New Tupton stay top of A Division of The Hope Valley League after narrow win

The first half produced little in the way of meaningful chances but the best effort fell to the Tupton when Dan Stevenson threaded through a lovely ball for Jack Foulds who saw his shot saved by the visiting keeper.

Tupton were in need of a spark from somewhere and the introduction of Joe Holmes for the second half seemed to bring them to life as they started brightly.

But a goal good enough to win any game never mind this one appeared on 50 minutes when Foulds beat his marker on the half way and sprinted down the left wing and pulled the ball back to striker Ben Norman who fired the ball into the roof of the net from the edge of the penalty box.

As the game opened up Ivanhoe were looking to increase their lead and were denied by the cross bar just two minutes after opening the scoring the unfortunate John McArdle seeing his lovely strike bounce back off the woodwork.

The game developed into some strong Hathersage pressure with long range shots being off target but when they were more accurate keeper Jim Brown was in fine form to deny them. For Tupton they were relying on their pace to counter attack and when referee Anderson signalled for full time it was to signal they had hung on to maximum points but also breathe a sigh of relief after Hathersage had pushed them all the way.

This Saturday October 23 Ivanhoe are at home again to Youlgrave at 2pm.