Lancaster City back to winning ways with Valentine’s Day delight

Goals courtesy of Charlie Bailey and Nic Evangelinos helped the Dollies take all three points against Leek Town on a frosty afternoon at the Giant Axe.

Charlie Bailey opened the scoring after just nine minutes, which was almost immediately pegged back by an equaliser via Connor Heath. Despite this, City continued to plug away and eventually found their reward as another Evangelinos wonder goal proved decisive.

Despite the recent weather concerns, no inspection was needed on the day with the surface proving manageable for both sides. The conditions seemed to be in City’s favour from the off, as they opened the scoring.

The recent addition of Preston North End academy duo Ed Nolan and Jonny Brindle played its part early on as the latter found Bailey with a delightful ball. From there, City’s number eight, and eventual Player of the Match utilised his composure and found the back of the net.

However, just two minutes later, the visitors evened proceedings. The cliche of being vulnerable after just scoring a goal was more than evident as Heath swept aside the Lancaster defenders and beat Brad Kelly to level things up.

Following the quick flurry of goals, the game began to settle down, though, this didn’t stop Lewis Mansell from almost finding the back of the net as he nearly capitalised on an error from Leek’s number one.

The chances were coming at both ends, but neither side could find the finishing touch to round-off their moves. As a result, who else but Evangelinos to bring the game back to life with a moment of magic.

City’s number 10 came up with an impromptu volley around the edge of the box, which would leave many a keeper stranded. The excellent strike glided into the top left corner, and gave the Dollies a well-deserved lead on the 40th minute mark.

Although Lancaster were leading, the game remained competitive throughout, and could have even seen the score tied up if not for the linesman’s offside flag to rule out the visitor’s equaliser just before the break.

Following the intermission, City kept on searching for a third goal, especially after some of the agonisingly close games in recent weeks. Most notably, both Brindle and Mansell asked questions of the visitor but their respective efforts were well-blocked by the Leek backline.

By the 70th minute, Mansell was once again knocking on the door, and almost found his reward for a tireless display upfront. He was slipped in behind by the goalscorer Bailey and his effort seemed to have caught out the Leek keeper. They spilled the ball, but quickly managed to rectify their error by directing it away from goal.

Heading into the last 15 minutes of the encounter, Jimmy Marshall’s side managed it really well with plenty of substitutions, and great defending. On the occasions when Kelly was called into action, he also remained strong with some impactful saves.

In the end, the Dollies came out the victors in front of the 561 attendees at the Giant Axe. The win brings the club into eighth in the league, and four points off the play-0ff places. Looking ahead to the rest of February, City now endure a tough double header with trips to Hednesford and Prescott Cables on the cards.