Clay Cross 0 - 1 Newark Town

This top of the table clash drew a bumper crowd to Mill Lane but they were treated to a scrappy wind ruined encounter in which neither side got on top.
The ball spent too much time in the air and not enough in constructive football with neither goalkeeper seriously tested apart from the classic striker’s goal from Newark skipper Lewis Chambers on the hour.
The win though puts Newark in the driving seat for the title now. Win their last two games and the honours will be theirs along with a shot at promotion. For the Millers, it will need a miracle for them not to become bridesmaids again in their quest for promotion.
The stage was set early on with the ball being treated like the proverbial hot potato, and it took twenty minutes before there was anything to record. And then Callum Lytham cut in along the right bye line but his chip for Max Dungworth was plucked out of the air by Harry Haywood.
Lewis Macaskill, looking anything but fully fit, cut inside but fired wide for the home side on 32 minutes, and Ryan Watters made a good run into Newark territory four minutes later but was crowded out and the ball ran for a fruitless corner.
It had been a poor first half and you couldn’t see where a goal was going to come from.

The second half was little better but Newark emerged from the dressing rooms showing a bit more determination.
On 53 minutes a shot from Ainsley Finney proved easy pickings for Ryan Hopkins, and there was a short spell in the game when Newark got the ball down on the deck and tried to play some controlled football.
It was during this period that they got the only goal of the game. A throw in on the right was challenged by a number of players and the ball dropped kindly for skipper LEWIS CHAMBERS who turned in a flash and hit a first time half volley into the roof of the net. It proved to be the winner as both sides returned to the standard of football which had made the first half such a long and hard watch.
Hopkins saved a snap shot from substitute Mason Wilson-Rhiney and the same player shot over the bar minutes later when a corner dropped in front of him. Under normal circumstances neither of these efforts would have been worthy of a mention in any match report, but such was the poor standard of play and the lack of goalmouth action that it was record these or nothing. Perhaps nothing would have been the better option.
Even the introduction of three substitutes in the 71st minute by the Millers did little to improve their fortunes and Harry Harwood in the visitors goal was never troubled.
It was, to say the least, a disappointing Clay Cross performance, but it was one of those games when they played as well as the opposition let them, and Newark came with a game play, played it brilliantly, won the game and ended up in the driving seat to finish top of the pile.