THE66POW

Arrived early today and saw local MP John Mann hard at work
laying the foundations for the new Worksop Town ground.
Alas, his digger is obscuring the pigs flying in the background.

Sunday 21st August 2016
FA Cup Preliminary Round
at the Windsor Foodervice Stadium
Worksop Town (2) 2
Richard Adams 7
Steven Woolley 33
Ashton Athletic (1) 2
Joel Brownhill 5
Daniel Smith 52 pen
Admission £5. Programme £1. Attendance 486
For more crowd/action images click HERE

This NCEL v NWCL encounter, will have to be settled at the 600 capacity Brocstedes Park, in Ashton-in-Makerfield (WN4 0NQ, for the benefit of those of you who I know are heading up Wigan way), on Tuesday night, as these two Premier Division sides fought out a 2-2 draw in front of an impressive 486 spectators this afternoon.
While Worksop have claims to being the fourth oldest club in the world, Ashton are mere youngsters by comparison, having been formed as a Sunday League side in 1968.
It still beggars belief, that when Worksop Town turned a ripe old 150 years of age, that milestone wasn't celebrated properly, because the (then) club chairman, Jason Clark, wanted to put the champagne on ice until the Tigers moved into a new ground within the town.
He (Clark) did a lot of good for the club, but he didn't always get everything right all of the time

Please excuse my cynicism at this juncture, but I actually believe that there isn't going to be a new ground built anywhere near Worksop any time soon... and if whoever is at the helm of the club in 2061 applies the same mandate as Jason did, then the 200th year celebrations will be put on the back burner too.
Hopefully the 160th anniversary of the formation of the club, in 2021, is going to be handled better and all of the commercial marketing and merchandising opportunities, along with the inevitable publicity angles are utilised fully.
Non-league clubs are always on the look out for money, embracing club landmarks, milestones and achievements, with the correct selling strategy, is on a par to printing the stuff.
Maltby Main (formed in 1916) have a centenary history book available, you can pick one up for £10 the next time you're at Muglet Lane; but Worksop Town, a club with a substantially bigger fan base, target audience and local population than the Miners, did absolutely nothing to mark their 150 years of existence... and it makes you wonder why, doesn't it!?

Wow! Mark Shaw can afford to shop at Sainsburys

Anyway, fast forwarding to the present day, this afternoon's game, which was being played on a Sunday because Handsworth Parramore were at home in the FA Cup yesterday, when they beat Evo-Stik League side Stocksbridge Park Steels 4-1, started off at breakneck speed, with both sides keen to get an advantage early on.
The first chance fell to Worksop after just two minutes, when Steve Woolley was fouled thirty yards from the 'Ash' goal, but Fenton overhit the resulting free kick and the ball fell wide of the mark.
The visitors stormed into a lead after five minutes, when Adam Howard played the ball down the left flank to Daniel Smith who powered forward before delivering the ball across the face of the Tigers goal, where Joel Brownhill met it as he ran into the six yard box and dispatched a shot into the back of the net from close range.

The home side almost responded immediately when Adam Scott, presented with a crowded goalmouth ahead of him, lobbed the ball from twenty five yards out, but as it dropped, Michael Pearson tipped the ball over his bar, into the roof of the netting.
However, Worksop were straight back on the attack and forced a corner, which Woolley delivered from the left flank and Richard Adams forced across the line at the back post to level things up and claw back the short lived deficit.
Straight from the restart, Ashton almost went ahead again, but Adam Gilchrist struck the left hand post with his shot from the edge of the home side's area.
Scott and Jordan Hodder are developing a good understanding down the right flank and were passing the ball round well between themselves... and it was Scott who came close again when Woolley tried picking him out with a deep cross from the left wing.

Mitch Husbands limped out of the game after eight minutes, but Mark Shaw's tactics remained the same because he had Adam Somes to push into the central strikers role and, as per usual, the former Stags youngster was chomping at the bit to be involved.
The Tigers were putting the ball forward through Scott whenever they could, but Ashton had spotted this ruse and Sam Bailey tracked back and stopped the Tigers number 10 with trip as he picked up a pass from Kyle Jordan.
Bailey also blocked Woolley's free kick and deflected it over the bar for a corner. Ashton cleared Woolley's kick and a long clearance fell to Smith, but as he motored forward, Hodder, the only man left back for the set pieces, go across the 'Ash' manager and forced him to shoot early, making the stop easy for Jon Kennedy.

Jordan showed a clean pair of heels to Dan Blythe on the left flank and crossed the ball towards Woolley and when Howard got a foot in and half cleared the danger, Scott latched onto the loose ball and skimmed a dipping shot just over the crossbar.
Kyle Jordan broke away down the left, but had to go it alone as he had sprinted forward so fast that nobody was up with him and Howard got across to win the ball and mop up the danger for the visitors, while barracking the assistant referee for not flagging the Tigers winger offside. He did have a point though, but there was only a few yards in it.
Bailey and Gilchrist combined with Callum Wilson, spraying passes about at will just outside the Worksop goal area, Hodder stepped out and disrupted their flow, but Bailey chased the loose ball down and rolled it into the path of Brownhill, who cleared the bar with his first time shot.

Scott, in full flight, danced past three challenges before chipping the ball towards Somes on the penalty spot, but Dan Regan headed the ball away, only to see it come flying back past him as Woolley cracked an unstoppable shot past Pearson from twenty yards to give Worksop the lead.
Howard and Brownhill pushed deep into the home side's territory, but there was nobody in Kennedy's goalmouth to put a finishing touch to the latter's cross and the ball went out for a goal kick.
Adams was doing a great job of keeping tabs on Gilchrist, the visitors number 9 and covering the centre and right hand side of the defence well, which was freeing up Hodder to get forward and help with the attack. And right on the stroke of half time, that is just what the Tigers right back did, cutting a swathe through the left of Ashton's defence, with a quick passing triangle manoeuvre involving Somes and Scott, that Pearson did well to thwart when he got down to smother the ball.
HT: Worksop Town 2 v Ashton Athletic 1

Despite the fact that Ashton gave a very good account of themselves in the first half and always looked more relaxed on the ball than the all out attacking 100 mph Tigers, I honestly thought that the home side had the better of the first half by quite some way.

However, after the break, rather than consolidating their lead, at a time when the next goal would prove to be critical, they did a very passable impression of a group of players who were hell bent on travelling up to Ashton in Makerfield on Tuesday night.

Bailey and Regan were standing out as a two man pivotal engine room for the visitors as they began to impose themselves more and more. It was Bailey who came close to pulling back a second goal for 'Ash', but his ambitious shot from out on the left flank flew wide of the right hand upright. Nevertheless, it was a statement of intent and the alarm bells were sounding loud and clear now.

Dan Smith makes it 2-2 from the penalty spot

Brownhill picked up the ball and keeping it close to his feet and burst into the penalty area towards Kennedy, there was a crack of boots as Callum Harrison tried getting a tackle in and Brownhill, obviously in pain, went to ground.

There were appeals from both sides, but in the event, the referee, Martyn Fryer pointed to the spot.

You can never be too careful when putting your foot in towards an opposition player who has got pace and forward momentum in his favour, because if you clip him, even if it isn't deliberate, then it's a penalty. Especially when the sound effects back the split second decision making process up.

Kennedy went the right way, but Smith had planted the ball just beyond his reach and made it two apiece.

Kennedy was then forced to make two saves in quick succession, from Gilchrist and Smith, with Regan filling the role of chief goal scoring chance creator.
Somes held off a challenge and teed up a chance for Scott, but Pearson positioned himself well as he stopped the shot and held onto the ball.
Once again Regan put Smith on his way with a measured pass and as the Worksop defence closed in on the Ashton forward he laid the ball off to Bailey whose shot sailed a fraction over the bar.
The Tigers were nowhere near their best as Ashton kept chipping away at them, but with the scores still level, the game was still there for the taking.

The Tigers manager freshened things up and threw Jack Hawkins into the fray from the bench and the tempo of Worksop's forward movement picked up no end. With the Tigers sub slotting in behind Scott, 'Ash' had twice the problems to deal with out on that flank, particularly with Hodder and Alex Nightingale playing just off the pair of them.

Hawkins drew the full back towards him and threaded the ball into the space he'd created to Hodder who raced in on the overlap and was unlucky that the impressive Pearson had read the situation and got down in the way of his goal bound shot.

Mark Fereday had also come on from the bench and was buzzing around Ashton's defence like a swarm of hornets, until Luke Holden used his right foot to swat him with. Woolley took the resulting free kick and though Howard sliced his clearance Bailey was on hand to help the ball out of play and away from immediate danger.

Having been pegged back for most of the first half, Worksop were at least finishing the game with a flourish now. Woolley found the towering Adams with his flag kick, but the Tigers centre half crashed a downwards header against Adam Somes and the visitors cleared the ball once more.

Regan, having a bit of a change from dictating the pace of the game from midfield, got back just in time to deflect Scott's stinging ten yard shot round the post.

And right at the death, Howard made a last ditch clearance after Fereday had nudged Nightingale's flick on into the path of Woolley.

FT: Worksop Town 2 v Ashton Athletic 2

Both sides had spells of the game when they were in control and could have finished the game off, but all told I reckon the draw was a just and fair result and now the two teams have had a chance to weight each other up, the replay on Tuesday should be an intriguing game.

Wednesday 24th August 2016
Toolstation NCEL Division 1
Brigg Town (1) 2
Paul Grimes 33
Lewis Dennison 55
Hallam (0) 1
Jake Currie 47
Admission £6. Programme £1.50. Attendance 101

Note* Hallam FC don't actually have any players called Dale Dannent, Calum Gagales, Tom Nubush, Steve Brampton or Juke Cumie, but it would be quite funny if they did.

However, in the absence of the three aforementioned entries on tonight's team sheet: Dave Darwent, Calum Greaves, Tom Roebuck, Steve Brammer and Jake Currie all played instead.

Brigg Town and Hallam FC are amongst the oldest football clubs in the world, with the south Yorkshire side coming into existence in 1860, meaning they are only pre-dated by one club, their near neighbours Sheffield FC. The 'Zebras' can trace their own history back to 1864, which definitely makes them the oldest club in the sprawling county of Lincolnshire and possibly the fourth oldest club in the known universe, or indeed 'the world's oldest town football club' as the red lettering beneath their team line ups suggests, though the gentleman who is currently researching and working on the definitive history of Worksop Town FC might claim otherwise.

'The Countrymen' are widely expected to be among the clubs pushing for promotion this season, after reaching the play offs last term, while their hosts, who were relegated from the NCEL Premier Division in May, have made a promising start to their current campaign, with a 100% win record in Division 1, the League Cup and the FA Cup, where wins against Clipstone and Blaby & Whetstone Athletic have seen them through to the first qualifying round, where they face a trip to Kings Lynn Town on September 3rd. Brigg had scored in the last minute of all four of their games prior to tonight.
An evenly matched, open and entertaining game ensued, with both sides creating plenty of chances.
You can just about guarantee an attack minded approach to each and every game Ryan Hindley's side play in, but I think it would also be fair to say, that to that end, this was the best Brigg Town performance I have seen for some time and there are certainly reasons for their long suffering fans to be more optimistic about the season ahead than there have been for a while.

Brigg like to get the ball forward quickly to Paul Grimes, but on tonight's evidence that is no bad thing, as the Zebras player manager proved to be a thorn in Hallam's side all night on the occasion of his 250th outing for the home side. 'Chaz' Fisher also caught the eye in the right back berth for Brigg and his input was pivotal to their attacking intentions as he offered a good supply line of balls into Hallam's final third from out on the right touchline.
Jack Hargreaves, James Reed and Jed Phillips forced the issue early on for the visitors, with Brigg having to concede a corner to clear the danger. Reed picked out Phillips with the resulting kick but his looping header was saved by Dale Coy.
Lewis Dennison came close to opening the scoring, but his ambitious shot from thirty yards out flew wide of the right hand post.
Back at the other end, Dale Coy kept the ball out as he went one against one with Hargreaves and repelled the Hallam play maker at the second (or possibly third) attempt.

Grimes ventured forward down the right and crossed to Harry Speck, who headed wide under pressure from Tom Roebuck.
Wes Hill picked out Currie on the edge of Brigg's area and the Hallam striker went down under a nudge in the back from Scott Hellewell.
But Brigg cleared the ball from Reed's free kick and moved play quickly from box to box, with Fisher threading a measured pass into the path of Paul Grimes, who charged forward before drilling a low shot under Darwent who was racing from his line to narrow the angle and limit Grimes' options, from ten yards out.
The visitors went looking for an equaliser from the restart and were inches away when Currie planted a shot just wide of the left hand post.
Currie was back in the thick of things moments later, in his own goal area when he headed away Grimes free kick and ran forward with the ball, but Nathan Peat got his foot in and rolled a sideways pass to Hellewell, who wasn't far away with a thumping shot.
HT: Brigg Town 1 v Hallam 0

The second half was just two minutes old, when the ball fell kindly for Currie just inside the Brigg area and he toe poked the ball up into the air, where it dropped over Coy and bounced into the goal to put the visitors on level terms.
Given how the game had ebbed and flowed from end to end, a draw would've been a fair result on the balance of things, but it made for great entertainment that both sides were still fully committed to chasing all three points as the sun went down, offering a vast array of rainbows and pastel shaded skies (I really wish I had a decent camera sometimes, it's Xmas soon, getting saving up mein wonderful and generous family) and darkness fell, along with a steady flow of precipitation that was heading inland from the east coast).
The visitors were only on level terms for eight minutes, because following a sustained spell of pressure from the Zebras, 'that man' Fisher edged his way forward again, deep into the Hallam penalty box and his thumping cross/shot from the byline only needed a touch and Lewis Dennison arrived right on time to dispatched the ball into the back of the net from close range.

Both teams continued to slug it out and the tempo of the game didn't let up for a moment, while the referee, who'd handled the game well thus far, seemingly missed a few bits and pieces that were going on, or turning a blind eye in a bid to keep the game ticking over..

Matt Ord, on as a second half substitute for Hallam was offering them plenty of options down the left flank from the moment he came on and when he played Hill through on the overlap ten yards from Brigg's goal, he looked odds on to score, but as the visitors full back beat Coy with a rasping angled shot, the ball glanced the top of the crossbar. and Brigg could breathe a sigh of relief.

They drew an even deeper breath with just ten minutes remaining, when the ball broke forward for Hallam from a scramble of players near the halfway line and Ord surged forward past Fisher, who had no option but to commit what us old timers still fondly remember as being called a 'professional foul' to prevent what looked like a certain goal scoring opportunity.

The referee bought the game to a halt, which everybody present assumed was to award what was a blatant penalty, but his immediate attention was drawn towards an injured Brigg player, Finn Kelly, who had gone down in the scrum that had preceded the goalmouth incident and stayed down. Having ascertained that the player was OK, the official, Mr Leneghan, ran to Brigg's penalty area to deal with the aftermath of Fisher's trip... and awarded a drop ball!

Hallam were, understandably incredulous.

My reading of the situation, is that as Fisher clipped Ord, both the referee and his assistants might have been momentarily distracted by Kelly's demeanor and missed the trip completely.

Either way, as soon as somebody shouted out 'head injury', play should have stopped immediately as a matter of course, so that the Brigg number 12 could receive treatment ASAP.

If the officials didn't see the trip, then they couldn't award a spot kick and the 'bounce up' was their only option. But the resulting confusion and emotional responses stemmed from the game not being stopped until moments after Fisher had a kick at Ord... and that must go down as a refereeing error, even though it was a heat of the moment genuine mistake, when the welfare of a player was potentially at stake. I wouldn't want to be a referee!

From a neutral perspective, you can sympathise with both team's point of view at this juncture, because if Kelly's injury had been more serious, then time was of the essence, but Ord was definitely poleaxed, whether the referee saw it or not and the game was stopped after the offence was committed, albeit only a brief matter of moments after.

Either way, Hallam almost equalised when Currie dipped a free kick agonisingly over the crossbar from out wide on the left a minute or so later.
But in spite of a few determined efforts to force their way forward and salvage a point, Brigg held on. And though Fisher had quite obviously got away with a blatant foul, that could have had serious repercussions for him given that he was the last man and Ord only had Coy to beat, nobody wants to see injured players going untreated.
But if the referee had seen the trip while he was also checking out Kelly's situation, then the drop ball was a poor decision. However, only the officials will know what they actually saw; but if I was in Hallam's camp I would have been bitterly disappointed not to have been awarded a penalty, but if I was on board with Brigg, I would've expected the game to have been stopped the moment it became apparent that Kelly was hurt.
Perhaps I'll get accused of getting splinters in my arse from sitting on the fence, but, in common with the match officials, I can only pass judgement on what I actually saw with my own eyes.
FT: Brigg Town 2 v Hallam 1
A draw would probably have been a fair result, but Brigg took their chances well and though you would have to say that the visitors were unlucky to leave empty handed, football isn't always fair.

Saturday 27th August 2016
EFL Youth Alliance Cup Group Stage
at Welbeck M.O.D. College, Nr Loughborough.
Burton Albion (0) 1
Tristan Matthews 88
Mansfield Town (0) 2
Tom Marriott 51, Ashanti Pryce 55
For more photographs from this game click HERE

Burton Albion:
Callum Hawkins, Tom Hammerton, Cameron Steel (Max Smith 85), Jack Hallahan, Jayden Cotterill, Jacob Savage (Jake Davies 63), Joe Hunt, Joe Sbarra, Cameron Shaw, Charlie Dowd (Tristan Matthews 63), Dylan Garnett
Unused subs - Lewis Walker, James Harrison
Mansfield Town:
Sam Wilson, Aiden Walker (Teddy Bloor HT), Kane Baldwin, Cain Smith (C), Max Hunt (Surafel Behailu HT), Kieran Harrison, Henri Wilder (Keaton Ward 81), Alistair Smith, Nyle blake, Tom Marriott (Harry Bircumshaw 82), Ashanti Pryce (Devante Reittie 65)

When Tristan Matthews netted for the home side, late on in this EFLYA Cup group stage match, played at Welbeck M.O.D. College near Loughborough, it was the first goal that the young Stags have conceded in any competitive fixture since April 16th, when Jack McMenemy scored a late consolation goal for Lincoln City on a day that Mansfield ran out 3-1 winners as they edged ever closer to winning the league title last season.
For the record, that is a phenomenal run of 544 minutes without a goal being scored against John Dempster's team.
The Stags management rang the changes, with Morgan Ratcliffe being unavailable and Teddy Bloor not being up to the rigours of a full ninety minutes; which gave Kane Baldwin and Max Hunt the opportunity to shine, which they both did, even though Hunt was replaced at half time to make way for a tactical shift, that ultimately won the game and gave the Brewers different challenges to those they had faced in a fairly tight and evenly balanced first half.

Burton took the initiative to push forward from the start and Alistair Smith needed to hook the ball away for a corner from Charlie Dowd's right wing cross as the Brewers looked to get an early goal under their belts. Joe Sbarra found Joe Hunt from the corner kick, but the diminuitive midfielder headed over from close range.
From the Stags first attack, Aiden Walker chipped the ball over the crossbar as Callum Hawkins ran off of his line in vainglorious pursuit of Tom Marriott's defence splitting forward pass.
Marriott was involved again moments later, but Hawkins plucked his cross away from Henri Wilder before he had chance to divert it towards the goal,
Nyle Blake flicked the ball over the Burton defence, turned quickly and chased after it, but Hawkins was quickly down to make a save.
Cameron Steele attacked the Mansfield defence down the left flank and crossed to Hunt, but Sam Wilson had anticipated the situation well and saved well down to his left.
Steele was proving to be a problem for the visitors with his probing runs down the left flank, but Max Hunt calmly dealt with his cross and cleared the ball to safety.
Jacob Savage dwelled on the ball a moment too long and Walker nicked it away on the edge of the Brewers area, but Hawkins thwarted the Stags again.

Mansfield strung together a neat passing move when Cain Smith played the ball out wide to Walker, who nudged the ball forward for Ashanti Pryce, the former Birmingham City striker held off a challenge before finding Alistair Smith with a sideways pass, but his cross fell inches away from where Blake could get his shot in and Albion breathed a sigh of relief.
From Burton's clearance, Kieran Harrison picked up the ball and advanced twenty yards before shooting, but Hawkins got his body behind the ball and another opportunity went begging.
Burton attacked again but Kane Baldwin prevented Dylan Garnett's cross from causing the Stags any problems.

But Burton did threaten again shortly afterwards and looked odds on to score when Steele crossed to Hunt, but Wilson pulled off a wordly to turn his close range header over.
Blake and Marriott were having to play deep as Burton defended high up the pitch, but they were battling well and digging the ball out.
Charlie Dowd put on a sprint and advanced forward towards Wilson's goal, but Baldwin stop him in his tracks with a well timed tackle. The young defender had an exceptional game today.
Pryce made light work of coasting past three challenges and showed great maturity when he came up against a wall of yellow shirts by passing the ball backwards to Alistair Smith to pick up the momentum again instead of squandering possession with a hopeful shot.

The ever lively Marriott and Blake were still plugging away looking for an opening in the Burton defence but when Wilder joined in on the flank, his delivery into the area was cleared and Albion countered, but when Dowd almost found the decisive touch to break the deadlock, Hunt was on hand to make a timely clearance by Wilson's right hand post.
Marriott did well when he showed great close control and turned Hammerton before delivering a left wing cross that deceived Hawkins but dropped just over the bar.
Right on the stroke of half time, Alistair Smith won the ball inside the final third and switched play to the right with a knock to Walker, but Pryce couldn't quite get on the end of the right back's first time cross and had to run wide to the left of the goal, where the angle of the shot was a fraction too acute for him.
HT: Brewers Youth 0 v Stags Youth 0

At the interval, the Stags management made a tactical switch and started the second half with four at the back, as Walker and Hunt made way for Teddy Bloor and Surafel Behailu, not that either of them had played badly, it was purely a matter of regrouping, reorganising and giving the home side a fresh set of problems to unravel, the effect was positive and immediate.
Behailu picked up the ball thirty yards out, ghosted past a challenge and laid the ball out wide to Bloor on the right flank, the Stags substitute switched it back inside to Blake, who drilled the ball into the side netting.

The Stags were picking up the tempo now and putting their hosts on the back foot with a fast passing game that Burton were struggling to deal with.
Blake advanced into goal area and left the Brewers defence flat footed as he rolled the ball back to Bloor as they were expecting a shot, Marriott and Pryce timed their runs well as he played the ball in behind the static defence and the former thumped the ball gratefully past Hawkins to give the visitors the lead on 51 minutes.
Pryce dragged the ball past Jayden Cotterill and squared up to shoot but Hawkins dashed out and saved bravely at his feet.
But the powerhouse striker didn't have to wait long for another chance and when Marriott threaded the ball through to him from just outside the home side's goal area, Pryce dropped a shoulder, committed Hawkins to make a challenge and took the ball round the Brewers keeper before rolling the ball into an empty net.

Burton responded with a double substitution of their own and adopted the same second half strategy as Mansfield, but the damage had already been done.
Having suitably impressed and given the visitors a great platform to see the game out from, Pryce was substituted, but Albion weren't about to get any respite from the Stags attacking game, because Devante Reittie came on in his place for the final 25 minutes as John Dempster and his team tweaked the system slightly again.
Reittie had only been on the pitch a matter of moments when he charged Hammerton's attempted clearance down... and although the home side scrambled the ball away, the quick footed striker had heralded his arrival and made his mark from the off.

Garnett, Dowd and Cameron Shaw tried passing their way into the heart of Mansfield territory, but Behailu was having none of it and he nicked the ball away and swept up at the back for his side.
Jake Davies, a second half substitute for the home side, looked useful and used his pace to get into the Stags area, but Harrison blocked his run, before being tripped as Burton conceded a free kick.
Blake chased the long ball forward but Hawkins stayed on his feet and collected the ball.
Back came Burton and the speedy wide man Hunt broke through the right channel with the goal in his sights, but Wilson turned the ball away with another quality reflex save.
Davies executed a training ground corner kick routine, but Garnett's shot flew high and wide.
Behailu was looking indefatigable since he came on and he beat Hammerton for pace on the wing before planting a teasing free kick to Blake at head height, but Hawkins showed his agility was on a par with Wilson's as he made a great stop, or it would have been 'game over'.

This being a cup game, teams are allowed to use five substitutes and Keaton Ward and Harry Bircumshaw were given a run out for the final 8 minutes as Marriott and Wilder both got a rest for a job well done.
With the Burton defence backing off and wondering what option Cain Smith was going to choose from among his team mates who were forward in numbers, the battling midfield lynch pin let fly with a shot from 25 yards that skimmed over the bar.
The home side conceded possession from Hawkins goal kick and Ward was unlucky to see his close range effort cleared off of the line after Behailu had provided another quality cross into the Burton area.
To their credit. although they had been under threat of getting over run by the Stags, Burton were unwilling to throw the towel in just yet and Harrison had to execute a firm (but fair) challenge on Davies, right on the penalty spot, as Sbarra played a through ball into the heart of the visitors defence.
Burton did get a goal back inside the final two minutes however.

Initially Wilson had cleared Garnett's left wing cross away, but a momentary lapse in the Stags defence (and that is all it takes), saw Garnett play the ball back into the box to Matthews who drilled it past Wilson from an angle.
But it was too late for the Brewers to salvage a draw now and Mansfield claimed a hard fought victory in their cup group, which also contains Shrewsbury and Walsall.
FT: Burton Albion Youth 1 v Mansfield town Youth 2
Next week the Stags U18 are playing at the same venue against the same opposition in an EFLYA (North) league fixture which kicks off at 11AM.
*Note... Only club staff and players relatives are allowed onto the Ministry of Defence site to watch the game.

Saturday 27th October 2016

Toolstation NCEL Premier Division

at Muglet Lane

Maltby Main (2) 3

Steve Hopewell 5, 21, 49

AFC Mansfield (1) 1

Lynton Karkach 14

Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 57

For more pictures from this afternoon's NCEL game click HERE

Left click to enlarge

Maltby Main:

Danny Rusling, Craig Mitchell, Lee Hill, Reece Wesley, Dan Reilly, Shawn Mitchell, Ollie Lawrence, Jordan Snodin (Josh Hemmingway 65 (Callum Cheetham 72)), Steve Hopewell (C), Connor Gregg (Matt Semley 69), Sam Stacey

Unused subs - Jack Greeves, Jack Binney

AFC Mansfield:

Jason White, Jordan Annable (Danny Patterson 55), Mark Dudley, Grant Allott (Matt Plummer 55), Brad Wilson, John D'Laryea, Ryan Williams (C), Glyn Cotton (Gary Bradshaw), Lynton Karkach, Ollie Fearon, Jimmy Ghaichem

Unused subs - Josh Madin, Myles Wright

Put it down son, you'll go blind!

And the moral of this story is, if you're visiting Muglet Lane this season, you're going to have to graft damn hard to get anything against this resilient Maltby side... and even then, there is no guarantee that the 'Miners' won't be working a double shift and putting in twice as much energy you can muster anyway.
AFC Mansfield have the talent to beat anybody on their day, but they were given a bit of a lesson this afternoon, in playing with a lot of heart and sacks full of commitment.
I once saw, written on the Gents toilet wall in the 'Fighting Cocks' public house in Rawmarsh: "Hard work will always beat talent when talent doesn't work hard" and that outhouse graffiti artist knew what he was on about, because beneath the 'Scargill is a bastard' scrawl he'd added: "No he isn't, he's a self made man" in the same neat handwriting that suggested he was a dab hand at calligraphy and possibly suffered from OCD.
I suspect the offensive statement was aimed at 'King Coal' himself, Arthur Scragill and not the Athersley Rec player Kieron Scargill.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not actually saying that the Bulls weren't fired up enough today, but rather that Maltby Main most definitely were.... as they picked up a thoroughly deserved three points, with a display that redefined the words adrenaline and desire.
With Lee Hill in particular, playing like a man possessed, who'd just come out of a Tattooists where he'd had THEY SHALL NOT PASS inked on his forehead... and we're not talking about ball greedy players who won't give their mates a go either. A tattoo would certainly look more manly that a girly headband methinks.

The visitors weren't without a few creative touches and attacking intentions at times, but they were second to the ball and caught napping far too often, by a side who, toall intents and purposes looked as though they wanted it more... much, much more if I'm being honest.

The Forest Town based side are going to have to put considerably more in today next Saturday, if they want to progress past Stratford Town in the FA Cup First Qualifying Round.

It's a crying shame that less than sixty people were present this afternoon, to witness the progress that the host club is making, both on and off the pitch. But Rome wasn't built in a day... though it might have been if Wilf Race, John Mills, the unsung and hard working committee at the club along with Spencer Fearn and his back up team were on that job.

Far too many non league clubs peak far too soon and vanish without a trace, after living beyond their means, but that won't happen at Maltby, where the strides forward you can visibly see that are being made, are being taken at a realistic and sustainable pace.
They've only been around for one hundred years, why rush these things!?
Mansfield had a bit of a scare in the opening minutes, when Jason White completely misjudged Jordan Snodin's left wing corner and fumbled his attempted catch, but the match referee, one Eddie Pidduck, who was ably assisted by Glen Whitehead and Jamie O'Connor today, had spotted and infringement and Maltby were unable to take advantage of the uncharacteristic slip by the Bulls number one.

"It's mine and you can't ****ing have it!"

But there was no whistle to help out the visitors after just five minutes, when Connor Gregg slotted a delightful pass through the Bulls defence to Steve Hopewell, who put Maltby on their way towards what turned out to be a great result, with an emphatic finish.

Ollie Lawrence almost doubled the Miners lead two minutes later, but his shot from on the edge of the area deflected wide.

Lynton Karkach, who I still say Gainsborough Trinity will regret releasing, pulled Mansfield level on14 minutes with a well taken solo goal from around eight yards out, after bursting into the Maltby area at speed through the left channel.

But any ideas that the visitors had of building on their first goal were well and truly nipped in the bud by a determined rearguard action from Maltby, who were dealing comfortably with anything that Rudy Funk's side threw at them.

Meanwhile Lawrence, who had only just arrived at Muglet Lane in the nick of time before the team sheets were submitted, raced forward down the left flank, making light work of dealing with two half hearted challenges, before crossing the ball into the path of Hopewell who met it head on and powered the ball past White to restore the Main's lead on twenty one minutes.

Lawrence was buzzing around like some kind of Tasmanian Devil and proving to be problematic for the Bulls defence and White did well to hold onto the Maltby number seven's twenty five yard, speculative shot.
Mansfield were almost gifted an equaliser when the usually rock solid and reliable Reece Wesley, made a complete hash of passing the ball back to Danny Rusling, but the Miners keeper was alert to the danger and reached the ball a fraction before Karkach.
It was Karkach who had the next opportunity too, but as Jimmy Ghaichen fed a forward pass to the lively winger, but Craig Mitchell got across and forced him to shoot early and the ball flew high and wide of Rusling's right hand upright.
Karkach advanced down the left flank once again after Ghaichem had put him on his way, but this time round Wesley was in no mood for mucking about with a risky back pass and he launched a no nonsense clearance onto the adjacent cricket pitch, where thankfully the bails remained intact.

Jon D'Laryea played a diagonal ball across Maltby's goal area to Karkach who got his angles horribly wrong and drilled the ball off target, well wide of the right hand post.
Brad Wilson played the ball wide to Fearon on theright hand side of Maltby's area, but Hill cleared the danger before the Bulls attacker had time to blink, let alone use the ball creatively.
Sam Stacey was having a lively personal duel with Jordan Annable, no doubt they'll be able to face time each other tomorrow to compare bruises, but it was Snodin who found a way through the visitors defence after dispossessing Ghaichem, before rolling a sideways pass to Hopewell who could have claimed his hat trick, but opted to hoof the ball out of the ground instead.
In a moment of deja vu that was identical to an incident not five minutes earlier, Wilson played the ball out to Fearon on the right, but Hill blocked his run again.

One can only assume that the number 3 on Lee Hill's back, indicated that he was playing in the left back berth, but if truth be told, he seemed to pop up in the thick of the action, wherever it was taking place anywhere on the pitch.
Ghaichem and Fearon finished the first half in the dog house with their management team, by reacting far too slowly to put the final touch on two decent left wing deliveries from Karkach.
On this evidence, the neglect and abandonment of duty at critical times by the Mansfield attackers was almost tangible. A half time bollocking was the very least that some of the away team deserved, though their poor showing does actually beg the question, were they playing crap, or were Maltby applying themselves to the nth degree and making a usually effective and attack minded side look average, at best?

HT: Miners 2 v Bulls 1

As the second half kicked off, our conundrum was answered: Maltby were making their visitors look poor by closing them down and not allowing them to settle on the ball, while implementing an impressively high level work rate, that was almost unrelenting and Mansfield were contributing to their own downfall too, by playing well below the required level that is expected of them.
The Bulls faithful will be grateful that they have a midweek game coming up against Albion Sports, where they can endeavour to iron out some of the creases before next weekend's big cup game.
That said, although it would be churlish of me to name names, by my reckoning, some of the Bulls players were already getting some rest in out on the field of play today, in anticipation of the visit of Sandhurst. It's difficult to hide on a football pitch in a bright yellow shirt, but some of the Bulls team near on mastered the ancient art of invisibility. at times.

Just four minutes after the restart, Green intercepted a poor clearance by Annable and nudged the ball forward into the path of Hopewell who couldn't miss from there and the visitors now had a two goal cushion.

Ten minutes into the second half, Mr Funk chucked in his last throw of the dice and made three substitutions at the same time in a bid to galvanise and inject some new life into his ailing team. Needs must and it really was a back to the drawing board moment for the visitors, who would be hoping not to pick up any knocks or injuries now on the Muglet Lane incline.

Matt Plummer's forward pass found it's way through to Ollie Fearon, who had to shoot first time because Danny Reilly and Shawn Mitchell were homing in on him and he struck the ball straight at Rusling.

The Maltby keeper dispatched his long clearance towards Green and his opposite number White was forced to punch the ball away to safety.

The Bulls evergreen 'pocket rocket' Williams unleashed a shot from 30 yards, but that man Hill threw himself in front of the ball and took one for the team and Rusling held onto the ball from Ghaichem's right wing cross as Maltby only half cleared their lines.
Gary Bradshaw shot from 12 yards out but Mitchell blocked his effort and it deflected behind for a corner.
Rusling gathered the ball safely as Fearon and D'Laryea challenged him and as Mansfield began to up the ante towards the end of the game, Mitchell cleared another Ghaichem cross with a towering header.
Jason White had to save with his feet as Danny Patterson almost diverted Callum Cheetham's long throw into his own goal.
The Miners were inches way from adding a fourth goal, when Hopewell turned Mark Dudley and delivered the ball to the back stick, where Sam Stacey's diving header fell just the wrong side of the post.

Williams knocked a short free kick to Bradshaw who picked Karkach out in the area but Hill had read the situation and thwarted the Bulls again, while the referee deliberated over whether to give the Maltby defender his own ball to play with, to give the other twenty one players on the pitch an opportunity to get a touch.

Mansfield had a succession of free kicks froma few yards outside the Maltby area, but the home side had circled their wagons around Rusling's goal now and no matter how hard the Bulls banged on the door now, they weren't getting in.

Fearon played a square ball to the former Mansfield Town and Gainsborough Trinity midfielder D'Laryea, who put all of his higher league experience to good use and lashed the ball into a back garden on Lansbury Avenue.

It was evidently one of those days that AFC Mansfield will want to forget ASAP.

Rusling saved from Williams free kick as the rain started bucketing down and the sky turned to an ugly shade of grey.

"We will, we will, rock you!"

Fearon was unceremoniously upended by Craig Mitchell twenty five yard from the Maltby goal.

The Bulls regular free kick taker Williams made a dummy run and left the ball for Fearon who spanked a textbook delivery right into the top corner... of Maltby's defensive wall.

The home side broke forward, but just as it looked as though Matt Semley was going to add another goal the assistant referee, Jamie O'Connor raised his flag for offside... it must've been a close call Jamie! Are you sure you weren't just being a mardy bum because you'd heard that your beloved Chesterfied FC were getting gubbed by Millwall!?

In stoppage time, Karkach cut in from the right wing and went it alone, but there was far too much backlift in his shot and the ball flew harmlessly over Rusling's cross bar.

In conclusion: both sides got everything they deserved today as the Miners leapfrogged over Mansfield in mid table by virtue of this result.

FT: Maltby Main 3 v AFC Mansfield 1

Both teams have home games on Wednesday night, when in form Liversedge visit Muglet Lane and Albion Sports make the trek from Bradford to the Forest Town Arena.

And next Saturday these two sides will be playing a mile away from each other as the Bulls face Stratford town at home in the FA Cup First qualifying round and Clipstone host Maltby in a NCEL Premier Division encounter.

Good luck to one and all, in what should be a couple of decent games, to mark the occasion of 'Non League Day'.

However, shouldn't every day be a non league day... just saying!

Balls, John Mills!

Monday 29th August 2016
Central Midlands Football League (North)
at the Jones & Co, Stadium, Cannon Park

Retford FC (1) 1
Will Tomlinson 5
Harworth Colliery (1) 2
Greg Archer 45+ pen, Mickey Davies 88
Admission £3. Programme £1. Attendance 165
For more photos from today's game click HERE

Never mind that over hyped kerfuffle that is going ahead at the Windsor Foodservice Stadium on Saturday, between two NCEL clubs. who both needed a re-arranged game to fill a fixtures gap, which was created when they were both knocked out of the FA Cup early doors.
This is the real'Bassetlaw Derby', borne out of the grassroots end of the local football spectrum, that local MP's don't even bother to visit once every five years when there is an election.
It's where local players turn out for their local teams and represent their own communities.
And 165 people (inc. stuart Yates) turned out on a gloriously sunny afternoon and headed for the the green and pleasant outskirts of East Retford, to show their support for the beautiful game... and were treated to a half decent football match into the bargain.
And at the end of the afternoon, Harworth left to head back up the Great North Road in a happy frame of mind, having bagged all three points and the local bragging rights... until next time the two sides meet at least.

The game couldn't have started any better for Retford, when they scored from what was their third attack after just five minutes, when Will Tomlinson brought Nathan Fenn's right wing cross under control with his left foot, before crashing it into the bottom left hand corner of Steve Wibberley's goal with his right. He (Tomlinson) doesn't looklike a sportsman, in fact he reminds me often of why I stopped wearing nylon replica football shirts a few years ago, but give him a ball and a yard of grass and the guy is still lethal in front of goal. And you can see why he is Retford's captain and probably the first name on the team sheet every week too.
Harworth began to find their mojo and went in search of an equaliser. But when Retford conceded a free kick twenty yards out, Josh Davies' thumping shot cannoned back of off the home sides wall and though Jordan Hardman picked up the ball and tried to set Marley Alder free down the right wing, the ball went for a goal kick before the Colliery U19's graduate could deliver a cross.

The game was being played at a cracking pace, but must have been a pleasure to officiate and all the referee Ian Jackson and his two assistants Wayne Davenport and Sam Fisher, contributed to the afternoon's entertainment by adopting a common sense approach to help the game keep flowing.

It's a real ball ache when referee's kep stopping and starting the game for niggly and insignificant reasons, but you barely noticed Mr Jackson nad his officials today, which by my reckoning is a reliable indicator of how well the officials have carried out their duties. Credit where it is due I say!

Sam Clarke tore past Hardman and crossed for Tomlinson, but the ball skimmed off his head and went wide.

Back at the other end of the pitch, Ryan Elkington kept Alders angled shot out with his feet and as Greg Archer delivered a deep flag kick into the home side's goalmouth, Tomlinson got in Harworth's way with his considerable presence and headed the ball to safety.

Josh Davies and Callum Hudson exchanged passes as they advanced on the Retford goal, but Ryan Elkington was well positioned to catch the ball hen Davies shot from just inside the Retford area.
Clarke picked up a loose ball and tried his luck from long distance, but Wibberley went down onto one knee and got behind the ball.
Joe Knowles thumped a long ball in towards Tomlinson, but when Greg Fox and and Musse Gabdon both bounced off of 'Big Will' as they went in to challenge him, the ref blew up and gave the visitors a free kick, seemingly penalising the Retford striker for being big and standing still.
Fox recovered from his fall but was soon in the wars again at the other end, when Hardman won a corner for the visitors that Josh Davies picked Archer out with just outside the Retford goal area, but his full bloodied blistering shot bounced to safety when the ball struck Fox.
Elkington saved well when Mickey Davies broke forward on his own as the Colliery started to see more of the ball and get on top of things.

Both sides were creating chances in this fast and frantic end to end tussle, but it looked as if Retford would be taking a single goal advantage into the break, but deep into stoppage time, amid a sea of flying boots, Callum Hudson was felled just inside the home sides penalty area and Mr Jackson had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and blowing up.
After the area had been cleared of players, Archer took no notice of the stalling tactics and didn't allow his focus to waver for a mooment as he calmy sent Elkington the wrong way and planted the ball into the top right hand corner.
It had been a fairly evenly matched first half, but Retford will have been gutted to have conceded a goaljust bbefore the whistle sounded for the break, but if they had been paying attention there was a lesson to be learnt there, that culd possibly come in useful later in the game.
HT: Retford FC 1 v Harworth Colliery 1

Archer on target... 1-1

At half time I was asked if I was genuinely approaching todays game from a neutral perspective, given my connections with and affections for Harworth Colliery FC.

Of course I was! What a preposterous allegation.

And anyway, by that point, I had already decided that I was going to cheer loudly and jump around like a demented loon whoever scored the next goal.

So Retford had just as much of a chance of earning an OTT demonstration of my adulation as the victorious Colliery lads did. So there!

Both goalkeepers were straight into the thick of it as the game restarted, with Wibberley punching the ball away from Tomlinson, while Elkington did well to keep Chris Pickles at bay.

Tomlinson rolled the ball forward for Clarke torun onto but Wibberley charged out of his area before launching the ball into orbit.... "Ave it!!!"

Moments later Elkington was back in action as Fox pumped a long ball towards the Retford area that their defence struggled to clear and their hesitancy gave Mickey Davies the opportunity to test the home side's keeper from twelve yards.
Davies was soon back on the attack and when Knowles blocked his attempt on goal, Huudson shot over from the rebound.
Jason Swannack made a timely interception as Kenzie Tomlinson showed a few neat touches to get himself into a position to shoot.
Clarke went to ground after colliding head on with Fox and though some of the home fans called out for the ref to blow up for obstruction, the official had seen nothing wrong in what happened and probably took into account that Fox wouldn't have meant any harm, he was just too bleedin' slow to get out of the way.

Mickey Davies timed his run to perfection as Pickles lobbed the ball into his path over a flatfooted Retford backline, but the Colliery striker knocked the ball just over the bar.

Memo to Retford defence: that was a useful set piece Harworth just executed you'd do well toprevent it from happening again.

Tomlinson crashed to the ground after Fox toppled him and while I was taking a call from my wife, telling me that all of her ornaments had just fallen off of our mantelpiece and asked if I'd experienced the earthquake too, Knowles free kick was saved by Wibberley.

Mickey Davies went close again after Sam Westerman had put Retford on the back foot with a thirty yard run forward.

Callum Rush carried the ball forward through the right channel but shot over the bar with Wibberley advancing fromhis line to meet him. Harworth fave the ball away fromthe goal kick and Clarke launched a telling ball towards Tomlinson, but though he steered his shot towards the bottom right hand corner, Wibberley got across well and manged to keep the ball out at full stretch.

Right, you remember how we were talking about Retford keeping things tight as the referee consulted his watch this time around and how dangerous Mickey Davies looked when he ran through the defence onto through balls?

Well, with just under two minutes to go, Davies started to make his run just as Westerman dropped a long pass over the Retford defence and this time the Harworth striker kept his shot down and the visitors were ahead for the first time in the game.

I kept my promise and fulfilled my obligation to celebrate the next goal wildly, then sat back down to continue writing a neutral overview of the remaining few mooments of action.

Karl Slack almost equalised, as the game went into stoppage time, but his shot deflected wide.

Swannack swung the corner kick into the Harworth six yard box but Archer hooked it away.

The crowd held their collective breath as the former Harworth midfielder Ollie Chappell took aim from twelve yards but his effort ricocheted off of one of the two dozen or so Colliery players who were crowding out their goalmouth and that was that.

Harworth had won the first real Bassetlaw Derby of the season.

FT: Retford FC 1 v Harworth Colliery 2

Nail biting closing minutes

I will be at Scrooby Road on Friday night to watch Harworth Colliery playing against Appleby Frodingham in a CMFL North fixture (7.45pm) and after today's showing I will be making the effort to watch Retford FC in action again ASAP.

Tuesday 30th August 2016
at Maiden Castle, Durham
Hartlepool United U21 (1) 2
Liam Travis 42, 77
Mansfield Town U21 (0) 1
Ashanti Pryce 60
Photo gallery from today's game HERE

A serious road traffic accident on the A1 northbound caused major delays and the Stags finally arrived at Maiden Castle for their final pre-season warm up game, after a arduous six hour coach journey.
The game itself eventually got underway 70 minutes late.
Both sides fielded mixed sides, containing Under 21 and Under 18 squad players, as the game kicked off on a very warm afternoon in County Durham.
The first half was fairly evenly matched as both sides weighed each other up and there was very little to talk of in the way of goalmouth action as the heat dictated the tempo of the game.

But there was a flurry of activity just before the break, that saw the home side take the lead on 42, when Liam Travis ran onto a through ball and opened the scoring for 'Pools' with a well placed finish from ten yards out, while Cain Smith crashed a twenty five yard shot against the underside of the crossbar less than a minute later, but apparently the whole of the ball hadn't crossed the goal line as as the home side cleared their lines.
The second half was far more eventful with Tom Marriott going close when he curled a shot against the left hand post after exchanging passes with Smith just outside the home sides penalty area.
Ashanti Pryce dropped a cross in towards Tyler Blake and Smith, but the bounce of the ball evaded them both and the latter knocked the ball narrowly wide as he struggled to get any power behind his effort.

He never touched him ref... honest!

The Stags were on level terms on the hour, when Blake was tripped and the referee blew up for a penalty. Blake dusted himself down and powered the spot kick towards the bottom left hand corner, but United's keeper got down well to turn it away, however Pryce had instinctively followed the ball in and netted into the right hand corner from the rebound.
Liam Travis put the home side back in front on 77 minutes when he diverted a left wing cross over the line from twelve yards.

In a lively finale to the game the Stags almost drew level when Kieran Harrison shot narrowly over the bar and Pryce saw his effort deflected wide after some goodbuild up play between Henri wilder and Louis Danquah. And right at the end Drew Ricketts made himself a yard of space but drilled the ball wide of the left hand post.
FT: Hartlepool United U21 2 v Mansfield Town U21 1
Next Tuesday afternoon (2pm) the Stags U21 side start their Central League campaign with an away game against Rotherham United, which will take place at the Roundwood Sports Complex, which is also the home of Parkgate FC.
If you wish to travel to this game the address details are: Green Lane, Rawmarsh, Rotherham, S62 6LA.

Beyond the call of duty special mention to Danny Bloor, who travelled all the way from Brighton to watch his son Teddy in action on the occasion of his 17th birthday. Happy birthday Teddy.

Wednesday 31st August 2016

Toolstation NCEL Premier Division

Worksop Town (3) 5

Steve Woolley 18, Kyle Jordan 24, Richard Adams 27,

Adam Somes 50, Adam Scott 75

Garforth Town (1) 1

Mark Simpson 45

Admission £5. Programme £1. Attendance 412

With a lot of NCEL clubs (well, those that declare honest and properly counted attendance statistics) struggling to get above double figures, it's impressive that the 412 who turned out at the Windsor Foodservice Stadium tonight constitutes Worksop's lowest turn out of the season so far, with their previous three home games all attracting bigger crowds.

Alas, average gates don't guarantee you success, points win prizes, but on tonight's showing, Mark Shaw isn't far away from assembling a side that could be in the running for the solitary promotion spot available from this division when the honours are divided up at the end of April. But obviously there is a long way to go yet and a good few clubs with serious title ambitions of their own.

Three goals inside a nineteen minute spell killed Garforth off tonight, even though the visitors had arrived at Sandy Lane with attacking intentions of their own and created a string of chances for themselves, while knocking the ball around well at times.
Richard Adams and Kieron Fenton both had really good games for 'the Tigers' tonight and Callum Harrison along with Alex Pugh who came on in his place in the second half, linked up well in the hole between defence and attack and made a telling contribution to the Tigers victory.
But the two really outstanding players on the night for Worksop were Jordan Hodder and Adam Scott.

Jake Rose almost put the visitors in front inside the opening minute, but his shot was charged down by Adams.
From Worksop's first attack, Hodder's cross crashed off the right hand upright after he'd mounted a charge down the right flank.
Scott created two chances for Kyle Jordan in quick succession, one went wide while the other thumped against the crossbar, much to the chagrin of some old moaners in the stand.

Garforth went close again when Lee Turner broke into the home side's area and forced a save out of John Kennedy, and Alex Nightingale did well to clear Casey Stewart's follow up off the line.
Steve Woolley opened the scoring for Worksop on 18 minutes, after Scott slipped a pinpoint pass to his feet through 'the Miners' defence, after making a diagonal run from right to left with the ball seemingly glued to his feet as he skipped past several challenges.
Turner fizzed a shot just wide of Kennedy's left hand post as the visitors made an immediate effort to get back on level terms, but 'the Tigers' doubled the lead from their next attack, when Hodder raced forward on the right again, before the delivering the ball across the face of goal to Jordan, who swept the ball past Dominic Smith.

Three minutes later, Adams put the icing on a commanding display when he diverted a header past Smith from a left wing corner and you had to wonder just how many goals were on the cards for Mark Shaw's side tonight.
As the home side threatened to run riot, Jordan cracked a shot over the crossbar from eighteen yards out, but Garforth steadied the game down towards half time and Stewart poked the ball wide of Kennedy's goal from the edge of the box, while Mark Simpson tapped home Turners right wing cross to pull a goal back for 'the Miners' in stoppage time.
HT: Tigers 3 v Miners 1

Worksop attacked from the off after the restart, but when Adam Somes headed Steve Woolley's right wing cross back across the face of Garforth's goal there was nobody on hand to provide the final touch.
On 50 minutes, Somes was involved again, when his run into the box was picked out superbly from midfield by Scott and the former Clipstone striker drilled the ball past Smith to restore 'the Tigers' three goal cushion.

Even at 4-1 down, Garforth refused to chuck in the towel and they came close to pulling a goalback when Mitch Harrison knocked the ball over the bar from inside the Worksop area.
Scott raced past a defender and went one against one with Smith who went down and saved bravely at his feet.
Nightingale made a mess of clearing the ball and Turner pounced on his error but put the ball wide of the post.
'The Tigers' swept forward again and Smith didn't really well to keep Fenton's dipping shot out as the Worksop number 6 homed in on goal through the left channel.

'The Tigers' fifth goal was an absolute peach (whatever that means), when Scott won the ball in the middle of the park, nutmegged Sam Leach and sprinted forward before unleashing a twenty five yard shot past Smith to send the home fans into raptures. Just days after turning down a lucrative move to Shaw LaneAquaforce, Scott is cementing himself as a crowd favourite with 'the Tigers' faithful and weighing in with more than is share of quality goals, what a signing he is proving to be.
The much travelled Henry Sibenge came on as a late substitute for the home side, but there wasn't really enough time for him to impose himself on the game, although he did show his new audience a brief cameo of what he is capable of, when he dribbled towards the Garforth goal past two full blooded challenges.

Late in the day Somes went close to adding a sixth goal when Pugh released him with a smart forward pass from midfield as the youngster stamped his credentials on the game with a performance that suggested he is knocking very loudly on the door for a regular spot in the starting line up, but if truth be told, Garforth had given a decent account of themselves in places and probably didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of an even bigger scoreline tonight, especially with last season's 8-1 thrashing still fresh in the memory.
FT: Worksop Town 5 v Garforth Town 1
Garforth Town welcome Pickering Town to the J.S. White & Co. Community Stadium on Saturday, while Retford United will be the visitors to the Windsor Foodservice Stadium, for a local derby game against Worksop that the current form of both teams suggests will be quite a high scoring one.

Friday 2nd September 2016
Central Midlands League (North)
at the Jones & Co. Recreation Ground
Scrooby Road, Bircotes, DN11 8AD
Harworth Colliery (1) 1
Tom Pick 37
Appleby Frodingham (0) 2
Dayle Hutson 60
Stephen McCarron 76
Admission £3. Programme £1 (sold out).
Attendance 100+

Harworth Colliery:

Steve Wibberley, Jordan Hardman, Sam Westerman, Greg Fox, Greg Archer (C), Chris Pickles, Lee Edmondson, Josh Davies, Tom Pick, Mickey Davies, Musse Gabdon

Subs - Kenzie Tomlinson, Louis McQuire, James Woodward, Danny Dean, Lewis Francis

Appleby Frodingham:

Patrick Shaw, Tom Raithby, Cameron Dunn, Dan Ellerby, Andy Wilkinson, Phil Doyle (C), Steve McCarron, Fabio Snow, Nathan Watson, Dayle Hutson, Ollie Bradbury

Subs - Michael Gray, Richard Golland, Cameron Housan, Ryan Oates

Satch - Chair man

Only three points separated these two sides prior to kick off as third placed Harworth hosted second placed 'Frod', with the visitors having won all four of their opening fixtures thus far, while Harworth have won three but lost at home against Clay Cross Town. But 'the Colliery' came into the game on the crest of a wave having beaten both Thorne Colliery and local rivals Retford FC earlier in the week.
FC Bolsover, who visit Retford tomorrow (DN22 6QF, 3PM) currently top the table with a massive +29 goal difference. The Derbyshire side, have chalked up five wins in their opening six games.
And though tonight's result saw the visitors go joint first on points, the goal differential means that 'Boza' stay top.

The home side were formed as Harworth Colliery Institute in 1931, a name by which many people still call them, regardless of the fact that this title was truncated, when they dropped Institute from their title years ago.
Harworth competed in local leagues until they joined the Yorkshire league in after the Second World War, where they stayed until becoming members of the newly formed NCEL in 1982, where they spent four years, before joining the Central Midlands League (Supreme Division) as a founder member.

Local legends

Over the past few seasons the club have made great strides towards improving their facilities, which now have the necessary grading for the club to compete in the NCEL again. Alas a dip in form towards the end of last season saw Ollerton Town, who had also put in an application for promotion finish above the Colliery and take the only promotion spot to the NCEL Divsion One.

Appleby Frodingham came into being just after World war Two and were founder members of the Lincolnshire League, where they played untilmoving into the Midland League in 1978, which merged with the Yorkshire League to become the NCEL in 1982.
Sadly 'Frod' folded in the mid 1980's, around the same time that Retford Town FC, another NCEL side, met the same fate.
The Scunthorpe based club reformed and after plying their trade in local football, rejoined the Lincolnshire League in 1990 before transferring across to the CMFL, from where they won promotion to the NCEL in 2008, where they stayed until 2015, when they were demoted back into the CMFL.

Local leg end

Last season they finished in a respectable fourth place (Harworth were fifth) and along the way won a game 23-0 against Welbeck FC, which was recorded as the biggest senior non-league victory in over a century.
Perennial CMFL strugglers and whipping boys Welbeck, have changed their name to Welbeck Lions this season, but their form and fortunes haven't changed much... they lost 13-0 against Harworth a few weeks ago.

The CMFL Friday night football experiment looks to have a lot of mileage in it, given the amount of spectators who headed to the Recreation Ground tonight, many of them from far and wide.
When Harworth took a solitary single goal lead in at the break, they must've been wondering how on earth they weren't further in front, considering the amount of chances they'd created.
But in the second half, the visitors showed their promotion contender credentials, when they punished the Colliery for their string of earlier misses, with two emphatic finishes of their own, that knocked the stuffing out of the home side.

Harworth made a lively start to the game and Tom Pick was swarming all over the 'Frod' defence with almost as much gusto as the infamous Scrooby Road mosquito colony, that are attracted from the nearby and now disused British Coal site by the Recreation Ground floodlights... tonight was a personal best for me. I was only bitten three times and returned home after the match virtually unscathed.
Pick came close twice after just two minutes, when his close range shot was well saved but he put the rebound just over the bar.
Jordan Hardman ventured forward from his right back berth where he was enjoying a well contested tussle with the visitors left winger Ollie Bradbury and delivered a deep cross to pick, which the live wire striker steered narrowly wide.
Steve Wibberley was called into action as Dayle Hutson countered and went down bravely to collect the ball at the strikers feet.

Pick combined with Greg Archer on the right hand side of the goal area and crossed to Chris Pickles who crashed a shot against the underside of the cross bar.

Bradbury turned well with the ball on the edge of the Colliery area, but Archer had tracked him back and stole away the ball before playing it forward to the relative safety of Musse Gabdon, in the middle of the park. Gabdon trotted forward before scuffing his shot which effectively became a pass to Andy Williamson in the centre of the visitors defence.

Josh Davies triggered the home sides next attack, when he drilled the ball forward to Pick who was thwarted by Patrick Shaw just inside the penalty area... and as the 'Frod' keeper cleared his lines, several of the home crowd felt that Pick had been impeded, but the referee didn't and play went on.

Lee Edmondson was fouled, just inside the visitors half and from the resulting free kick, 'Eddie' was in action again after Pickles and Pick worked the ball through to him, but Shaw got down to his right and saved well.

Not to be outdone by Shaw's prowess, the agile and Adonis like Wibberley, tipped a rasping shot from Steve McCarron over at the other end.

Pick, with his back to goal, held the ball up well and brought (J) Davies into the game and he quickly laid off a pass to Pickles, who rolled it to Hardman, but the right back's cross was cleared by Appleby's defence.

Gabdon became the unwitting architect of what proved to be Harworth's only goal on thirty six minutes, when he shot from twenty yards but didn't get a lot of power into his shot, which caused Shaw, who had gone down in anticipation of a well struck effort, to spill the ball in Pick's path and the Colliery centre forward finally had a goal to show for all of his effort.

Mick Davies, just a couple of yards from goal, was inches away from connecting with Archers through ball and (J) Davies' twenty yard shot whizzed wide of the post, via a slight deflection that the officials never spotted, but match officials are only human too.

Pickles found (M) Davies with a diagonal pass through the 'Frod' defence, but his sideways pass to Pick was scrambled past the post for a corner, from which Archer headed over after (J) Davies had picked him out with a well delivered right wing flag kick.

The half time whistle sounded and the home side were left to rue a string of missed chances and 'what might have been' moments, that they would ultimately come to regret.

HT: Colliery 1 v Frod 1

The tempo of the game continued pretty much in the same vein as it had before the break, when the teams came back out and there was a moment of controversy right at the beginning of the second half, when Shaw and Pick crashed into each other just inside the visitors penalty as the 'Frod' keeper spread himself to cut out (M) Davies' through ball into the path of the Colliery striker. There was one school of thought that thought it was a blatant penalty as Pick tumbled over Shaw... and another that thought Pick had caught (and fould) the 'Frod' number 1.

Either way the officials never thought it was a penalty, so... moving swiftly on.

Play switched to the far end and Gabdon cleared Hutson's cross into the Harworth area as far as Tom Raithby and Wibberly rose majestically like a leaping salmon to punch the ball away with both fists.

Hardman floated the ball into the 'Frod' area from out on the right flank and it dipped just over the bar, but have to ask the former Colliery U19 captain himself, whether that was a cunningly disguised shot or a misplaced cross, although I have very strong suspicions that it was the latter.

Nathan Watson picked out McCannon with a through ball but Archer got a foot in at the critical moment, but as Harworth failed to clear their lines properly, Hutson chased the ball into the area and ran the ball past Wibberley, who had been left exposed by his defence and rolled the ball over the line to equalise on fifty five minutes.

All of Harworth's attacking guile so far had been for nothing and they were back to square one, having been given a harsh reminder that if you don't take your chances you're always liable to get a haymaker of a sucker punch, smack on the end of your nose.

The goal lifted the visitors and all of a sudden their was a sense of foreboding in the Rob Needham Memorial Stand, that the tide a turned and what had looked, for the best part of a hour, like a dead cert home win, was tipping slowly, but surely, the other way.

(M) Davies cut in from the right, but his shot was blocked and when the rebound fell to pick, Dan Ellerby turned his shot away at the expense of a corner.

Archer found pick six yards from goal with his flag kick, but his header skimmed over the bar.

Edmondson made an opening and planted the ball in front of Pick who went one against one with Shaw but was denied by a great stop.

On another day, Pick would have bagged a sack full of goals from the positions he was get into, but the visitors were showing a lot of resilience in defence.

McCannon and Wibberley collided on the edge of the area and the referee gave the free kick to the Colliery keeper, though from their response, the Aplleby Frodingham bench clearly thought that the decision should have gone the other way.

Mark Latham and Lee Danysz (who used to play for Chesterfield but is at a far more desirable club these days), introduced some fresh legs from the bench and Kenzie Tomlinson and LewisFrancis made an immediate impression, when the former passed the ball to the latter twenty yards from the visitors area out on the right and he was flattened. From the free kick, (J) Davies picked out Archer at the back post, but with the goal at his mercy he headed into the side netting.

To rub matters in, Appleby Frodingham gratefully accepted the let off and attacked from Shaw's goal kick and McCarron advanced into the area as Harorth failed to clear their lines a placed the ball past Wibberley for what proved to be the winning goal.

The home side dusted themselves down and pushed forward, looking to salvage a point from a game that they should've had wrapped up by half time, but Shaw did well to keep out (J) Davies shot as the clock ticked down.

McCannon saw off a challenge on the edge of the Colliery area and rolled a pass to Richard Golland who fired his shot into the side netting.

Amidst a frantic goalmouth scramble in the visitors goalmouth, Edmondson crashed a shot against the upright and Shaw breathed a sigh of relief.

And as the visitors keeper plucked Francis' cross out of the air, the referee sounded the final whistle and though Appleby Frodingham had created far fewer chances than the home side, they had put the finishing touches to two of them and in the final analysis, that is the only statistic that matters... and this was a big three points for the Scunthorpe based side, as the race for the championship and solitary promotion spot begins to build up a head of steam.

There is a very long way to go just yet, but it makes things easier later on when you've racked up a load of points at the beginning of the season.

FT: Harworth Colliery 1 v Appleby Frodingham 2

Image result for harworth colliery fc flags

Saturday 3rd September 2016
at Welbeck M.O.D. College, nr Loughborough
EFL Youth Alliance (North)
Burton Albion (0) 0
Mansfield Town (4) 6
Alistair Smith 2, Kieran Harrison 5, Zayn Hakeem 11,
Tom Marriott 17, Ashanti Pryce 82, Devante Reittie 90
For more photos from today's game click HERE

Mansfield Town:
Sam Wilson, Teddy Bloor, Henri Wilder, Cain Smith (C)(Henry Bircumshaw 80), Kane Baldwin, Kieran Harrison, Nyle Blake (Ashantti Pryce 55), Surafel Behailu, Zayn Hakeem, Alistair Smith (Devante Reittie 62), Tom Marriott
Burton Albion:
Callum Hawkins, Tom Hammerton, Reece Hutchinson, Jack Hallahan (C), Jayden Cotterill, Jacob Saville, Cameron Steele, Joe Sbarra, Cameron Shaw, Charlie Dowd, Dylan Garner
Subs - Jake Davies, Lewis Walker, Max Smith, Tristan Matthews, James Harrison

Burton pushed forward straight from the off, but Sam Wilson dealt with Jack Hallahan's free kick and released the ball forward quickly, with his clearance finding it's way through to Alistair Smith just outside the Brewers penalty area and the attacking midfielder slotted a first time shot past Callum Hawkins into the bottom left hand corner of the net to give the Stags the lead inside the opening two minutes.
The visitors doubled their lead on five minutes, when Tom Marriott, out on the left flank, forced Tom Hammerton into conceding a corner and delivered the resulting kick himself, to the back post, where Kieran Harrison met the ball head on and planted a thundering through a crowd of defenders.
Cameron Steele launched a right wing cross into the Stags are, but Surafel Behailu, who has impressed so far in the opening games of the season cleared the danger.

John Dempster's side were dealing better with the worsening weather conditions and as two Burton players collided and the loose ball fell to Zayn Hakeem, he powered forward and placed a shot across Hawkins that evaded the Brewers keeper and found it's way into the goal just inside the right hand upright, making the score 0-3 with just a little over eleven minutes played.
Hakeem, who has been training with the first team this season, returned to the under 18 squad today to get some valuable game time under his belt and he was obviously chomping at the bit and eager to get involved.
The home side tried to find a way through the closely knit visitors midfield, but Henri Wilder intervened and took the ball away with a timely interception and put Mansfield back on the front foot.

The game was all but over as a contest in the seventeenth minute, when Hawkins was penalised for handling a back pass. With a row of Burton players strung out along the goal line, (A) Smith rolled a short free kick to Marriott who crashed the ball into the back of the net from ten yards.
Smith was combining well with Nyle Blake who was playing out wider on the right today, but when the pair of them combined to release Teddy Bloor on the overlap, Hawkins smothered his low cross before Hakeem or Cain Smith could add a finishing touch.
(C) Smith, played a pivotal midfield holding role today and passed with flying colours in very tiring and trying conditions. The hard work players like Cain and Kieran Harrison do, doesn't always get the plaudits, but it doesn't go unnoticed.

Blake was proving to be a good outlet for Mansfield as they mounted a string of challenges. Wilder picked him out with a sublime forty yard diagonal pass, that Blake rolled back into the path of Bloor, whose cross was headed clear by Jacob Saville.
Behailu won the ball in the middle of the park and sprayed the ball wide for Blake to run onto and only a good stop by Hawkins stopped the younger of the Mansfield Town Blake brothers from increasing the lead.
It would be fair to say that the Stags were rampant in the first half and they almost added a fifth when Marriott bore down on goal through the left channel before Hawkins just about held on to his cross/shot at the foot of the near post.
Hakeem chased a lost cause down by the left hand corner flag and retrieved the ball, before crossing to Marriott who laid it off to (A) Smith, but he was denied by Hawkins, who by now was becoming quite vocal with his team mates, who were chasing shadows every time the visitors advanced.

Right on the stroke of half time, Marriott picked up the ball out on the left and with the Burton defence backing off in anticipation of a cross, he curled in a twenty five yard shot that crashed off of the crossbar.
HT: Brewers U18 0 v Stags U18 4
Burton changed their personnel at the break and Tristan Matthews, who had scored a late consolation goal against the Stags last week when they beat Burton in EFLYA Cup group match, went close from fifteen yards, but Wilson dealt well with the wet ball on an increasingly slippery pitch as the rain began to reach Biblical proportions.
Hakeem splashed his way towards the Albion goal on the left hand side of the home side's area, but was thwarted when Jayden Cotterill got across to make a timely interception.
The home side were trying to unlock the visitors down the left flank, but weren't getting any change out of Behailu and Bloor as they looked to push forward down the left. While Kane Baldwin, who has stood in to deputise for the injured Morgan Ratcliffe over the past couple of weeks as slotted in well alongside Harrison as a like for like replacement.

Joe Sbarra almost found a gap in the Stags Armour, but Jake Davies lost his footing as he ran onto the through ball and Baldwin hooked it away.
Matthews crossed to Dylan Garner, but Baldwin moved into action and stole the ball away with an assured touch.
The Stags, with a four goal cushion and one hand already on the three points, were sitting back and letting Burton come at them, while patiently waiting for gaps to appear that they could exploit.
Credit to the home side, who were at least trying to chip away at the deficit, whilst clinging onto the old adage that 'football at this level is about developing players, not results'.
Hakeem ventured forward, but with time and space to deliver his cross uncharacteristically delivered the ball straight to Cotterill who launched it back towards the halfway line.

John Dempster freshened things up in what must have been tiring playing conditions and sent on Ashanti Pryce and Devante Reittie in place of Blake and (A) Smith, who had made a really telling contribution to the Stags first half 'power play'.
Pryce almost scored when Devante threaded a pass through to him, but the home side's defence crowded him out and scrambled the ball away.
Bloor was working the ball out wide to Marriott who had switched flanks, but some last ditch defending kept two telling crosses away from Pryce and Reittie.
Davies tested Wilson, but the young Stags keeper still hasn't conceded a goal in the league this season and he gathered the ball well, before instigating another box to box swift break, that saw Pryce muscle past two chasing defenders, before rolling an angled shot past Hawkins to make it 0-5 with eight minutes remaining.

The heavens really opened and began to spoil the game as a spectacle in the closing stages as several players slid around in a manner akin to 'Bambi on ice' but there was still time for Garner to try stealing a late goal for the home side, but Wilder made a goal line clearance, before the visitors mounted one last attack, when Reittie , who had just cleared the ball away at one end, ran onto Bloor's precision through ball at the other, before chipping the ball over the advancing Burton keeper from fifteen yards, with a great finish that made light work of the awful conditions and put the finishing touches to an accomplished and impressive 0-6 win.
FT: Burton Albion U18 0 v Mansfield Town U18 6
The Stags travel to Shrewsbury Town for the second of their EFLYA Cup group matches next week, details of the venue etc. will appear on the Mansfield Town FC official website later in the week.

Saturday 3rd September 2016

Central Midlands League (North)

at the Jones & Co. Stadium, Cannon Park

Retford FC (0) 0

FC Bolsover (2) 7

Josh Parfitt 8

Josh Thomas 34, 60, 86

Josh Scully 49

Danny Russell 69

Joe Ballinger 75

Admission £3. Programme £1. Attendance 49

So I drove home (or possibly even aquaplaned for several miles), back up the M1 from this morning's 6-0 win for the young Stags in Loughborough v Burton Albion, but carried on past several grounds that had been on my shortlist for today, because I really needed to get home and get out of my soaking wet layers of clothing before I caught pneumonia.
But hey! That first half this morning alone would've been worth the inconvenience.
I'll spare you the finer points, but I even had to wring my socks and kegs out, before slipping into some dry ones and grabbing my "my last clean dirty shirt out of the wardrobe" (give yourself a gold star if you recognise the lyrical reference therein) and shooting off back out again the quarter of a mile or so to Cannon Park for my second game of the day... did i already mention that the Mansfield Town U18 team were victorious in my first game of the day, by six goals to nil against Burton Albion at a Ministry of Defence College near Loughborough!?

Bucketing down

Obviously, there was another game going on in Bassetlaw this afternoon, but I'm getting old and once I was warm and dry I didn't want to venture too far from home. I honestly thought that somebody must've been taking the proverbial when the score updates from Worksop Town v Retford United started coming through, but fair play to the Badgers, what an impressive result. And though I have a lot of friends (and one or two enemies) at the Tigers, I'm genuinely chuffed for all of my United supporting mates who have had far too many years of following them through thin and even thinner for several years, with next to sweet FA to cheer about.

The ever spritely Graham Taylor showing off

But today I was never planning to be at Sandy Lane anyway, but it was too late to set off for either AFC Mansfield v Stratford Town in the FA Cup... another great result for local football as it turned out, with the Bulls triumphing 2-1 against a team from two divisions higher. It's boom time for local football it would seem, as was illustrated when John Dempster's Stags youth team won 6-0 away from home this morning.... You what!? I've mentioned it already? I get like that when I'm genuinely enthused about an especially good performance and feeling euphoric as a consequence. Get in!!!
I suppose that this afternoon's game could be classed as part three of a CMFL triology I have been watching throughout the week, whereby I've seen Retford FC 1 v Harworth Colliery 2 on Monday, Harworth Colliery 1 v Appleby Frodingham 2 last night and finally today's visit of league leaders FC Bolsover to Cannon Park, via a lunchtime fixture at WElbeck M.O.D. College near

Loughborough.

You forgot your games kit?
No worries, I'm sure that there will be a few bits
& pieces that are your size in the dressing up box.

Today was 'newly' formed FC Bolsover's firest ever visit to 'recently' formed Retford FC.

The Derbyshire based club are currently playing their home games on the 3G pitch at Shirebrook Academy. with the ultimate aim of moving into Bolsover Sports & Social Club, once it has the nessercary facilities to comply to Step 7 ground grading rules, which if what I've seen elsewhere is anything to go by, won't require a lot of effort and work to complete.

Further down the line, the club also has ambitions to compete at a higher level, in the NCEL, just like the other CMFL clubs I've watched this week.

Will, Woody and Swanny, Retford's management team getting wet

When Glapwell FC sadly folded at the end of last season, 'Boza' benefited from an influx of their former players and have made a few decent signings on top of that, as well as cornering the market in goal scorers called Josh. Despite having a chairman who was involved with the odious FC Brimington, I have been keen to check out the new kids on the block for a while, having heard good things about them. The final score today speaks for itself really.

Retford have some really good players signed on, but their visitors have several who on their books who are a cut above what you would expect at this level.

And even with the experienced two pronged attack force of Jason Bradley and my favourite ever Retford United/Retford player Will Tomlinson, the home side struggled penetrate Bolsover's rearguard.

Bradley was actually tripped inside the visitors penalty area in the opening changes, but the officials must've been making allowances for the soaking wet pitch and let it go. To be honest, I doubt if an early goal for the home side would've made a great deal of difference to the final outcome.

Ollie Chappel also had a chance near the start of the game, but Ryan Hopkins, a former Mansfield Town youth keeper who briefly had a spell with the first team, showed that he is still a class at when he got down well to his left to pull off a save. By way of a massive coincidence I actually saw the current Stags youth team play earlier today y'know!? ;-)

But in spite of a spirited opening from the home side on what was sure to be a difficult game for them, it was no real surprise when the visitors took the lead on eight minutes, from which was their sixth assault on Retford's goal, when Parfitt finished from close range after Danny Russell's shot had cannoned back to him off the post, following a neat exchange of passes between Josh Scully and Josh Thomas.

Jason Swannack was trying to get Retford going down the left flank, along with Aaron Hutchinson playing up ahead of him, but Bolsover were proving to be a tough nut to crack.
Joe Knowles went route one to combat the visitors flooding the midfield with players and though the ball narrowly evaded Bradley, Tomlinson chased it down on got his shot on target that Hopkins did well to save.
Bradley got on the end of a free kick from Swannack, but Josh Aitken (a Josh who didn't score today) took the ball away from him and cleared.
For purposes of not going over my 50,001 word limit for this report, I have omitted to recite the details of eight more Bolsover attacks that I have scribbled down in my notebook before they scored again in the 34th minute when Thomas broke free on the edge of the home side's area and spanked the ball past Jamie Houseley.
Thomas crossed to Parfitt and Retford had a let off when he shot over with the goal at his mercy and within a minute Scully rattled the home side's cross bar from the edge of the area.

Swannack intercepted as Parfitt squared up toshoot but Thomas latched onto the loose ball and Housley did well to tiphis shot from ten yards over the bar.

Scully crrossed from the right wing and Parfitt diverted the ball past Housley from close range, but the assistant's flag was raised and the goal didn't count.

Shortly before half time, Swannack went for a fifty fifty challenge near the touchline and careered off the pitch and under the fence surrounding the pitch where his right knee crashed into the concrete path that runs around the perimeter of the ground.

Ever the battler, Swannack persevered and played through the pain barrier... for the time being at least

HT: Retford FC 0 v FC Bolsover 2

The second half reads like a catalogue of FC Bolsover goals, look away now if you're squeamish, it's not for the faint hearted, especially if you happen to have the best interests of Retford FC at heart.

Just four minutes after the restart, Parfitt played the ball through to Scully and he crashed the ball past Housley off of the inside of the left hand post to make it 0-3.

Retford could count themselves to e lucky to still have eleven men on the pitch when Gareth Campion took Parfitt out with a reckless challenge. But referee Graham Taylor is from the old school, who understands that competitive non league footballers occasionally suffer from a dose of the red mists and he brandished a yellow card for the thundering challenge.

Swannack picked out Bradley with a left wing corner, but he nudged the ball over from a free header and within a minute Retford's slim chances of a comeback were all but over, when Russell played a measured pass to Joe Ballinger, who whipped a cross in from the right wing, to Thomas at the back stick, who had the easiest of chances to make it 0-4 as he prodded the ball over the line.

The wheels were coming off for Retford now and the second half had become something of a damgae limitation exercise for them now.

Knowles wrestled for possession with Danny Russell as the two of them went neck and neck and shouler to shoulder towards the bi-line to the left of Housley's goal, but just as it looked as though the home side's defender had done enough to force Russell wide, he scored with an audacious lob, from the narrowest of angles imaginable. It was a improvised and off the cuff, yet quality strike.

Centre half Knowles performance was one of Retford's saving graces after the interval and in spite of the five goal deficit he was still trying to make things happen and he picked out Tomlinson with a long range free kick who forced a save out of Hopkins.

It was six nil to the visitors (for the second time today, ahem!), when Scully released Adam Norris in the home side's area who drew Housley off his line before playing the ball sideways to Ballinger, who whipped the ball into the back of the net on the turn.

The visitors were toying with their hosts and show boating now, as Harworth's assistant manager Mark Latham (and his dad Paul) watched on, devising a strategy to overcome FC Bolsover when they play them.

Inside the final five minutes, Adam Barrett set up Thomas with the opportunity to clinch his hat trick, which he claimed with a collected and calm finish, before leaving the field to a standing ovation.

Norris and Ballinger almost combined for an eighth Bolsover goal, but knowles intervened and cleared up the pitch towards Sam Clarke and he sprinted down the left flank before crossing to Bradley who played the to Tomlinson, but Hopkins saved his close range effort.

FT: Retford FC 0 v FC Bolsover 7

In my humble opinion, Retford hadn't actually played anywhere near as badly as the final score suggests. In fact they had a couple of stand out players of their own today; not least Joe Knowles who will obviously be playing at a higher level than the CMFL in years to come. The home side are evidently missing the presence of Luke Tong, who links up so well between the midfield and front line and for Retford's (and Luke's) sake I hope that he makes a full recovery from injury soon

But FC Bolsover are a different class and they were relentless in their quest for goals, goals and more goals.... and the spine of quality that runs right through their team suggests that they are going to take some stopping this season.

Tuesday 6th September 2016
Central League
at Roundwood Pavilion, Parkgate FC
Rotherham United Reserves (0) 0
Mansfield Town U21 (1) 1
Charlie Shaw 6

Goalscorer Charlie Shaw

The recently relaunched Stags U21 side, which will provide a much needed halfway house staging post between the club's youth set and the first team, under the guidance of head coach Mike Whitlow and head of recruitment Scott Rickards, started their Central League campaign with an away game against Rotherham United Reserves, at Parkgate FC this afternoon. Although Simon Ward was present in Rickards absence today.
I am actually convinced that Ward is duplicated and there are several of him at large around Mansfield Town, because wherever I travel to see any of the Stags development teams in action, in whichever age group, he seems to be there, imparting his knowledge of the game upon the club's eager young charges.

As well as utilising the club's under 21 age group players and youngsters who are on the verge of breaking through from the youth development pool of talent.
Team line ups at this reintroduced tier in the club infrastructure, will also feature first team players who Adam Murray deems are in need of match time and/or a passage back into the EFL League 2 side after being sidelined through injury, in an environment of competitive fixtures against what will predominantly be reserve team opposition.

And of course, the rekindled U21 team, will offer a safety net for the club that will prevent the young players they have invested so much time and money in, from slipping away before they have reached their full potential, while also offering more scope for any late developers to flourish under the guidance of full time, experienced academy coaches. It is important to appreciate, that not all talented youngsters mature and peak inside the same time frame.
Anyway, enough of this rambling preamble before I give any secrets away. Click the links below if you want to find out what happened on Parkgate FC's lush green playing surface this afternoon.

For today's match report click HERE

For today's after match reaction from Mike Whitlow click HERE

For today's photo gallery click HERE

Tuesday 6th Speptember 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at Kirklington Road, Rainworth
Rainworth Miners Welfare (0) 0
Handsworth Parramore (1) 4
Alex Rippon 45+, 71
Kieran Wells 52
Daniel Holland 62
Admission £5. Programme £1 (inc. team sheet)
Attendance 116

Rainworth got a bit of a going over tonight if truth be told and have their goalkeeper (and man of the match) Ben Townsend to thank for keeping the score down to a semi respectable looking 0-4.
A few miles to the south of Handsworth, there is a four lane section of the Queen's Road (A61), not very far away from the best Football League ground in Sheffield, that contains a reversible lane, meaning that the priority direction of traffic in and out of the city centre during the respective morning and evening rush hours, alters to afford a faster traffic flow and less congestion.

I think this innovative road scheme, was possibly the inspiration behind Parramore's tactics tonight, as the game was predominantly played in whichever direction the visitors were attacking in either half.
It beggared belief that the visitors didn't actually open the scoring until first half stoppage time, given that they had probably had at least a 77/23 (approx) split of possession in their favour throughout an opening 45 minutes that could quite easily have been mistaken for footage from a remake of the Alamo (post watershed screening).
As if to illustrate the point that Handsworth had invaded Rainworth and effectively taken over for 90 minutes, the Ambers club development manager (or whatever it is he does) Steve Holmes, won the half time 50/50 draw. Though I was only 38 minutes away from winning the golden goal tonight.

Gordon Foster, a real gentleman with perfect annunciation.
Well mannered with an in depth local football knowledge.
Best Non League reporter ever, in the entire known universe.

After the interval, there was no respite for the hard pushed Wrens, who I hear will be sending a bill to Micky Godber's side, for using their goal area as a camp site, they spent so much time in and around it.

I could painstakingly list all of the near misses Handsworth had, or detail how many times the Ambers strikers, ably supplied with vast amounts of ammunition from Simon Harrison, Alex Rippon and Steve Warne dismantled Rainworth's overworked defence... and marvel at the manner in which Tom Dugdale ran amok, cutting a swathe through the home sides rearguard with 'snake hipped' mazy runs or even applaud with some very loud and boisterous cheering and clapping, both the heroics and agility of Ben Townsend as he thwarted the visitors with a string of excellent saves, but I would be up until the early hours writing all of that up and being such an ugly bleeder, I do need at least four hours beauty sleep per night, before my daily 5.30AM wrestle with the alarm clock.

Joe Green did have several saves to make at the other end, because the game wasn't entirely one sided, just mostly one sided... and while Ben Starosa and Connor Smythe (one of four ex Rainworth players in the Handsworth team) gave the onlooking crowd a master class in cutting out the oppositions supply of the ball down the flanks, while pushing forward frequently in support of their attackers, Sam Denton and Michael Harcourt (who put in an impressive shift a captain) both never put a foot wrong all night.
I would seriously run out of superlatives to praise the non stop battering ram presence of Kieran Wells and Danny Holland upfront for the Ambers, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least a couple of Rainworth defenders were traumatised by tonight's experience.
If you take a look further back upthis post at Handsworth's line up and peruse the substitutes, that demonstrates the strength in depth this team has... that bench would easily win any NCEL five-aside tournament.

The politics of envy have surfaced this week and a couple of teams and individuals have had a dig or two at Parramore for paying wages (y'know just like every club in this division does), that attract the kind of quality players they can attract..
And though some of it is obviously tongue in cheek psychology, it didn't escape my attention that the worse culprits are those who in the not so distant past have chucked infinitely more cash at chasing unfulfilled dreams, than the Ambers are paying out at present.
One of those club has been hemorrhaging support staff at an alarming rate, while another probably should have offered better incentives for it's only pivotal players to stay on board, because at the end of the day, a professional footballers career is notoriously short and the need to 'get it while you can' at non league level, is accelerated tenfold. Loyalty seldom pays the bills and their isn't an massive pool of players who are happy just to play for the badge and stick with one club throughout their playing days.

If this post reads like a sycophantic fan boy love letter to Handsworth Parramore, then so be it, I don't mind heaping praise on any non league team who are doing things the right way, within their means.
I also have a lot of friends at Rainworth, a club that is steeped in great traditions, who ooze class with their manners and humility... attributes that are sadly lacking at certain clubs who get things horribly wrong as they lurch from one confrontational crisis and drama to another, because their egotistical mindset misses the point of the the really important things that are the essence of the non league game.
An example of the Wrens good grace, was a post match tweet they posted that said:
"Handsworth Parramore are an Evo-Stik team in all but name and after last night's performance April will see them achieve that too. #awesome".
The gesture didn't surprise me at all, Rainworth are like that!

Although there is a long way to go still, I reckon that Rainworth have probably called things right in this instance, but there are plenty of other teams who will be wanting to have a crack at stopping Handsworth.
There are some really strong teams in this division at the moment and it's shaping up to be one hell of a season.
FT: Rainwoth Miners Welfare 0 v Handsworth Parramore 4
For more detailed match reports, you'd do well to visit either clubs website.
Myself and the 'Blonde Beelzebub' were too busy catching up with our good friends Steve and (Mad) Lizzie Bates (the hardest working woman in non league football) and enjoying a game of football, while sharing too many laughs, to scribble down many notes about the game.
Handsworth effectively dismantled Rainworth, who were magnanimous enough to praise and compliment their visitors on a thoroughly deserved win.
Man of the match... Ben Townsend.
Good luck to both teams this coming weekend.

Wednesday 7th September 2016

Toolstation NCEL Premier Division

at Forest Town Arena

AFC Mansfield (0) 0

Athersley Recreation (0) 1

Sam Bebbington 86

Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 98

First things first; I would like to wish Sean Margison, the 'Rec manager, all the best for a speedy recovery after his recent operation and I hope that tonight's result, that saw third placed Athersley (yes you read that correctly) establish a four game unbeaten run, helped to cheer him up.

It was a case of 'after the Lord Mayor's Show for Rudy Funk's side, with the Bulls soaring after their weekend FA Cup heroics against Stratford Town, before they crash landed on their backsides with a resounding thud tonight, as Athersley made them look very ordinary, before claiming all three points with a well taken goal from Sam Bebbington late in the game, when it had looked as if a goalless draw was on the cards.

The game commenced in a manner that was akin to a typical England international fixture, with both teams seemingly happy to sit back and knock the ball around in the comfort zone, weighing up their respective opponents and patiently waiting for a risk free opening to present itself... and waiting and then waiting some more.

The first real opportunity of the first half fell to Matty Plummer, who powered a back post header over from Ryan Williams left wing corner.
Williams delivered a good number of corner kicks, free kicks and measured crosses into the Penguins penalty area, but Martyn Scully and Brad Kilburn impressed at the back for the visitors and defended well, also dealing with a regular supply of long kicks towards Ollie Fearon and Gary Bradshaw from the Mansfield keeper Jason White.
Glyn Cotton drilled a free kick against the visitors defensive wall and Williams reached the rebound first and slipped the ball through a gap that had opened up, but with Fearon homing in Kilburn cleared the ball off the line.
Josh Madin inadvertently put White under pressure when he headed the ball back to his keeper, but had missed Ryan Smith following through on his blind side, it was untidy for a few moments, but a relieved White emerged from the ensuing tussle holding onto the ball.

Williams did his stuff out on the left flank once again and played the ball sideways to Bradshaw, whose shot on the turn but was saved by Neal May.
Sam Bebbington almost capitalised on a moment of indecision at the back, with the home sides defence standing off and leaving the responsibility of hooking the ball away to safety to each, but White had seen the 'Rec strikers run and came off his line to block the resulting shot.

Ryan Smith only had the Bulls keeper to beat after he was put clear through on goal by McCauley Shillito, but White turned the ball away well at the expense of a corner.
The Mansfield keeper might occasionally have a rush of blood to his head when he leaves his goal area and morphs into an outfield player, but there aren't too many other keepers in this league on a par with him when it comes to shot stopping.

Brad Johnston connected with the ball from the resulting corner, but White was down quickly to his right to make a save down by the upright.
Athersley had another chance right at the end of the first half, but with the referee consulting his watch, Johnston teed a shot up for Tom Arnold but he couldn't keep the ball on target.
HT: Goalless
I strongly suspect that that nice Mr Funk had a quiet word with his team at half time. cajoling and encouraging them in a calm and relaxed manner, while politely asking if they might want to put a bit more emphasis on trying to win the game after thye break... or similar!
Because the Bulls were definitely pumped up when they came out for the second half.

Wayne Thompson and Kevin Locke, overseeing another away win

But in spite of a sustained spell of pressure from the home side, the score remained nil-nil.

Bradshaw's dipping free kick cleared the bar by a couple of feet, Jimmy Ghaichem cut in from the left flank but drilled the ball wide of the post and Williams left wing cross (part 16 in a series of 21) was flicked on by Cotton towards Fearon but May tipped the ball over his goal and away to safety.

Bradshaw charged forward but came second in a race for the ball, that May cleared up the field.

Fearon took the ball to the byline through the right channel and his cross from a tight angled bounced of the crossbar.

Currently Kai Hancock id the league's top scorer, but he started the game on the visitors bench because he was carrying a knock. When he was introduced into the fray with twenty five minutes remaining, Athersley suddenly had more attacking options and a spring in their step. The visitors clearly weren't happy to settle for a draw away from home against a very competent side, they were actually trying to win the game.

Ryan Smith put on a burst of pace as he charged into the Bulls area, but the ball got slightly away from him and White cleared.

Adam White, picked up the ball in his own half and impressively carried the ball forward for forty yards, before over hitting his pass forward to Briscoe, having done the hard part of blazing a trail through the left hand side of midfield.

Hancock hit the outside of the post from Smith's through ball and moments later forced White into having to clear his lines.

Lynton Karkach sprinted forward downthe left flank, leaving the 'Rec right back in his wake, but he crossed before looking up and none of his team mates had kept up with him, not that the three visitors defenders who were well positioned to clear the danger seemed to mind.

Smith once again released Hancock with a defence splitting pass, but he put his shot into the side netting.

White demonstrated his Jekyll and Hyde tendencies, when he ran from his box with the ball straight into Ollie Glaves, but still (just about) managed to get the ball away at the second attempt, then within thirty seconds he pulled off a top drawer save to deny Glaves a goal.

The home side could sense the game slipping away from them and mounted a couple of attacks of their own, May pulled off a great save to keep Bradshaw at bay after Plummer had picked the Bulls striker out with a sublime forward pass.

Then Karkach forced a corner for the home side out on the right hand side, Ghaichem delivered an inviting flag kick towards Cotton but he headed over with the goal at his mercy.
Liam Owen picked up an attempted clearance and White was at full stretch to keep out his first time shot.

Hancock attacked down the left flank and slid a pass inside to James Finnegan who deceived his marker into thinking he was going to shoot before rolling a short pass to Johnston that he nudged into the path of Bebbington, who crashed an unstoppable shot past White to give the visitors the lead late into the game.
It was too late for the home side to salvage anything from the game now and Athersley saw the remaining minutes out to claim all three points.
FT: AFC Mansfield 0 v Athersley Recreation 1

Saturday 10th September 2016
SkyBet EFL Championship
at Craven Cottage
Fulham (0) 0
Birmingham City (0) 1
Clayton Donaldson 49 pen
Admission £23
Programme £3.50 (But worth it, plenty of interesting content)
Attendance 17,603 (inc. 3,500+ away fans)
For more pictures from today click HERE

In the build up to this Championship fixture on a wet and grey afternoon in London SW6, only three points separated second placed Fulham and Norwich City in twelfth, in what has become the most open and competitive division in the Football League... and regardless of what your personal views might be about the play-off system (it has been well established for donkey's years and is here to stay, if you hadn't already noticed), the two automatic promotion places, augmented with a third spot that the teams finishing third to sixth will battle it out for at the end of the season, while three clubs go down to League 1, which guarantees a regular turnover of clubs entering and leaving the Championship (one way or another) helping to maintain interest and keeping the competition fresh year after year, as you would expect from a division that gains six new clubs to it's rota each every season, while the same number move on elsewhere.

Bespoke reading material for the train journey home

There was one game played in the Championship last night, when Reading beat Ipswich Town 2-1, a result that affected the league positions of exactly half of the teams in the division, which demonstrates how fine the margins can be between a promotion push and so called mid table mediocrity.
Another example of how nip and tuck it all is, was Birmingham climbing eight places in the league at ten to five this afternoon, when they leapfrogged over their hosts in the table by virtue of their 1-0 win.
Take notes, there will be a mandatory multiple choice test at the end of this long winded and matchday overview!

These two sides played out a 1-1 draw at St. Andrews last season, while Gary Rowett's 'Blues' recorded a 5-2 away win at Craven Cottage the last time they were here, but it was a much altered Fulham line up they faced today.
Under Slavisa Jokanovic, 'the Cottagers' were unbeaten this season prior to this afternoon's game, confounding the pundits who had written them off as relegation contenders, including a 1-0 win in a televised game on the opening game of the season at St. James' Park against Newcastle United, which was billed as being the start of the north east club's first step on the road back to an immediate return to the Premier League.

Time will tell if that's the case, eh!?
Rafael Benitez's side currently occupy second place in the table, four points behind the early season league leaders and pacesetters Huddersfield Town, but you can count all the way down to Sheffield Wednesday in sixteenth if you apply that four point margin in the opposite direction; with the slow starters and also rans such as Aston Villa, Derby County, Leeds United and Blackburn Rovers still struggling to find their feet below 'the Owls'.
But it's early days yet.

Craven Cottage is a brisk ten minute walk through Bishop's Park from Putney Bridge tube station, which stands on the District Line between Earl's Court and Wimbledon, but it took me around twice as long to circumnavigate the Thames side footpath this afternoon as I vaingloriously tried to take shelter from the rain that was hammering down in the 'sunny south' today.

On the right, a few yards after leaving the station stands the Eight Bells pub, which as well as being highly recommended as a watering hole, used to act as the changing rooms for Fulham St. Andrews Church Sunday FC when they still played their games at Ranelagh House, which used to stand between the public house and the nearby River Thames.

FSACSFC (also sometimes called Fulham St. Andrews Football & Cricket Club) were formed in 1879 (four years after Small Heath Alliance, the original name of Birmingham City) and later became know as Fulham Excelsior, before arriving at their shortened title of Fulham FC in 1888. The club moved into Craven Cottage in 1896 and have played in the Football League since 1907.
I'll tell you summat: you don't half get some odd looks when you emerge from a tube station at the same time as several hundred away fans and start taking pictures of signposts.

Not the actual famous Varsity Race that passes Craven Cottage,
but still very exciting to watch nonetheless

Fulham:
Button, Odoi, Kalas, Madl, Malone; Johansen (Jozabed 32), McDonald, Ayite (Martin 76), Cairney, Aluko; Smith (Kebano 45).
Unused subs - Bettinelli, Sigurdsson, Sessegnon, Tunnicliffe.
Birmingham City:
Kuszczak, Spector, Morrison, Shotton, Grounds, Kieftenbeld , Tesche, Davis (Cotterill 76), Adams (Stewart 82), Maghoma, Donaldson (Jutkiewicz 65).
Unused subs - Legzdins, Robinson, Fabbrini, Brown.

'Blues' (well 'Reds' if you must) kicked off today, with an unchanged line up from their 3-0 home win against Norwich City two weeks ago before the international break and it soon became apparent that they were playing a tried and tested 4-4-2 system of sorts, with Clayton Donaldson playing slightly further ahead up in front of Che Adams. It's impressive that Adams is now trail blazing himself a career path in the Championship, when less than two years ago we were watching him in action for Ilkeston Under 19s in the North Midland U19 League.

The home side played a square back four, but seemed overly complicated ahead of that, where maybe their own playing rotation contributed to their own downfall because although they certainly spent a lot of time on the ball, it was barely ever in the critical areas of the pitch, where 'the Whites' might actually be able to hurt their visitors.

A raucous 3,500+ Brummies had made the journey south and their will be a few hoarse voices in the West Midlands later on tonight, because the vast majority of the away end were on their feet and singing the praises of their team, for the whole game and even beyond the final whistle.

The home support were at their most vocal when they were displeased with referee, Tony Harrington awarding two penalties against them (and out of relief when David Button saved the first one), but whether their angst was being at the match officials, or their own defence for a string of risky challenges in their own area and some fairly Kamikaze appliance of the rules of engagement, could be open to interpretation.

Either way, Rowett's side couldn't help but be lifted by such magnificent backing, while a few vocal dissenters among the ranks of the home support was all that it took to visibly effect the confidence of one or two of their team, when a few passes started going astray. It was only a minority venting their spleen, but it might help performances if the Fulham faithful gagged this small element of critics.

But I guess that if you're paying top dollar to watch football every weekend, you're entitled to have your say as well.

Besides Evans, there was even more local non league interest (if you happen to live near me) out on the pitch today, in the shape of Tom Cairney; who has his own chant at Craven Cottage, based on a reworking of a Chaka Khan song that goes: "Ain't nobody, like Tom Cairney". Before he made the grade as a professional, he used to play for Calverton Miners Welfare, back in the day.

So now you know.

The visitors were doing a great job of snuffing out Fuham's attacking intentions while they were still in their own half, pressing them across the middle of the pitch, with a well drilled midfield in an attempt to condense play into 'the Whites' half of the pitch.

As I said, Fulham had plenty of possession, but the statistics show that Birmingham had at least three times as many shots on goal, which for an away side who haven't resorted to taking the long ball and direct route is pretty impressive.

Of course, in the final analysis there is only one stat or coefficient that can really make or break any football supporters weekend... and that is the one that gets read out on Sports Report every Saturday tea time, but Fulham ought to be addressing some of the other stuff that their guys who collate all of the other match day data throw up, if they are to avoid having peaked to soon already this season.

I doubt if there are very many people on Planet Football who actually dislike Fulham, or their supporters, or who even have a bad word to say about visiting Craven Cottage, which is always a pleasant experience if my occasional trips to this Thames Embankment stadium over the past few decades are anything to go by.

But their team need to sharpen up in a few areas of the pitch, if they don't want to vanish in a tide that would make the nearby waterway look tame by comparison.

Hopefully, the new manager and players will tweak the system and improve certain aspects of their game once they all start to get used to each other properly.

Tomasz Kuszczak did well on the few occasions that Fulham did poise a threat and the confidence that it instills in his back four, who are secure in the knowledge that their Polish keeper is seldom found wanting is plain to see, but for the most part any actual goalmouth action was predominantly happening in front of the home fans in the Hammersmith End, which Birmingham were attacking towards in the first half, with Clayton Donaldson in particular was a problematic presence for 'the Whites' central defenders.

Ryan Shotton and Jacques Maghoma were both unlucky to see close range headers fly past the post.

Michael Madl clumsily challenged Che Adams from behind in the area and in spite of the home crowd's protests, the referee had no option to award a penalty... not because he was biased, as some suggested, but because an attacking player had been infringed from behind ten yards from goal. Madl received a caution for his efforts and if Mr Harrington had been favouring the visitors, he could quite easily have brandished a red card instead, under the circumstances.

Fulham had already profited from the benefit of the doubt already this afternoon when a mistimed and clumsy challenge on the wet surface had gone unpunished, so perhaps the referee wasn't the actually to blame for anything at all... just saying.

Either way... a few years ago, 'the Cottagers' keeper David Button and Blues striker Clayton Donaldson had played together for a short time at Crewe Alexandra... and a sub plot was beginning to hatch at the 'Hammy End'.

And Fulham's number 1 put that to his advantage, by approaching his former team mate in the first instance and trying to unsettle him, then he walked off the pitch to wipe his gloves down on a towel, running the clock down with a stalling tactic that delayed Donaldson taking the spot kick and then he almost telepathically knew where Birmingham's centre forward was going to put the ball and got down well to pull of a great save by his left hand post.

Donaldson also failed to score from a penalty the last time he took one against Wigan Athletic last month. Sports psychology is a vastly underrated science and though it took a lot of mettle for the Jamaican striker to take responsibility after his recent miss, it is fairly obvious that Button used everything at his disposal to gain an advantage, though it must be stressed that not all forms of 'gamesmanship' should be misconstrued as cheating. Well played him!

However, regardless of the circumstances it was still a well taken spot kick and a bloody good save.

To compound Donaldson's frustration, he was booked a few minutes later for a heavy challenge on Tomas Kalas, a Czech footballer who is on loan at Craven Cottage, from Fulham's next door neighbours Chelsea.

But there is an old expression about 'he who laughs the last, laughs the loudest', read on to discover just how apt that old adage was today.

Madl cocks the away fans a deaf 'un as they wave goodbye to him

Madl soon poured ice water all over Fulham's celebrations however, when he scythed down Adams as he was on the verge of breaking forward and having already been booked, he had to go, thus leaving a gap for Fulham to fill between their defence and midfield.

Adams for his part is adapting to Championship football really quickly. Skill quota wise he reminds me of the former Arsenal and Everton player Anders Limpar in his prime, i.e. not when he made his four appearances for Birmingham while Trevor Francis was their manager, without the Swedes undoubted talent for falling over in the opposition penalty area, when he indulged in that other variant of 'gamesmanship'... often!

For the benefit of anyone who actually cares what happened to Anders (pretty much all of you then, eh!?), he's 50 years old these days (for a couple more weeks at least) and is the assistant coach at Sollentuna Fotbollsklubb.

HT: Whites 0 Blues/Reds 0

The second half was just four minutes old when Donaldson broke the deadlock.
Button earned 31 England caps when he was younger between under 16 and under 20 level but even with all of his experience, he could do nothing to stop his old friend from burying the ball past him from the spot this time, after Maikel Kieftenbeld was shoved over in Fulham's goal area by Floyd Ayite after he'd seized the ball following yet another defensive lapse.
Blues manager Rowett had insisted that if they were awarded another penalty, Maghoma would be taking it. But the big Jamaican ignored his bosses instructions and the calls from his team mates and put two consecutive misses and the first half shenanigans to the back of his mind, while finishing emphatically in front of the massed travelling ranks from the second city.

Birmingham regained possession straight from the restart and within a minute Maghoma almost showed that he was just as lethal as Donaldson, when he crashed a twenty yard free kick just wide of the upright.
Tom Cairney attacked the visitors goal from out on the left flank, but having rode two challenges Michael Morrison cut out his tame shot.
As the clocked ticked down, Scott Malone came close to equalising, but shot wide when he really ought to have done better.
My favourite Welsh player (he's far better than Gareth Bale will ever be) David Cotterill, on as a second half sub, was thwarted by Button as he went for goal and Kalas made a timely goal-line clearance from when it looked as though Maghoma had doubled the visitors lead witha well struck shot.

In the final minute, with the volume from the away end now threatening to drown out the sound of the big jets departing from Heathrow, Fulham were a coat of paint away from scoring, when Malone hit the woodwork with a downward header that bounced up off the pitch.
Full Time:
Fulham St. Andrews Church Sunday FC 0
Small Heath Alliance 1

Football League Championship fixtures are now coming thick and fast after the international break, with a full programme scheduled for midweek, that see's Birmingham City travel to Reading, while Fulham entertain Burton Albion.

Expect the league table to be in a complete state of flux for the next few months at the very least.

On the way back to the overground station to avoid the queues, I passed the infamous Kings Head on the High Road... back in the day I saw Generation X and the Lurkers play there on the same night and lived to tell the tale. Life has just flown by during the interim three and a half decades or so.

Sadly 'Foxy' and his TPF lot never showed up today.

Tuesday 13th September 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at the Jones & Co. Stadium, Cannon Park
Retford United (0) 1
Niall Sultan 65
AFC Mansfield (1) 3
Ollie Fearon 18, 64, Glyn Cotton 76
Admission £5. Programme £2.00. Attendance TBC

The local non league scene and the extended far reaching football family at large, was stunned last night, to hear of the death of Dan Wilkinson, who had collapsed on the pitch at Brighouse Town while playing for Shaw Lane A.F.C. having suffered from a suspected cardiac arrest.

Sincere condolences to Dan's family, friends and loved ones, Shaw Lane A.F.C. and Brighouse Town... and everyone else who has been touched by this terrible tragedy.
An immaculately observed minutes silence was held before tonight's game at Cannon Park as a mark of respect to Dan.

The Badgers went into tonight's game off the back of two local derby wins on the road, against Ollerton Town in the FA Vase and Worksop Town in the NCEL Prem, which will have lifted the spirits of their long suffering supporters, who haven't really had a lot to smile about for quite a while now.
The visitors have won three and lost three of their opening six league games. For the record, I was present at four of those games, including all three of their defeats.
However Rudy Funk and Micky Taylor's side have embarked on an impressive FA Cup run in the meantime, where having already seen off Shepshed Dynamo, South Normanton Athletic and Stratford Town, they now face a tricky away trip to Coalville Town of the EvoStik Northern Premier League on Saturday.
If I wasn't cramming two games in over Grimsby/Cleethorpes way at the weekend, I would be there to see if the Bulls could get a result, but good luck to everyone connected to AFC Mansfield anyway.

Sadly the whiff of rumours and politics currently permeates within all of the nooks and crannies of Cannon Park, once again, while little cliques (steering groups apparently) whisper among themselves in each and every corner.
But it's been that way round these parts for a long, long time now... and I doubt that it's about to change any time soon.
As I might have mentioned previously, when I have been offered the opportunity to get involved at Retford United on a couple of occasions in the past, it is my firm belief that their ground stands on the road that leads from my house to Rampton Mental Hospital for a reason.
Surely that can't be a coincidence, can it?
Keep your eyes peeled 24/7/365 if you gravitate around the local football circuit and get a bit too close to the core issues for your own good sometimes, there are clues and warning signs to be had in an abundance, if you look in the right places.

But I'm meandering and jabbering on (as I am prone to do), so lets get this overview of Retford United v AFC Mansfield back on course:
Whoever you listen to seems to have a different take on what is really going on at Retford United at present.
So tonight, I visited the 'Jones & Co. Arena' on the prerequisite that I would not to listen to anything except football talk, politics were strictly taboo and I was simply here to watch two teams playing out an approximate variation of the beautiful game.

United got the game underway but it was Mansfield who created the first opening when Gary Bradshaw ran onto a long ball from Mark Dudley, but having found himself with just the goal and Adam Valente ahead of him, scooped his shot into the car park.
Bradshaw was keeping the Badgers defence busy in the opening exchanges and he held the ball up well on the edge of their area before passing out wide to Jimmy Ghaichem who picked out Ollie Fearon with a right wing cross, which saw Valente save from the prolific strikers initial shot and the rebound ricocheted over the bar off the Bulls number 9.

The Badgers captain Keith Melvin was battling well at the back, in what was obviously his second scrap of the day, having already come second to a sadistic barber earlier in the day.
Bradshaw broke forward towards the Retford goal through the left channel, but Melvin got across and halted his run with a thundering interception and clearance that possibly knocked a cow out cold in the adjacent field... though that might be a very slight exaggeration on my part.
On 18 mins the visitors grabbed the lead when Ryan Williams shot on the edge of the area was deflected into the air and Ollie Fearon was on hand to plant a header past Valente.
The home side had an opportunity to level things up almost straight away, but Sean Sherwood couldn't keep his shot on target after some good work on the left from Jimmy Done.

Bradshaw tried to catch Valente out with a long shot, but the ball cannoned back off the crossbar and the experienced keeper was able to gather it comfortably after his let off.
Ryan Williams, as per usual, was providing a steady stream of ammunition for the visitors in the final third, but when he picked out Fearon at the back post with a cross from out on the left, Retford closed ranks and smothered the visitors attack.
Right on the stroke of half time it was Williams who played the role of provider again, when Chris Timons timed his run well to meet his former Stags' teammates left wing free kick but he directed his header just wide of the right hand upright.
HT: Badgers 0 v Bulls 1

Jack Walters and Jimmy Done were both showing some good touches as they combined to create chances for Niall Sultan and the Badgers rotated the two play makers as they looked to get back into the game.
Sultan chased the ball towards the edge of the Bulls goal area but Jason White was out quickly to deal with the situation.
Mansfield launched the ball forward as they adopted a direct approach, but when Fearon steered the ball wide to Williams, Chris Pauley was well placed to deal with the resulting cross.
The next goal grew in importance as a barometer as to which way this game was going and Fearon went close to stealing it when his angled shot across the face of Valente's goal deflected wide of the right hand upright.
Retford edged forward and Sherwood picked out Sultan with a well aimed forward pass, but White came out to the edge of the area and thwarted the Badgers striker.

With the Badgers focusing on getting a goal back at one end, they were guilty of a momentary lapse of concentration at the back which allowed Fearon to drag the ball through the right channel before drilling a low shot past the advancing Valente to give the Bulls a two goal cushion in the 64th minute.
The celebratory visitors took their foot of the gas for a moment from the restart and Jack Walters threaded a precision pass through the Mansfield defence to Sultan, who took the ball round the stranded Bulls keeper White, before rolling the ball into the net to unguarded net.
Bradshaw had two good chances for the visitors, but he couldn't get a clean connection on Jordan Annable's cross when he looked odds on to score and he diverted a back post header into the side netting from Williams' left wing corner.

Glyn Cotton finished emphatically from just outside the area, when Williams shot, that was going wide, rebounded into his path off of a defender and the visitors had their two goal cushion back with fifteen minutes left to play.

It was almost 1-4 to the visitors but Jack Shaw cleared off the line from Annable's right wing corner.

Sultan was probing and looking tofind a way back into the game for Retford, but Josh Madin had adopted him as a Siamese twin and wasn't giving the Badgers striker any room to manoeuvre now.

The Retford centre forward did manage to get a touch on Shaw's cross, but although some of the home support were on their feet cheering because they thought he'd scored, the ball actually went a fraction past the right hand post.

NOT Jack Walters ;-)

United finished with a flurry, but the Bulls stood their ground and preserved their lead.

Sultan with his back to both the goal and his ever present shadow Madin, laid the ball off sideways to Cameron Dear who lost his footing as he was about to shoot, and inside the final minute Mansfield cleared the ball to safety after Melvin had guided it over White and into a crowded goalmouth.

FT: Retford United 1 v AFC Mansfield 3

AFC Mansfield had just that bit too much quality and experience at the end of the day as they saw off Darren Giovannetti's side, but there was on obvious improvement in the way the Badgers played tonight, since the last time I watched them in action.

Wednesday 14th September 2016
Central League Cup
at Kirklington Road, Rainworth MWFC
Mansfield Town U21 (1) 2
Zayn Hakeem 29, Tyler Blake 73
Chesterfield Reserves (1) 4
Laurence Maguire 18, 64 Gary Taylor-Fletcher 57, 84

Click HERE for photographs from today's game

Click HERE for match report on Stags website by Matt Joules

Click HERE for post match reaction from MTFC U21 coach Mike Whitlow

Wednesday 14.9.16
Worksop Van Hire North Midland U19 League (North)
at the Jones & Co. Stadium, Cannon Park
Retford United (0) 0
Sheffield United (4) 12
Admission £2
Retford United FC U19 Forthcoming Fixtures CLICK HERE

A half decent turn out tonight, in spite of this game being poorly advertised.
If any of you Retfordians missed this because you didn't know that the Badgers have revived their under 19 side again this season, or you simply hadn't seen the fixtures, then the click on link above will provide you with all of the answers that you could possibly need.
Norbridge Academy had a coachload of youngsters at the game tonight, so Cannon Park was noisier than usual, as the youngsters cheered on the Badgers and sang songs in support of the home side from start to finish... and didn't let a mere twelve goals dampen their enthusiasm.

Obviously, this was always going to be a big ask for Lee Hurst and Phil Hall's team, in their new team's first ever league fixture against such a strong United side, who even had management staff of the calibre of Del Geary on their bench... and tonight proved to be a very steep learning curve for the Badgers both on and off the pitch.

In terms of results, it was obviously a bad loss for the home side, but as part of a learning and development process, as long as the Retford players have learned (albeit in a fairly harsh manner) that the slightest mistakes and momentary hesitation will get published against quality opponents, then a good going over could ironically be more beneficial to youngsters who want to improve (and surely that is what this division is all about), than being involved in a team who stroll out onto the pitch as dead certs every week.

I could write a blow by blow account of how the game panned out and name check players who misplaced passes that led to individual goals, but that serves no purpose whatsoever... this is the highest level of football that some of the home side have ever played at and opening their campaign against a side who are surely favourites for the title, was a bit of a baptism of fire.

But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and the Badgers coaches and their team, will know now exactly what to expect and will be better prepared next time out, when Chesterfield roll into town on Wednesday October 5th (7.45pm). That game will be a good barometer of Retford's mindset and mettle... they've got to put this one behind them, take on board what went wrong and make sure that some of the errors that contributed to their downfall aren't repeated.

There is obviously a lot of work to be done during the next fortnight until the Badgers next game, but the experience the home side will have got tonight, will prove invaluable in the long run and if they strive to improve just a fraction game by game both individually and collectively, as the players become more familiar with each other, then nearly all of the pieces are in place following this very public test, that possibly provided more questions and answers both on the pitch and behind the scenes, but the galvanizing effect and camaraderie as everyone involved with the team mucked in bodes well.

Sheffield United were a bit special and scored at wearingly frequent intervals between the 15th and 80th minute, before Retford's Zach Casburn cracked a shot against the upright in the very last minute.

FT: Retford United U19 0 v Sheffield United 12

Well played Blades, that performance will have been a real eye opener for some of the home side's debutants as regards the quality of teams in this league.

And the match officials, namely: Ian Dudley, Ian Shepherd and Charles Creswell Hibbert warrant some praise to for the way they handled the game too.

And, of course, Norbridge Academy deserve a special mention for bringing the noise!

Saturday 17th September 2016
EFL U18 Youth Alliance (NE)
at Grimsby Town Training Ground, Cheapside, Waltham
Grimsby Town (1) 1
Jamie Goddard 19
Mansfield Town (3) 3
Zayn Hakeem 6, 35, Ashanti Pryce 35
For more photos from this game click: HERE

Grimsby Town:
Oakley Heath-Drury, Alex McMillan, Mikey Davis (Corey Briggs 86), Adam Lawis, Cameron Howe, Jack Keeble, Dec Slater (Myles Lawman 60), Jamie Goddard, Lawrence Burchell (Charlie Loft 60), Tom Sawyer, Ben Flowerdue (Bilal Sassey 65)
Unused sub - Ryan Evans
Mansfield Town:
Sam Wilson, Teddy Bloor, Henri Wilder, Cain Smith (C), Kane Baldwin, Kieran Harrison, Nyle Blake (Surafel Behailu 88), Cameron Healey, Zayn Hakeem, Ashanti Pryce (Keaton Ward 64), Tom Marriott (Devante Reittie 57)
Unused subs - Harry Bircumshaw, Aiden Walker

The Stags youth team enjoyed a run of good results against the Mariners last season, with Morgan Ratcliffe and Zayn Hakeem finding the back of the net as John Dempster's young Stags clinched the league championship with a 2-0 win at Cheapside in April, to complete a treble over the Mariners, who they defeated narrowly at home with a solitary goal back in December and eliminated from the League Cup in Waltham, after a 4-2 penalty shoot out finale decided the outcome of a 1-1 draw in August.

Grimsby have made an indifferent start to the current season, although they did beat their county rivals Lincoln City in a cup game last week. while Mansfield are still unbeaten in all competitions, having overcome a two goal deficit to claim a draw away from home against a highly rated Shrewsbury Town side last weekend, to qualify for the next round of the cup with a home game against Walsall still to go, which will be played on Saturday 22nd October 2016.
The game got underway at a frantic pace, in a biting wind diagonal wind that cut across across the exposed Cheapside ground. But the Stags were brewing up a storm of their own and blew their hosts away with a double whammy inside the opening eleven minutes.

The Mariners were penalised for obstruction twenty five yards from their own goal and though their defensive wall did it's job and blocked Tom Marriott's free kick, his powerful shot ricocheted into the air and dropped for Zayn Hakeem who instinctively knocked it past Oakley Heath-Drury to put the Stags ahead.
Hakeem was involved in the Stags second goal too, when Nyle Blake picked him out with a pinpoint cross after seeing off two challenges on the right flank, which the Stags striker rolled back into the path of Ashanti Pryce who drilled the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the net.
Henri Wilder picked out Hakeem with a measured ball into the Grimsby area, but his shot skimmed over the bar.

Tom Sawyer was a stand out player for the home side but when he carved an opening for Lex McMillan and Laurence Burchell and they looked to play the ball inside to Jamie Goddard, Kieran Harrison made sure that never the twain shall meet as he hooked it away to safety.
Cameron Healey won a headed challenge and directed the ball into the path of Marriott who advanced forward before shooting, but Jack Keeble blocked his shot and Grimsby countered down the right flank, where Wilder was exposed wit two players to cover as McMillan tore past him and crossed to Burchell, whose first time shot was blocked but Goddard got to the rebound first and pulled a goal back from just outside the area.

The goal lifted Grimsby for a while and they pushed forward again but Harrison dealt with Dec Slater's right wing corner after the Mariners midfielder had made good use of the wind to deliver the ball into the danger zone.
The home side looked threatening again when Goddard's free kick was headed down by Adam Lawis into the path of Cameron Howe, but he turned the ball wide of the right hand post.
Blake attacked on the right, drawing two defenders towards him and planted the ball through the gap they had left to the feet of Hakeem; Heath-Drury was quickly off his line to narrow the angle though and the live-wire front man directing his chance just past the right hand upright and into the side netting.

But Hakeem was on target from the Stags next attack, when Blake ghosted past two tackles and laid a sideways pass into the path of the Mansfield number 9, who restored the visitors two goal cushion as he swept the ball past Heath-Drury from ten yards.
The Cheapside pitch has been widened this season and the Stags were using the wings to good effect, with Teddy Bloor combining well with Blake as Kane Baldwin plugged the gap he left when he frequently got forward in support of the attackers and Wilder was combining linking up with Marriott on the left, with a personal tussle against McMillan. Cameron Healey and Cain Smith were holding the fort in midfield, with the sort of confident, assured manner that stems from having such a reliable pairing backing them up as Baldwin and Harrison.

The home side cleared Marriott's left wing corner, but only as far as Cain Smith who delivered a dipping cross towards Harrison, but Heath-Drury got up well to gather the ball.
Healey picked up possession on the left hand side of Grimsby's area and chipped the ball towards the back stick, to where Blake made a darting run and was desperately unlucky to see his effort go wide of the post.
Right on the stroke of half time Pryce almost claimed a fourth goal for the visitors, but his thumping shot from Smith's cross, glanced wide of the post off of a Grimsby defender.
HT: Mariners Youth 1 v Stags Youth 3

It is ironic that all of the goals were scored in the first half, because after the break the Stags demonstrated why they are reigning champions and league leaders, with a great display of fast passing attacking football, as they put the home side on the back foot with wave upon wave of forward play.
Pryce laid the ball out wide the Blake and ran on to take the return pass, before unleashing a blistering shot that Hetah-Drury turned round his left hand post at full stretch.
Keeble had to lungee in with a last ditch challenge on Hakeem, when Bloor had unlocked the home side's rearguard with a clever knock.

The Mariners launched a long clearance into the Stags half that Wilder headed back firmly in the direction from which it had come, finding Pryce who played it out wide to Hakeem, who sprinted forward taking three Grimsby players with him before turning and knocking the ball back Bloor, whose first time cross found Pryce, but the linesman decreed that he had strayed marginally offside.
Marriott, having taken a heavy knock, was replaced by Devante Reittie and the home side now had to contend with two central strikers tearing through the middle, supported by Hakeem and Blake on the flanks. But still, to their credit, the Mariners parked the bus and repelled a tidal wave of Stags attacks.

Mikey Davis, seeing no options to pass in front of him, tore forward forty yards from his left back berth, before nudging the ball forward to Burchell, but Wilson had read the developing situation well and came off his line to smother the ball at the centre forward's feet.
But after that brief interlude, the Stags show of strength resumed, as Wilder won the ball in the Grimsby half before taking three strides forward and trying his luckfrom thirty yards out, only to be denied by the outstretched leg of Lawis.
The visitors were knocking the ball around well, with training ground passing drills that must have had John Dempster and Mark Peters drooling with pleasure.

More chances went begging as the visitors looked to turn the screw; Heath-Drury pulled off a great close range save from Reittie, who had sprinted through the defence to meet Blake's cross over the home side's left back.
And Blake went close himself when he got onto the end of Hakeem's cross from the left.
Keaton Ward came on from the bench and gave the Grimsby defence a different sort of problem to contend with as he chased down and battled for every ball, he almost added an elusive fourth goal when he cleverly chipped the ball over Keeble ans homed in on goal, but a crowded Mariners defence cleared their lines.

In the closing exchanges, the home side pushed forward to give the scoreline a more respectable look, than the 3-1 that scarcely resembled the way that the visitors had dominated, but as Tom Sawyer and Charlie Lofts tried battering their way through towards Wilson's goal, Baldwin and Harrison closed down their attacking options and the young Stags left Linconshire with all three points and a very convincing win under their belts.
FT: Grimsby Town U18 1 v Mansfield Town U18 3

Tekkers!

Saturday 17th September 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at Bradley Football Development Centre
Cleethorpes Town (2) 4
Peter Winn 19 pen
Brody Robertson 23
Jack Richardson 66
Luke Mascall 76
Maltby Main (0) 0
Admission £6 Programme £1.50 Attendance 101

At the slow starters end of the NCEL Premier Division table, there were three fixtures that could already be classed as relegation 'six pointers' today, with all six of the clubs at the bottom of the pile involved, namely: Barton Town Old Boys v Harrogate Railway Athletic, Parkgate v Retford United and Staveley Miners Welfare v Armthorpe Welfare. Two of the managers involved in that particular scrap have already fallen on their swords and exited stage left. But nothing in football is won or lost by the middle of September, so it's way too soon to be speculating about such things just yet.
The NCEL season lasts from August 'til April and it's a Marathon not a Snickers.

But our excursion to Waltham with the Stags youth team this lunchtime, gave us the ideal opportunity to catch up with our good friends from both Cleethorpes Town and Maltby Main, who were in the hunt for points today for all together different reasons, with 'Clee' looking tostay at the top of the pile while the Miners were looking to consolidate their position in the comfort zone that is the top half of the table.

Please pardon the pun, but the Owls have got off to a flyer this term, having been somewhat hampered with their promotion push by some indifferent form towards the beginning of last season and prior to kick off they were sat sat on the top perch, leading the NCEL Premier Division, with one point more than second placed Liversedge, who are living up to the potential they showed in the second half of last season once they cleared up their fixtures backlog.

Today's visitors are progressing at a steady sustainable pace and building on the foundations that they put down last season. Their chairman, Wilf Race has realistic aspirations as to what the achievable aims are for his South Yorkshire club and their manager Spencer Fearn is under no pressure as he assembles his team and the development side of the club within a sensible time frame.

The Miners know that they aren't in a position to compete financially with some of the big hitters in this league, but they are moving along nicely in the right direction nevertheless.
Three NCEL Premier Division clubs were in FA Cup action this afternoon and they all fared well, with Bridlington Town earning a replay against Harrogate Town, while AFC Mansfield beat Coalville United away and Handsworth Parramore saw off Burscough at the Windsor Food Service Stadium.

Maltby, pretty much as you'd expect, battled all the way for the whole 90 minutes today, but their hosts demonstrated why they are currently at the top of the NCEL and had that touch more class to rack up two goals in each half, which were all scored by different players, and even the introduction of the mercurial talent of John Stancliffe late in the game wasn't enough to salvage anything from the game for Spencer Fearn's side.

Lee Hill, who was missing from the visitors line up today due to a hamstring problem, was a big miss for Maltby today, who could have done with his run through brick walls for you commitment in the heat of the battle... not that it was actually war, as the wind picked up and did it's level best to ruin the game as a spectacle.

What the Miners lacked in the way of Hill's physical approach, was offset by the vocal backing and encouragement that he was giving his teammates from the touchline.

Ta very much to Matt Jones for the team details

Grimsby Town were at home today, which will have affected this afternoon's attendance.

For the record, the Mariners lost 2-0 at Blundell Park against Crewe Alexandra, going down by the same two goal margin that their youngsters did at nearby Waltham, a couple of hours ago.

For almost completely unbiased details from that game, click HERE

Cleethorpes got the game underway andfor the first ten minutes or so, it was an evenly contested affair with both sides going close to finding the opening goal, while their respective goalkeepers were both required to be on their toes right from the word go, with Danny Rusling plucking Caine Winfarrah's cross from the air as Marc Cooper moved in quickly to receive a return ball and Liam Higton saved acrobatically from Gibrel Banjol, who was a whisker away from opening the score when Dan Reilly knocked Jordan Snodin's corner down to him.

Peter Winn's corner from out on the right wing, moved about in the wind, but Rusling took the safety first approach and turned the ball round the post at the expense of another flag kick.
Luke Mascall delivered a short ball to Winn, but Nicky Darker anticipated his cross well and cleared up at the back for the visitors.
Reilly was covering every blade of grass and he latched onto a loose ball twenty yards from the Owls goal, but his shot deflected wide and as Cleethorpes cleared their lines, and mounted a charge forward. Mascall threaded the ball through the left channel for Brody Robertson to chase and in a last ditch effort to catch him, Craig Mitchell caught Robertson's trailing leg and conceded a penalty.

Winn stepped forward and buried the resulting spot kick, low, hard and central, to put the home side in front.

Maltby pushed forward looking to restore parity, but when Shawn Mitchell picked out Sam Stacey, he couldn't get enough power behind his shot to trouble Higton, as the ball bounced awkwardly in front of him and he was forced to attempt a hybrid effort that contained elements of a bicycle kick, a scissor kick and adopting the kind of posture one can usually only achieve by slipping on a bar of soap in a bath. He probably won't try that one again.

Higton's long clearance found it's way through to Winfarrah out on the left flank and he put on a burst of pace before rolling the ball sideways to his right, to where Brody Robertson added the finishing touch to make it 2-0 in the twenty third minute.

The Owls comfortably saw out the remainder of the first half, nipping two Maltby attacks through Ollie Lawrence and Banjol in the bud, before Winn picked out Robertson's run, but he sliced the ball wide with just Rusling standing between him and a third goal for Marcus stewart's side.
Winfarrah and Mascall tormented Maltby down the left flank, but with Robertson and Cooper moving in to connect with the cross, Callam Cheetham cleared the ball away.
HT: Cleethorpes Town 2 v Maltby Main 0
The game had started of as an end to end affair, but as half time approached, the visitors had to drop deep and put up a dogged resistance against the Owls, who were dealing with the windy conditions better than their opponents and looking good value for their two goal lead.

Mascall was obstructed just outside the Maltby penalty area, although that lot with the flags in the seats, sat 80 yards away from the incident were bawling their heads off, claiming that the Owls should have had a penalty.

The match referee Darren Whatling did one or two curious things over the course of the afternoon, like grabbing both Lee Betts and Luke Mascall by their necks and looking for all the world as if he was going to bang their heads together for squabbling over a decision (I kid you not!), but he had a clear and unimpeded view of the pull on Mascall in this instance.

Maltby's defensive wall didn't flinch an inch as they blocked Winn's free kick, but they were coming under increasing pressure now and Reilly did well to stop Marc Cooper's goalbound effort from going in.

A third Owls goal looked almost inevitable now.
Jon Oglesby entered the ray from the bench, indicating the strength in depth that Cleethorpes have.
His first taste of the action saw him cause chaos among Maltby's defence when they could only clear the ball as far as Robertson, whose shot crashed off of Reilly, who will be carrying a few lumps and bruises in the morning, but his second cross a few minutes later, picked out a well timed run from Jack Richardson who powered a header past Rusling, to put the game beyond the Miners reach.
To their credit, the visitors were still putting the effort in and encroaching forward down the right via a series of throw ins, but that avenue was taken away from the visitors when their battling right back Cheetham had to limp out of the game late on.

On seventy six minutes, Luke Mascall claimed the goal that his all action showing today warranted, when Winn played the ball forward to Robertson who played a square pass across to Oglesby and when Maltby attempted to clear their lines, the loose ball fell to Mascall, who drilled it past Rusling from an angle to put the icing on a convincing victory for the Owls, on an afternoon that they really needed the points to stay ahead in the title race, with early season pace setters Liversedge, Albion Sports, Thackley and Bottesford Town all winning their games today too.

Nicky Darker, the Maltby captain, aimed a long ball towards Ollie Lawrence, but it dropped wide of the right hand post before the Miners battling number 7 could get a touch on it.

And right had the death Connor Gregg created an half chance to pull back a consolation goal for the visitors, but Higton was determined to hang on to his clean sheet and he touched the ball wide.

FT: Cleethorpes Town 4 v Maltby Main 0

On Wednesday night 'Clee' visit Parkgate, who are joint bottom of the table with Armthorpe Welfare and haven't picked up a single point in the league this season yet, after seven games.

They lost 5-0 at home against Retford United today.

But the Owls will be mindful of what happened the last time that they went to Parkgate and were expected to win, see HERE and they won't be underestimating their opponents or taking anything for granted.

Maltby don't have a midweek game , but they return to action next Saturday when Thackley visit Muglet Lane.

Monday 19th September 2016

FA Youth Cup. First Qualifying Round

at the Windsor Foodservice Stadium

Handsworth Parramore (1) 4
Joe Turner 26, Ellis Moore 76 pen
Brad Nicholson 80, Tom Cropper 86

Cleethorpes Town (0) 0

Admission £3 (mandatory FA admission charge) Free team sheet

Taking a lead from their first team, who triumphed over EvoStik Northerm Premier League side Burscough in the FA Cup at the weekend, Handsworth's Under 18 side imposed themselves on tonight's game against Cleethorpes and deservedly claimed their place in the next round.
The Owls matched their hosts for the first twenty minutes or so and made an impressive start to the second half as they pushed forward in search of an equalising goal, but for the most part, Parramore's passing, movement and ability to retain possession for long spells, proved to be the visitors undoing.
Cleethorpes have a good number of stand out players among their ranks, most notably: Charlie Parker, James Hopkins, Adam Whall and Brendan Braithwaite, judging by tonight's performance... whereas Handsworth didn't. That is to say, they all stood out and stuck to their designated roles well and looked very comfortable as they swept the ball around at ease as they maintained a high tempo pressing game throughout.

Left click to enlarge picture

Jake Lancini, the Ambers goalkeeper, has experienced first team football at the sharp end of last season and wasn't found wanting when he was thrown in at the deep end to cover for Archie Sneath in his absence. In Tom Burbeary and Ellis Moore, the hosts have two full backs who will dig in and stand their ground when the need arises, but who will also get forward in support of their front men and wide midfielders, joining in with some of the fast paced passing drills that were such a pleasure to watch tonight. Moore is also the team's dead ball specialist on st pieces and corners. Tyler Bates and Brad Nicholson are just about as uncompromising a central defensive pairing as I've seen anywhere in their age group, with Bates marshalling the back line like a second captain while if Nicholson didn't win a header or tackle tonight I must have blinked and missed it.

Harry Mitchell and Liam Beighton work tirelessly, providing a bridge between attack and defence, Ben Rooth, Harry Groombridge and Tiago Bravo have both the pace and ability to run any defence ragged and right in the middle of it all, directing operations and providing a formidable barrier for any opposition player to get past, if they are inclined to mount an attack, central midfield is augmented by a player who I likened to a young David Batty (anyone who ever accompanied me to England games in the past will know how massive a compliment that is meant as) is the Ambers captain: Joe Turner.

All three subs that Handsworth bought on: Tom Cropper, Ashley Cawkwell and Elliott Rogan, slotted seamlessly into Parramore's game plan without disrupting their shape in the slightest.

I reckon that is enough superlative praise for one night, so moving on, I don't think that the match referee got much wrong tonight, but the one or two incidents that he might have handled differently were fairly big ones, and some of his decision making led to a bit of needle and friction, that didn't actually blow up into any kind of significant animosity and confrontation, but it certainly came close once or twice, particularly towards the end of the game.

But it's easy for me to be critical from my seat in the stand, with a couple of learned students of the beautiful game to consult for a second opinion.

Refereeing isn't a profession I'd care to take up myself, so it would be wrong for me to comment further if I'm unwilling to squeeze into a black shirt and shorts and pick up the whistle myself.

Diplomatic long windedness... I'm full of it!

And for the record I'm often asked if I have any splinters in my bum for sitting on the fence so much, when it comes to analysing match officials.

It's getting late so I'll wrap up now once I've described the goals (I'll spare you the other seven pages of technical jargon and VERY detailed performance statistics for a few of the players who I have already name-checked, who, for the record,all got glowing reports tonight).

Handsworth took the lead on 26 minutes, when left back Ellis Moore delivered a free kick from near the halfway line towards Joe Turner inside the 'Clee' goal area and he finished well from ten yards.

Surprisingly, Turner's strike was the only goal of the first half... but after absorbing the visitors attacking efforts at the outset of the second half, Handsworth scored their second (and vital) goal, when Moore dispatched the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the net from the penalty spot, amidst an atmosphere of chaos. Three defenders closed in on Tiago Bravo he burst into the penalty area... and although there is no disputing the fact that he was fouled, the referee had let play continue while James Hopkins was laying flat out in the centre circle, obviously hurt from a heavy knock he'd taken.

Hopkins teammates argued against the penalty decision and obviously felt that the referee should have stopped the game so that he could receive attention.

But after running back to check on the injured player, who limped out of the game once he got back to his feet, Mr Mills consulted his senior assistant and pointed to the penalty spot.

Having netted Handsworth's second goal, Moore became the creator of their third as he delivered a right wing corner which Nicholson met at the back post and beat Jack Tutus with a thumping header.

Handsworth netted their fourth goal in the 80th minute when Bravo's close range shot from Bates' right wing cross, deflected into the path of Tom Cropper who gratefully knock the ball into the back of the net from close range.

To compound the confusion surrounding the referee's 'communication' with the players over the penalty (that was eventually given) incident, the home side thought they had been badly done to as well (and not without good reason), when Bravo sprinted towards the goal, but was pulled back by his arm as he teed up a shot with a clear sight of the goal in front of him. The resulting free kick was awarded some five yards back from where the infringement actually took place.

The game finished with eleven players from each side on the pitch, but one of them was very fortunate to still be there... I'll leave it at that!

I'm sure that Cleethorpes will concede that they lost to the better side tonight, but will still have reservations about what sort of mark they should give the referee.

By the same token, Handsworth will be justifiably happy with their performance and the result, while possibly having one or two questions to ask the officials themselves.

FT: Handsworth Parramore U18 4 v Cleethorpes Town U18 0

Image result for handsworth parramore v cleethorpes town

Neutral spectators love these high tempo games, with an added element of drama and controversy thrown in. It all makes for a very exciting spectacle for the unaffiliated.

I don't envy match officials, they have a difficult job to do, especially in the crash, bang, wallop, 100 mph atmosphere that twenty two teenagers charging around a football pitch can create.

But I am really glad that I am merely providing an impartial overview and eye witness account of the game, through my unbiased eyes and that I didn't actually have any official duties to perform tonight as regards dealing with the referee..

Match officials make errors of judgement sometime... we all do!
Well played tonight Hnadsworth Parramore Under 18s, that was a thoroughly deserved win in spite of some of the peripheral distractions and odd decisions.
Good luck in the next round. Enjoy your holiday later this week Mr Patterson!

Worksop Town 2 v Ashton Athletic 2 - FA Cup Preliminary Round

Brigg Town 2 v Hallam 1 - NCEL Div 1

Burton Albion 1 v Mansfield Town 2 - EFLYA Cup

Maltby Main 3 v AFC Mansfield 1 - NCEL Prem

Retford FC 1 v Harworth Colliery 2 - CMFL North

Hartlepool United U21 2 v Mansfield Town U21 1 - PSF

Worksop Town 5 v Garforth Town 1 - NCEL Prem

Harworth Colliery 1 v Appleby Frodingham 2 - CMFL North

Burton Albion 0 v Mansfield town 6 - EFLYA (North)

Retford FC 0 v FC Bolsover 7 CMFL North

Rotherham United Reserves 0 v Mansfield Town U21 1 - Central League

Rainworth Miners Welfare 0 v Handsworth Parramore 4 - NCEL Prem

AFC Mansfield 0 v Athersley Recreation 1 - NCEL Prem

Fulham 0 v Birmingham City 1 - SkyBet EFL Championship

Retford United v AFC Mansfield - NCEL Prem

Mansfield Town U21 2 v Chesterfield Reserves 4 - Central League

Retford United 0 v Sheffield United 12 - WVH NMU19L (North)

Grimsby Town 1 v Mansfield Town 3 - FLYA NE

Cleethorpes Town 0 v Maltby Main 4 - NCEL Prem

Handsworth Parramore 4 v Cleethorpes Town 0 - FA Youth Cup QR1