Report

Consett picked up a useful point on their travels, drawing 1-1 at Sheffield in new manager Tony Fawcett’s first game in charge.

He and his new management team of assistant Simon Moody and coach Wayne Buchanan made two changes to the side which had drawn with Grantham the previous week.

Ben Milburn and skipper Arjun Purewal returned at the back, in place of Evan Horwood, who has left the club, and Cyril Giraud, who dropped to the bench. Calvin Smith was pushed into midfield, with Kieren Aplin slotting in at left-back.

The game kicked off in bright sunshine and Consett started brightly, creating a half-chance after just three minutes, when Baggs whipped in a great cross from the right, which Zak Atkinson was within a whisker of getting on the end of.

The home side’s first chance came in the 10th minute, when pacey forward Basile Zottos hit a shot straight at Ross Coombe, and two minutes later Dan Capewell slid in to make an excellent block from the same player.

Consett almost took the lead in the 16th minute when good pressure from Smith almost forced Joshua Burns into a spectacular own goal, but one of the Sheffield man’s defensive colleagues came tohis rescue with a timely clearance.

Capewell and Aplin both picked up yellow cards for fouls as Consett set about their hosts, but unfortunately the bookings took them both to five for the season, which means they will both miss our next league game.

On 34 minutes Consett again went close with their best move of the game, as Baggs’ cross just evaded Aplin in the centre.

A goal looked increasingly likely as the game opened up, and Sheffield almost got it four minutes before half-time when a corner was followed by a huge goalmouth scramble, which ended with Milburn clearing off the line.

But it was Consett who went into the break in front as Jake Orrell gave them the lead right on half-time with his sixth goal of the season.

He picked the ball up on the left and cut inside, pictured top, beating two men before firing a shot across the keeper and into the bottom corner to make it 1-0.

Half-time: Sheffield 0 Consett 1

The hosts seemed to step up their game after the break, and Consett were forced to defend for long spells. Coombe saved low down from Edward Cribley, while Capewell made another superb block to deny Sheffield what looked like a certain goal.

Coombe made a good save in the 70th minute, beating out a well-struck long-range effort, and there was a let-off for Consett on 77 minutes when Zottos missed from close range when it looked impossible not to score.

Consett had spent much of the half defending but had a good chance to seal the three points on 78 minutes when sub Adam Mitchell fired inches wide from the edge of the box.

As they’ve found out so often this season, the miss proved costly, as two minutes later Sheffield were level. A right-wing corner was headed down, and in the resulting melee Reece Fielding fired home the loose ball for his third goal in the last three games.

The game was anybody’s now, and Consett had the best opportunity to nick all three points when Orrell curled a shot agonisingly wide on 86 minutes.

But it ended honours even – probably a fair result on the day, but disappointing for Consett after they had led for so long and defended so well.

Still, a point away from home represented a solid start to the new manager’s tenure, though the club’s winless run now extends to 10 games.