Selby Town continue to improve

Toolstation NCEL Division One

Hallam 2-2 Selby Town

New Selby Town star Joe Dale (left) scored twice for Selby

Selby Town continued to show that they will be no pushovers as their star man Joe Dale ensured a share of the spoils at Hallam.

Hallam kicked downhill in the first half and bombarded the Selby defence and had them under pressure for most of the first half. Danny State could have opened the scoring after only five minutes but his lobbed effort sailed just wide of the goal.

Soon after James Need went close with a strongly struck shot. Then all the early pressure told when State converted a free header to take the lead.

Selby soon realised that to combat the barrage of pressure they had to at least keep possession. It was from some good possession play by the Robins that nearly produced a goal, Brad Freer forcing a great save from Dave Darwent in Hallam’s goal.

But Hallam went straight down the other end and State again had a free header but this time his effort went wide.

Then Hallam hit the underside of the bar and although Charlie Myers forced the ball home he was flagged offside, relief for The Robins.

Just before the half hour mark Selby cleared the ball upfield with a lovely pass from George Foster-Vigors which found Liam Flanagan down or rather up the right.

He raced through on goal and looked across and saw Dale up the left alone. Flanagan laid the ball across into Dale’s path and he waltzed round the keeper to grab the equaliser.

Now back in the game Selby began to cope with the hosts tactics better. Indeed Selby began to put a little pressure on Hallam for a change.

In the second half Selby used the long ball, but it was mixed with a lot of possession. But with home knowledge Hallam again exploited Selby’s sometimes hesitant defending and they took the lead after a scramble in the area and Chris Wood poked home from close in.

Selby worked really hard to get back in the game, but the Hallam defence seemed to cope better with the situation as much as Selby forced them back. Darwent pulled two world class saves out from Flanagan and Kieran Harris around the hour mark.

Then Dale produced a fantastic finish to score with a shot from the hip high bounce. No doubt the slope helped him get above the ball to keep his shot below the bar and nestle in the net.

Selby finished the game looking the more likely to find the winning goal. Chris Dempsey forcing Derwent into palming the ball away from the foot of the goal in the dying moments.