Fleet second best at York (From News Shopper)

York City 3-2 Ebbsfleet

10:29am Monday 23rd January 2012 in News and Reports By David Byrom

EBBSFLEET United suffered their first defeat of 2012 with a loss away to 10-man York City on Saturday in a thrilling match at Bootham Crescent.

With the two teams preferring to play attacking football, the game flowed freely and both sides had a number of goal scoring chances.

York emerged the deserved victors as, led by the brilliant Matty Blair, they carved open the visitors throughout.

Ebbsfleet were without Michael West and Ricky Shakes, while illness to captain Paul Lorraine meant manager Liam Daish was forced to field a makeshift defence with Craig Stone partnering Yado Mambo at centre-back.

Play-off chasing York were on the front foot from the off and they took the lead on 11 minutes when Jamie Reed fired in a low cross which wasn’t dealt with by Stone, allowing Blair to poke a shot home from close-range.

Six minutes later the hosts were controversially reduced to 10-men after midfielder Scott Brown was shown a straight red for a recklessly high challenge which saw him connect with Ebbsfleet captain Ram Marwa’s chest.

York keeper Michael Ingham was then forced into making a last-ditch sliding tackle on Nathaniel Pinney following a poor back-pass as the visitors began to gain a foothold in the match.

Daish was forced into a substitution shortly before half-time when left-back Johnny Herd limped off injured.

His replacement Lanre Azeez almost made an instant impact as his low cross set up Calum Willock, whose shot was well-saved.

Ebbsfleet levelled on 50 minutes when Willock won a header to send Pinney clear and the Crystal Palace loanee skipped past Ingham before tapping into an empty net.

But the hosts immediately retook the lead when Pilkington beat Mambo in a race to the ball.

After seeing his original shot saved, Pilkington laid a pass back to Blair, who finished from eight yards.

Ebbsfleet’s heads then dropped and York began to dominate with Blair at the heart of the majority of their attacks.

The third goal was scored on 66 minutes when Blair and James Meredith played a one-two which allowed the left back to break into the box and chip the onrushing Edwards and into the back of the net.

York then had chance after chance to put the game to bed but through a combination of good goalkeeping and poor finishing, they could not score again.

This allowed Willock to set up a grandstand finish on 87 minutes when he turned his marker and placed a brilliantly placed shot past Ingham, but the hosts managed to hang on for a deserved victory.

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Ebbsfleet: Edwards, Howe, Stone, Mambo, Herd (Azeez 36), Phipp, Marwa, Barrett, Pinney, Enver-Marum, Willock Subs Not Used: McNeil, McCarthy, Masroh-McDowell, Adams. Att: 2,973.