Ten men Kidsgrove Athletic extended their unbeaten run to eight games in all competitions after beating local rivals Newcastle Town one nil on Boxing Day.

Anthony Malbon’s deflected strike inside the first quarter of an hour turned out to be the telling goal. However, the hosts were forced to battle hard in the second half as they had to play the best part of 40 minutes with only ten men due to centre back Richard Duffy getting sent off. This was due to him being involved in an altercation on the edge of Newcastle Town’s penalty area.

Ahead of the game manager Ryan Austin made one change to the starting eleven that won last Saturday, with Captain Malbon coming back into the side to replace Ruben Wiggins Thomas who was ruled out of the Boxing Day fixture.

As the game began it was the hosts that created the first clear cut opportunity inside five minutes when Malbon was found unmarked at the back post from a cross on the left hand side, but his touch could only find the side netting instead of the back of the net.

Kidsgrove had two excellent chances to open the scoring, first Sam Hall with a header and, then Kingsley Adu-Gyamfi had a shot cleared off the line after he did well to get down the right hand side.

However, Kidsgrove did get that goal they were looking for on 12 minutes when Malbon found space inside the area and shot towards goal which sent Raajan Gill the wrong way via a cruel deflection.

Just after the midway point in the first half, Alex Morris slipped in Crewe Alexandra loanee Josh Lundstrum who from a tight angle flashed the ball across the face of goal which was then well cleared out for a corner.

Lundstrum had another chance to double the Grove's advantage in the 33rd minute when he was found on the right hand side of the box but his low effort was kept out at the near post by Gill.

A few minutes after the break, the home side continued where they left off when Blake was found unmarked at the back post from a cross from the left. Sadly his header sailed over the crossbar.

However, on the 51st minute mark, the flow of the local derby changed when former Welsh international Duffy was given his marching orders after being involved in a scuffle with a couple of the Newcastle Town players in which the referee deemed his actions to be a red card offence.

Then with 20 minutes remaining the visitors were certain that they equalised when Matthew Ward slotted the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the goal when the ball came out to him on the edge of the box. However after the referee spent a few minutes conferring with his linesman, he decided to rule out the goal for an offside in the build-up to the goal.

The Grove held out for three points, which was an excellent late Christmas present to the Grove fans who passionately supported the team throughout the game. We hope to see you at our first game of 2020 when we make the trip to Carlton Town on New Years Day.

Kidsgrove Athletic: Harrison, Thompson, Morris, Hall (France, 83), Duffy, Butler, Williamson, Blake, Adu-Gyamfi, Malbon (O'Neil, 90) and Lundstram.
Unused subs: Campbell and Kurasik.

Newcastle Town: Gill, Bradbury (Morley, 59), Lowe (Howell, 86), Attrell, Askey, Scott, McLean, J.Van Der Laan, Glover, Ward and Conlon.
Unused subs: T. Van Der Laan and Vale.

Attendance: 205.