Poor away form goes on for Melton Town after narrow defeat

The match started with wave after wave of attacks by the hosts.

Six minutes in and Acott found himself on the edge of the Melton box, he played a side pass to Groocock and his strike went inches over the bar. The next attack saw a ball over the top of the visitors defence and Acott went clear, he rounded the keeper before facing an open goal but could only find the side netting.

The pressure continued and on 18 minutes a melee around the edge of the box saw the ball fall nicely to Groocock but he couldn’t keep his final shot down. Meltons first effort came on the half hour when Sackey-Mensah dinked a ball past Gardner right on the touchline before playing in Calver whose shot brought about a great save from Catlow.

The second was a more even affair. On the hour and Melton should have taken the lead. A scramble around the edge of the box saw the ball fall kindly to Edwards-John who went clear on goal only for Catlow to close the gap quick and smoother the ball.

Ashby took the lead in the 66th minute when Walwyn-Alsops challenge on Garner resulted in a penalty with the Melton defender being shown his second yellow card and reducing the visitors to 10 men. Groocock stepped up to take the penalty only for Jake Alley to guess the right way and save the spot kick. Groocock pounced on the loose ball to plant the rebound into the net.

Five minutes later and the 10 men of Melton had a good call for a penalty when Edwards-John went on a run across the box only to be tripped up but kept on his feet meaning no penalty was given. 8 minutes from the end and Calver stole the ball in midfield and played in Edwards-John who couldn’t get round the keeper.

This was a poor quality match with both sides cancelling each other out and not helped by a bobbly pitch. Melton looked the better side towards the end when they had a player less so can take that into next weeks away fixture against play-off chasing AFC Mansfield.