The greater experience of defending Northern Premier League champions Glenfield Rovers prevailed over the young squad sported by Metro when the teams clashed at Unitec on March 27, the visitors continuing their recovery after a slow, injury-hit start to the season with a hard-earned 2-1 victory.
As a spectacle, however, this game was a poor one, with neither team imposing themselves on the game by way of a display of consistent quality football. There were some fleeting instances which offered hope that the ensuing mundane fare would be overshadowed, but all too quickly, those brief glimpses of quality fell victim to the individual errors with which this game was riddled.
Three players consistently rose above the standards of those surrounding them, however, the pick of that trio being Rovers' Dean Dodds. Some of his vision and passing in this match were of the international quality which he possesses in abundance - his signature on a National League contract later this year should be keenly sought after by the chosen franchises.
Layton "Bomber" O'Rourke was another to rise above the mediocrity which was much in evidence throughout this fixture, his willingness to lead the line from the front and engineer openings for himself and others well worthy of a goal for him personally.
The third player of the trio whose mistake level was minimal was Jason Beeston, whose display for Metro was capped with a goal sixteen minutes from time, when he took full advantage of Barry Donachie's blunder to put the home team back in the match.
For Metro were 2-0 down at the point, and had rarely tested Rovers' custodian, Paul Harvey. The visitors started strongly, John Hannah James Stewart and Gareth Rowe all going close inside the first twenty minutes, with the home team responding in kind through attempts by Arek Kubicki, Peter Wild - his twenty-five yard drive the closest to a goal in this period - and Philip Carratt.
Come the 27th minute, the goal Glenfield deserved to this point in time materialised, courtesy a Duncan Clark error. He misjudged Josh Turnbull's flighted diagonal ball, allowing Hannah to steal in behind him and head the ball over the cap-less Craig Wilkins, Metro's goalkeeper opting to go without headwear in this match, despite looking into the sun throughout the first forty-five minutes!
Wild's 32nd minute shot lived up to his surname after Carratt and Kubicki had linked on the left as Metro's pursuit of an equaliser began in earnest, but all too often for the remainder of the half, play was confined to the middle third of the pitch, both teams tending to cancel each other out with a mix of errors, erratic passing and, all in all, some decidedly ordinary football.
The second half saw Metro start the better of the two sides, and finish the stronger as well. The best save of the game came in the 53rd minute, when Michael Horne's free-kick brought the best out of Harvey, Rovers' 'keeper having unintentionally handled the ball outside his penalty area when punching clear to concede the set-piece opportunity.
Shane Campbell just failed to get on the end of a Carratt cross just after the hour mark, but with their very next attack, Rovers put the game seemingly beyond Metro's reach.
Their 64th minute strike was a combination of class and crass, as Dodds produced an absolute gem of a defence-splitting pass which put Metro's rearguard in all sorts of trouble. Wilkins charged out of goal, Gerard Smith and Clark retreated, with Hannah leading the charge for the visitors.
Clark got to the ball first, and played it away from the advancing Wilkins, but right into danger. For his error was quickly pounced on by Hannah, who wasted no time in despatching his second goal of the game into the back of the untended net.
Three minutes later, Phil Porteous should have put the result beyond any doubt for Glenfield when evading the offside trap to latch onto Donachie's lofted through ball. But the striker saw his attempt to nutmeg the advancing Wilkins foiled by the 'keeper's legs, when there was time aplenty for him to round the Metro man and roll the ball home in the one-on-one situation.
Soon after, Dodds and Porteous both went close to extending the visitors' advantage - the latter had a goal disallowed for offside - before Metro got back into the game through Beeston.
The goal did the home team's confidence wonders, and they twice had chances to draw level in the dying minutes. The first of those opportunities was a glorious opening, with Smith and Dylan Beckham linking neatly on the right to provide Kubicki with the sort of chance which begged a composed finish. The striker was unable to provide one, however, his first-time drive flying wildly wide.
In stoppage time, Metro's last chance came about following Carratt's cleared corner. The ball fell to Horne, who lofted it towards the far post, where Clark was still loitering following the set-piece. The defender's chance to atone for his two errors which had given Glenfield their goals was at hand, but he blazed a volley over the bar from eight yards, a finish in keeping with the general standard of a game which, the efforts of three players in particular apart, left much to be desired.

Metro: Wilkins; R. Beeston, Smith, Clark, J. Beeston; Campbell (Beckham, 83), Wild, Dundas, Newall (Horne, 46); Carratt, Kubicki

Glenfield: Harvey; Donachie, Rowe, Moore, Turnbull; Carlse (Porteous, 57) (Lahav, 85), Dodds, Hannah, Beckham (Cvetkovski, 70); Stewart, O'Rourk

Referee: Hayden Sentch

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