Farsley Celtic slumped to a disappointing 4-1 defeat at home to Stourbridge, putting a dent in their hopes of reaching the playoffs, writes Thomas Ritchie.
It was the hosts who went in front courtesy of a Ryan Watson penalty, however a Luke Benbow brace and goals from Paul McCone and Joshua Cooke saw Stourbridge complete the turnaround. And in all honesty, they could and probably should have won by more.
A disappointed Farsley manager Adam Lakeland lamented his side’s home form. He said:
“It’s a different game at home, when you’re at home there’s more onus on you to take the game to the opposition. Away from home we can get set up deeper and not get exposed, but at the end of the day it’s a bad day and a bad result.
“We deserved to get beaten, they were the better side, no doubt about it. We’ve lost games before and we’ll no doubt lose before the end of the season, but we need to bounce back next week.”
After Ryan Watson slotted home from the spot on his 100th start for Farsley, the Glassboys drew level five minutes later as the lively and exciting Nicu Carnat picked out Luke Benbow in the box who converted from close range.
Stourbridge then started to get on top, and had chances through Kaiman Anderson, his strike saved by McKibbin, and Luke Benbow who struck wide on the turn.
Stourbridge should have gone into the interval ahead as Nicu Carnat’s stooping header from Leon Broadhurst’s cross crashed against the upright.
The Glassboys did take a deserved lead just before the hour mark after a contentious free-kick was given in their favour. Paul McCone volleyed home after the Celts failed to clear.
Luke Benbow added a third just moments later, finding the bottom corner as the ball went through McKibbin, who should have made the save.
The Celts created a number of half-chances particularly from set-pieces as they looked for a goal back, however Joshua Cooke wrapped up the victory for Stourbridge in added time, firing into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
Elated Stourbridge manager Gary Hackett said:
“Our recent performances have been pretty good, but we’ve conceded very, very late goals in our last two games. The actual performances have been okay, and I did say one day one team will catch us and unfortunately for Farsley it was them.
“It’s a reward for the lads, we’ve all taken a lot of stick, some of it richly deserved, some of it not so, but it was a good win against a team in the top four.”
Farsley Celtic: McKibbin, Wells, L. Turner, C. Atkinson (Murray 64), Ellis ©, Clayton, B. Atkinson (Baldwin 64), N. Turner, Walker (Parkin 78), Cartman, Watson. Unused subs: Harris, Bett.
Stourbridge: Gould, Hayden, Westlake, McCone ©, Pierpoint, Forde, Gallagher, Broadhurst, Benbow (Cooke 78), Anderson (Tonks 87), Carnat (Shearer 80). Unused subs: Hawk (GK), Antonio.
MOTM: Nicu Carnat
Attendance: 262