Handsworth 0-3 Steels

Stocksbridge Park Steels continued a perfect pre-season with a 3-0 win over Handsworth.

For a while, the match had a pre-season pace as both teams looked to find their feet and get more minutes in their legs and it would take until well into the first half for the first inciting incident. It would be Handsworth’s favour as they whipped in a corner and Bailey-Tye Baker was adjudged to have handled the ball. The Handsworth 7 stepped up but smashed the ball over the bar, allowing Stocksbridge to get away with one.

And Stocksbridge would soon punish Handsworth for not scoring from that penalty. Luke Rawson outfought a defender for the ball and despite the screams for a foul, he advanced into the box, knocked the ball over the goalkeeper before knocking the ball in off the post.

In the second half, Stocksbridge started strongly and would get another. Tomas Poole’s lobbed cross went past everyone in the box but Luca Defalco worked hard to rescue it on the left wing. He played the ball back to Olly Nowak who controlled the ball well before laying it off to Alex O’Connor. He struck the ball well and it took a slight deflection before heading into the bottom corner.

Handsworth did rally well in the second half and were able to have a few chances on goal. However it was the young Daniel Emery who impressed. His first big save was when an Handsworth attacker latched onto a misplaced pass to one-on-one, but Emery was able to save with his feet. Later on, a free header in the box was also palmed away.

However despite this, Stocksbridge were able to get the final goal of the game. Nowak was able to break with the ball and instead of going for it himself, he laid the ball to his left where Defalco was who was able to hit a powerful shot that beat the goalkeeper, sealing another pre-season win for the Steels.