the attack, as Luke Hall's cross found Jordan Burrow, whose header went just wide of the right post.

Morpeth soon began to exploit their extra man, with William Dowling cutting inside and testing Tommy Taylor with a curling shot towards the bottom-left corner, which Taylor parried away comfortably.

Worksop nearly caused their own downfall when Bencherif lost possession on the left, allowing Luke James to send a dangerous cross into the box, leading to a goalmouth scramble that Terry Hawkridge eventually cleared.

Just before half-time, Bencherif came close to scoring after connecting with a Dan Bramall cross, but his header was comfortably caught by Morpeth’s goalkeeper, Daniel Langley.

Depleted Worksop almost took the lead when Hall delivered a superb cross to Burrow, whose header back across goal nearly crossed the line, but Morpeth’s captain Jeffrey Henderson made a crucial clearance.

Morpeth finally broke the deadlock in the 77th minute, as a cross into the box found the unmarked William Marshall, who headed home from close range into the bottom-right corner.

The visitors doubled that lead in the 83rd minute when Leon Gibson-Booth curled a shot from the left-hand side into the top-right corner.

In a final push, Worksop introduced Liam Hughes in search of a comeback, but Morpeth's defence held firm, securing a 2-0 victory for the visitors.