Report

This was Congleton's first home game under the new managerial regime with promotion chasing Glossop North End expected to provide tough opposition.

Congleton had Ashley Woodhouse back in goal but with Crewe Alex academy loanee Michael Korel unavailable Jack Graham and Shane Reaney were the starting strikers. Richie Booth returned to the starting eleven at the expense of Dan Doherty who was on the bench alongside reserve team striker Carl McCurrie.

With a good following of visiting supporters it was Glossop who looked the more comfortable side in the early stages. Particularly down the flanks the Glossop forwards stretched the Congleton defence but few chances were forthcoming in the first quarter of the match.

After Glossop's early superiority the Bears came more in to the game and gradually eased on top with Kurtis Gill and Joe Guest stamping their authority in midfield.

The first chance of the game fell to Shane Reaney after he raced clear of the Glossop defence only to see his goal bound shot outstandingly saved by the giant figure of the Glossop keeper.

Minutes later a wonderfully flighted free kick from the left hand side by Joe Guest was met by the head of Chris Middleton, whose header appeared to be bound for the top corner of the Glossop goal only again to be superbly saved by the keeper.

At this point the Bears seemed to be starting to dominate proceedings but as on so many occasions this season, just as the Congleton team seems set in the ascendancy a disaster occurs to change the course of events.

Following this spell of Congleton dominance a Glossop attack after 33 minutes saw Sam Hind able to find too much space in the Congleton penalty area and although his finish appeared to be weak the ball seemed to evade town keeper Ashley Woodhouse and end up in the Congleton net to put the visitors in front.  Although the scorer had far too much space, the reaction of Woodhouse showed his own disappointment in not keeping the ball out of the goal.

Congleton had another good goal opportunity before the break with Crewe Alex loanee, Joe Guest creating his own chance with a terrific individual run but he was let down by his final finish blazing his shot over the bar.

Half time

Congleton Town 0 Glossop 1

The second 45 minutes had considerably less interest and incident than the first half.

Glossop it seemed had got their lead and set out to hold on to this with the possibility of hitting Congleton on the break.

There was no shortage of endeavour from the Congleton team but despite introducing Dan Doherty and Carl McCurrie mid way through the second half they struggled to create any clear scoring opportunities against against an increasingly resolute visiting defence.

Congleton came closest to snatching a draw from the game via a late long range snap shot by Dan Schwarz but again this goal bound effort was turned away by the impressive opposition keeper.

Glossop had many counter attacks in the second period but the Congleton defence did well to restrict further goalscoring opportunities for the visitors.

Summary

With the visitors chasing promotion and needing the 3 points this was never going to be an easy day for the Bears. However, particularly in the first half Congleton created more and better goal scoring opportunities than their opponents. The story of the game was sealed by the two goal keepers, the Glossop keeper made three outstanding saves to deny Congleton while Ashley Woodhouse would be disappointed himself not to have stopped the Glossop goal which turned out the settle the result.