Clitheroe 4 Chasetown 1
Att. 628
Clitheroe were pegged back in the first half by a fine Chasetown strike before they roared back to record their first win of the new season.

The Blues shaded the early exchanges with Sajjad Elhassan and Ross Dent combining well. On 5 minutes, Elhassan fed the ball to Dent, whose shot was blocked, before minutes later he slipped Dent through on goal only for his outstretched prod to be well smothered by the keeper. However, on 13 minutes, Chasetown’s Jack Langston silenced the large home crowd early in the first half when he received a lay back from his right winger which he then pinged just under the crossbar from distance. For much of the first half, Chasetown were adept at snuffing out the home side’s attacks and that strike separated the two sides at half time.

For the second half, despite no change in personnel, Clitheroe came out a changed outfit. Lee Pugh looked to use his long throw to provide an additional attacking threat and as early as the 48th minute, it was causing mayhem in the visitors’ area. On 55 minutes, Louis Potts drove in the equaliser after a low scudding cross from the left from Sajjad Elhassan and from this point on, Clitheroe’s attacks were relentless. Elhassan then went from provider to scorer after another long Pugh throw caused consternation in the visitor’s defence, forcing the keeper to scuff his punched clearance before Elhassan hammered home a superb strike from the edge of the box.
Minutes later the Chasetown keeper was closed down by Miles Storey, and he hurriedly kicked the ball against Storey only to see it bounce behind him towards goal. Substitute Javaun Splatt was first to the rebound and he gratefully thumped it home. The best was saved till the end when mercurial winger Veron Parny curled in a sensational left foot strike from the right to score Clitheroe’s fourth and he could have added to his tally minutes later with an outstanding acrobatic volley from a deep Elhassan cross which screamed narrowly over the bar.

When the whistle went, the majority of the 628 crowd went home satisfied and keen to see more from this developing side.

TEAM: 1 Hakan Burton, 2 Jacob Hanson, 3 Lee Pugh, 4 Sam Olawumi, 5 Charlie Hayes-Green, 6 Richard Baker, 7 Sajjad Elhassan, 8 Ross Dent, 9 Louis Potts, 10 Veron Parny, 11 Miles Storey. SUBS USED: 14 Domaine Rouse, 15 Javaun Splatt, 16 Connor High, 17 Matthew Clarke. Not Used: 12 Sean McConville.