Derby joy as Stocker hits rocker

SKIPPER Dan Stocker’s 25-yard special fired Golcar to a 1-0 victory in the North West Counties First Division North local derby against Shelley.

The poor weather conditions didn’t put off the 556 crowd at the WMS Entrance Systems Park - the first game played under floodlights at Golcar.

The home side started off well and almost scored after nine minutes when Max

Leonard played a one-two with Michael Fish and hit the post.

The atmosphere of the derby was ramped up when a number of crunching tackles went in, with both sides giving as good as they got.

As the weather worsened, the standard of play followed suit but Golcar showed their resilience by dealing with Shelley’s attack towards the end of the first half.

Golcar started well in the second half and were denied a goal when Gregg Porter delivered a perfect ball to the back post and Michael Fish’s attempt was saved by Shelley’s Paul Day.

Shelley had their first real chance around the hour mark when, after a free kick, their striker blazed the ball over the bar from three yards, clearing the fence in the process.

As the conditions worsened, the play got scrappier but on 75 minutes, Golcar’s captain Stocker spied Shelley’s keeper off his line and hit a 25 yarder into the top corner, sending the Golcar crowd wild.

Golcar did well to see the game out and this became a formality when Shelley went down to 10 men on around 80 minutes when a player was sin-binned by referee Cristiana Hattersley.