The two sides traded chances in a tense opening few minutes, with Scott Ruthven's free-kick hitting the foot of the post, then captain Dan Coupland went close when his shot was saved by Hallam keeper Hugo Warhurst after a good run down the right flank by Duke Witter.

An eventful few minutes, ensuing from the eighteen-minute mark, was to prove fateful for The Miners however. The visitors were awarded a penalty after Harry Viggars was ruled to have felled Iren Wilson (?) in the box. Oliver Fearon stepped up and sent Toby Wells the wrong way to open the scoring. Within two minutes though Town were given a golden opportunity to equalise when Sam Barker was tripped in the box and the referee pointed to the spot once again. Sadly it was one we couldn't take and Warhurst dived the right way to keep out Coupland's effort and preserve The Countrymen's lead. To be fair our captain doesn't miss many, with the last, as it happens, coming against the same opponents back in February.

Town had been a tad unlucky to be behind, but for much of the contest we struggled to produce the free-flowing football seen in pre-season against a tough and well-organised defence. Some chances did come about though and on 32 mins Matt Antcliff came close with a rising strike which looked to have been tipped over the bar, but we were denied a corner-kick when the match officials instead gave a goal-kick. Shortly after that Dexter Ball's 25-yard effort went just wide, before Tabish Hussain saw a low shot saved after good work by Witter and Coupland. Despite all that, we found ourselves further behind five minutes before the break when Jack Brownwell's free kick was pushed wide by Wells, only for Scott Ruthven to slide in and find the net.

On 52 mins Barker put a low shot wide after carving out space on the edge of the box, then Alex Zachariou almost inadvertently made it three when he touched a Brownwell delivery onto the far post, although in the event a Hallam attacker was ruled offside.

On 58 mins Town deservedly got a goal back when Hussain's delivery was cleverly flicked on by Viggars beyond Warhurst's reach for a goal on his league debut.

Wells was called into action five minutes after that when having to tip over Ruthven's speculative effort from the halfway line. Manager Paul Marshall tried to freshen things up with four changes, but as the game reached its end it looked more likely that the visitors would add to their lead. Substitute and former Garforth striker Calum Ward probably should've done so on 81 mins when working his way deep into the box only to blaze over the bar, then shortly after Wells denied him at the far post when getting on the end of Aaron Fell's corner kick. Another corner on 84 mins led to a decisive third. And it was Fearon again, getting to it first and setting himself up for an unstoppable volley into the roof of the net. With four goals in two games now after scoring both in Hallam's last visit here, LS25 is proving to be a good hunting ground for the hitman.

With no further chances for either side, attention turned to the officials as Hallam looked to see out the win, with frustrations with their decisions boiling over. Sub Sam Denton and an opponent were booked when handbags ensued after Dents had his shirt ripped moments after coming on. Fellow sub Jason Davis was booked after being controversially penalised for a high challenge, then was promptly sin-binned for dissent after another decision went against us, ending his involvement for the afternoon.

Whilst 3-1 could be said to be a tad harsh on the Miners after an entertaining game, an improvement will be needed if we're to get anything from a testing next three or so games, with a visit to fellow promotion-chasers Emley up next on Tuesday (kick-off 7:45pm).