Points shared at Askern

For the second Saturday running the Blues were involved in a match with contrasting halves, but this week there was a slightly happier ending as they came from behind to claim an ultimately deserved point. With Julian Joachim joining an increasingly lengthy injury list and other absences for non-footballing reasons, there was another reshuffle with Damian Lloyd, Michael Minty and Reece Carlisle all coming into the side.
A sharp shower as the players emerged from the changing rooms made the conditions a little greasy which made for a rather disjointed start to the match, and Town soon fell behind, Taylor getting the better of Will Nelson and sending in a shot which Nathan Burrows got a hand to but couldn’t keep out. Newark were offering little in return and almost fell further behind as another effort from Taylor rebounded to Dobbin who poked the ball wide of the post. Burrows reacted well to push away a Hill free kick and it took until the 38th minute for Newark to put any appreciable pressure on keeper Sykes when a Jammy Lloyd corner caused an anxious moment. The improvement continued as Richard Dent and Sam Wilford combined to give Minty a shooting opportunity which was held by Sykes.
A changed formation at the start of the second half with Damian Lloyd playing wide on the right paid immediate dividends as the equaliser came within a minute of the restart. Carlisle put Tyler Martin through down the right and his crisply struck shot beat the keeper at the near post. Town were now playing with far more purpose and Martin sent in another promising cross after the ball was held up well by Dom Swingler, but there were no takers. Martin again went close when a well-flighted free kick from Jordan Cummings was headed a foot wide before great work from Jammy Lloyd who played a real captain’s game again found Martin, but Damian Lloyd had strayed offside as he finished off the move. Kieran Wall replaced Swingler for the last 20 minutes and immediately injected some pace, his first involvement seeing him beat two players before his shot was blocked by Sykes. Damian Lloyd had another close range effort pushed wide, but Askern were still a threat and Burrows was the Blues’ saviour with five minutes left as he pulled off a great block from Carver from just three yards out. The danger was still present from the resulting corner, Hill’s header glancing off the top of the bar to leave the scores level. Taken over the 90 minutes a point apiece was probably a fair result.