Hallam suffered another narrow loss against one of the league’s promotion chasing sides after a hard-working display, losing 2-1 against 2nd-in-the-league Matlock Town.

And Craig Denton started the game unchanged from their narrow loss against 1st-placed Redcar Athletic, with Keenan Ferguson returning to the squad on the bench.

The Countrymen had a very positive start to the game, having a goalmouth scramble four minutes in, and Brodie Litchfield forcing a great save out of Dylan Wharton two minutes later.

And defender Alfie Smith carried on the early pressure, shooting narrowly wide soon after.

Quarter of an hour in and Hallam were continuing to fight hard against Matlock, with Brandon Bradbury hitting the ball with power from outside the area, and Danny Burns heading goalwards from the resulting corner, but Wharton pulled two more fine saves to keep the away side in it.

And his saves proved crucial, with the Gladiators going to the other end and taking the lead after the early onslaught from the home side. Declan Eratt-Thompson raced to the byline and put in an inviting ball, but Burns was unlucky to get in the way and deflect it into his own net.

There was a pitch inspection before the game, and the first half an hour saw the game being played on a very slippery surface. That went from bad to worse when the heavens opened and the Sandygate pitch became a big slip-and-slide.

This didn’t help either side, but Hallam took the brunt of it when Ollie Russon was shown a straight red after half-time for a late sliding challenge, leaving the Countrymen playing with ten men for the last 40 minutes.

This came after huge penalty appeals from Danny South, after the skipper was pulled down by Harlain Mbayo in the box.

Both Hugo Warhurst and Wharton were called into action many times throughout the rest of the game, with many big chances resulting in remarkable saves from both goalkeepers.

That was until added time, when Calum Ward was adjudged to have been taken down by Wharton, resulting in a very late penalty to grab a point for the home side.

Ward stepped up and smashed home to level the scoring, going straight down the middle and opting for power over placement.

After 100 minutes of hard work from the Countrymen, there was late heartbreak once again, with Ben Sault prodding home after a huge goalmouth scramble.

Photo Credits – Ian Manewell and Jacob Flannery