Forty-eight hours after the Colts recovered from being two goals down to force a two-all draw, they performed a similar comeback, but the mood at the final whistle was very different. The last visitors to Windsor Park this season, Appleby Frodingham, were concluding their fixtures, the results of which contained only one league victory for the Scunthorpe side since September and yet it was the team at the bottom of the league which made the most of its chances in the first half.

Several of the Frod side have represented Crowle in the past and it was one of those players, Ashton Short, who put his new team ahead with the first chance of the game. A free kick from wide on Frod’s right was aimed to the back post where it found Short who was able to control the ball before forcing it into the Colts’ goal in the third minute. Crowle had conceded the first goal when the sides met at Frod’s Brumby Hall ground in November before taking control of the game but that didn’t happen here and the visitors went further ahead in the fourteenth minute through Shay Barron who looped a speculative shot over Dec Jordan.

The Colts weren’t without chances in the opening period but couldn’t find a way past Steve Broughton who held on to Crowle’s best opportunity, a one-on-one with Kurt Robinson three minutes before half-time. A change of line-up accompanied the change of ends, and substitute Josh Fawcett announced his arrival three minutes into the second half by bundling the ball into the goal at the near post from Robinson’s left-wing cross.

The rest of the game seemed to take place in Frod’s half of the pitch and the home side caused a few nervous moments for the visitors but couldn’t force an equalizer as the game approached its final ten minutes. The visitors had used their only substitute by the time Barron received a knock and had to leave the field with around a quarter of an hour to play. Whether the advantage in manpower was a factor in the Colts’ second goal won’t matter to Robinson who capitalized on a loose ball in Frod’s area to notch his sixteenth goal of the season.

A late injury to Zak Shipman left Crowle with just ten players on the pitch, none of whom managed to get the ball past Broughton in the seven minutes of stoppage time, and the final whistle brought an end, not only to Appleby Frodingham’s season, but also the Colts’ home fixtures for 2022-23.