
A Sam Bailey sizzler wasn’t enough to spark a late comeback in Staffordshire for Lancaster City.
On a cold and cloudy afternoon, Lancaster began brightly and applied some early pressure. Lewis Mansell saw the flag go up after his header from a corner found the roof of the net, before Nic Evangelinos’ shot from 20 yards was blocked on nine minutes.
Evangelinos was key to another Dolly Blue chance four minutes later, helping to tee up Brayden Shaw who was bearing down on goal. The number seven hit the ball with power from just outside the six yard area but his effort flashed wide.
After a solid 15 minutes from Lancaster, the hosts began to come forward with more regularity. Hayden Campbell tried his luck from range, which is what the Dollies limited Leek to in the opening stages, but the shot went over.
On 24 minutes, the referee pointed to the spot as Dylan Thompson fouled Liam Buckley in the box. Leek’s number 10 Alex Hurst made no mistake from 12 yards as he cooly slotted it home down the middle.
Lancaster largely threatened from set pieces in the first half from then on, and had a couple of half chances, Harrison Beeden was the quickest to the ball in pink but his header deflected off a Leek man.
The home side’s number nine Louis Potts took a shot on from 12 yards out but that too came off a defender and rolled into the arms of Aiden Dowling.
The Dollies looked like they had ramped up the intensity ever so slightly with just over five minutes of the first half to go, but after a brief yet promising spell, Leek broke away with ease and just a handful of passes later, Hurst had found the net again for the Blues.
A superb ball from Liam Buckley on the right found Hurst who had acres of space and the time to pick his spot past Dowling, and give Lancaster a mountain to climb.
Like so many other times in the past 12 months or so, Lancaster responded well to a half time deficit by flying out of the traps and being the dominant force in the second half.
Chris Willcock opted to make a half time substitution as Sam Bailey replaced Dylan Thompson.
Evangelinos gave the Leek backline a scare with a header that just glanced wide before substitute Bailey made things interesting again with a scintillating strike.
A Brayden Shaw corner was hastily cleared by the hosts, only as far as the club captain who composed himself and let fly from 25 yards out. The ball glided into the net and Dino Visser was helpless in the Leek goal.
Lancaster had a great chance to level it up on 70 minutes. Dom Lawson cleared a corner which Charlie Bailey ran onto. He sprinted a good 60 yards before finding Nic Evangelinos but Tom Curl, the hosts’ eventual Player of the Match who frustrated the visitors all game, blocked the forward’s path as he pulled the trigger.
There was real end to end action with 15 minutes to go. Julius Ndene’s header from an in-swinging corner was pushed onto the bar by an alert Aiden Dowling, before Lancaster broke away and had a chance of their own.
Substitute Nathan Caine was lightning fast on the counter to set up Dom Lawson in a decent position but as Caine was brought down, Lawson shot wide.
Leek weren’t resting on a one goal lead and Billy Reeves winning the ball back in midfield gave them a great opportunity to extend it. The ball fell to Louis Potts but he could only find the side netting.
Just as the game began to fizzle out, there was late drama in what was the last action of the afternoon.
Aiden Dowling came up for a corner and in the ensuing melee, he was one of the players closest to the ball upon its delivery but he nor anyone else wearing the away strip couldn’t quite get that crucial touch and it was cleared off the line by Tom Curl.
Up next for City is the visit of North West Counties Football League Premier Division side Longridge Town to The Giant Axe on Tuesday night (7.45pm kick off) in the quarter final of the Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy.