THE66POW

Tuesday 20th Septemer 2016
Toolstation NCEL Division 1
at Oxford Street
Rossington Main (1) 2
Andrew Wood 22
Jake Vernon 78 pen
Campion FC (0) 0
Admission £4. Programme sold out, Attendance 122

Rossington Main:
Simon Day, Tom Harte, Brad Billlam, Josh Morris, Tom Dorgan, Liam Cooper, Andy Wood, Jordan Hatton, Jake Vernon, Jason Stokes, Jake Johnson
Subs - Niall Doyle, Cain Wellins, Callum Black, Callum Wiffen, Ryan Musselwhite

Campion FC:
Dan Armitage, Ben Kendal, Dan Stocker, Matt Jones, Josh Cooke, Dan Brown, Matt Waller, Scott Eastwood, Eli Hey, Jordan Missin, Lee Bradshaw
Subs - Liam Charles, Andrew Tasker, Graham Hall,Gavin Armitage

Back to back home wins have seen 'Rosso' climb up to eighth place in the NCEL Division 1 table tonight, as they strive to put last season's annus horribilis, when they finished twentieth in a twenty one team division, well and truly behind them.
Both teams created plenty of chances in a game that could have finished four apiece, or gone either way, with Rossngton having the bulk of play in the first half, while Campion probably shaded things possession wise after the interval, but lost their way, along with their heads (so to speak), in the closing stages and saw the game out with just nine players on the pitch, with Matt Tyers dishing out two red cards inside the the last ten minutes.

A quick look at the goal scoring stats on the NCEL website, shows that Eli Hey, the visitors number 9, is settling in comfortably to his new surroundings, as Campion embark on their first ever season at this level, having won promotion from the West Riding County Amateur League at the end of last season, where the club formerly known as St Edmund Campion (from the date of their formation as a junior side in 1963 until 1975) have plied their trade for the last three decades.
For the record, they won their first ever NCEL game 5-2, away from home against Westella and Willerby on August 6th and it was Eli Hey who netted their first ever league goal that afternoon.
Hey was obviously highly motivated and keen to add to his tally tonight, but he found Tom Dorgan and Josh Morris to be equally keen to thwart his quest for goals and he didn't get much change out of the pair of them all night as the Main back line defended well for the most part Even after Liam Cooper limped out of the game halfway through the first half.

It was Dorgan who almost created the opening goal when he fed the ball through to Jake Vernon, but with the visitors defence appealing for an offside call and the assistant's flag staying down, it was Dan Armitage who salvaged the situation for the Bradford based side, charging off of his line and clutching the ball to his chest.
Jason Stokes beat Armitage with a thumping shot from the edge of the area, but the ball crashed against the right hand upright.
Ben Kendal picked out the prolific Campion front man Hey, who received the full back's pass on the edge of the area with his back to goal and shot on the turn, but he was well wide of the target.

Tom Harte was getting forward down the right flank to good effect and combining well with Vernon and Stokes, as the home side began to settle into their rhythm and put Campion on the back foot.
Campion conceded a free kick some thirty five yards from their goal, which Jordan Hatton (I think) took quickly, (while the visitors defence were still organising) into the path of Andrew Wood, just inside the area, who darted forward past Armitage to roll the ball into an unguarded net, to give Rossington the lead after twenty two minutes.

Lee Bradshaw almost masters the art of invisibility as he
runs up to take a free kick deep inside Rosso territory.

The Campion players were incensed.
Not because the referee had allowed the free kick to be taken while they were still getting themselves sorted out (in no particular hurry), but due to the fact that when the dead ball was knocked forward to Wood, it wasn't from exactly the same spot as the actual offence was committed.
Just how far forward from the scene of the crime was differed depending on whoever was narrating their own eye witness account of events, but one thing that I can verify for sure, is that in all of my years of liaising with match officials on behalf of several clubs over the years, Matt Tyers is up their among the better referees I have ever dealt with and these things balance themselves out over the course of a season... don't they?
I would have thought, that the best policy to adopt if you don't want undoing by free kicks in your final third, is to digress from committing fouls in such dangerous areas.

Jordan Missin sped forward and broke into the left hand side of the home sides defence, but he got his feet in a tangle and went to ground as Simon Dye advanced from his line and smothered the ball.
Campion's diminutive attacking midfielder Matt Waller, showed some good touches and no small amount of pace as he charged around inside the final third, trying to chip away at a stoic 'Rosso' defence.
He played a short corner to Hey and chipped an angled shot onto the roof of the goal from the return pass and saw his shot from the opposite flank deflected at the expense of a corner just moments later and when flag kick found Missin, Dye was on hand to pull off a great reflex save from the big number 10's close range downward header.

Morris clattered into Hey, a few yards outside the penalty area and Scott Eastwood wasn't far away from leveling things up as he drilled the resulting free kick wide of the the post.
As a lively first half came to a close, Andy Wood had two great chances to increase his side's lead, but Armitage managed to twist backwards and tip his shot from twelve yards over the bar, while Wood diverted the ball past the post with a glancing header from Stokes' cross.
HT: Rossington Main 1 v Campion 0
The home side came out all guns blazing after the half time break and Hatton went close as his shot glanced off of a defender and went behind for a corner.
Brad Billam linked up with Hatton and Wood as the Main advanced via a series of first touch passes, before feeding the ball wide to Harte, whose cross found Stokes but Josh Cooke blocked his shot.

Matt Waller was involved in most of Campion's forward play and he went close with a dipping shot that narrowly cleared Dye's crossbar from outside the area. The effervescent number 7 then forced a save out of the Rosso keeper with a crisp shot from the left hand side of goal, after an exchange of passes between Lee Bradshaw and Eastwood.
The visitors were enjoying a good spell and were close to drawing level when Hey sprinted into the home side's goalmouth, as Dye charged from his line to narrow the high scoring centre forwards shooting options and did enough to rattle Hey into rushing his shot and he side footed the ball wide of the post.
Play switched to the other end of the pitch again and Armitage did well to keep out Jake Vernon's angled shot, while Dan Brown put his foot through the ball to hook it away from Stokes as he was about to pounce on the rebound, but the attempted clearance fell, who at the feet of Jake Johnson who unleashed a shot somewhere in the general direction of the East Coast Main Line.

You couldn't take your eyes off of the pitch for a moment as this end to end game continued at breakneck speed. Campion pushed forward again and amidst a goalmouth scramble, Missin was denied by Dye who pulled off a worldly of a reflex save, to keep out the rangy attackers knock from just three yards.

Both sides were still at it hammer and tongs and Stokes was only inches away from doubling Rossington's lead, when he ran onto Hatton's through ball but stabbed the ball the wrong side of the post.

Billam was making a great contribution for the home side, covering his defensive role at left back well, whilst tearing up and down the left flank and chipping in with some decent link up play.

Kendal showed why he is a defender, when Dan Stocker's shot rebounded into his path and he struck the ball with plenty of power, but without any concept of which direction the goal was in and it's trajectory headed dangerously towards the flight path of planes coming and going from the nearby 'Robin Hood Shefield Airport', which in spite of it's name is actually at what used to be Finningley Aerodrome... so now you know why they don't have the annual Airshow there anymore.

The highly competitive nature of the game reached tipping point in the 78th minute when Mr Tyers spotted an infringement inside the Campion area and after consulting his linesman who was flagging for penalty, awarded a spot kick to 'Rosso'.

A few of the Campion team saw the red mists and berated both match officials to the extent that Missin was given his marching orders.

There is a FA directive in place this season pertaining to abuse aimed at match officials and Missin made a rod for his own back by showing dissent to both Tyers and his assistant.

Vernon compounded the visitors misery wen he drilled the spot kick past Armitage to make it 2-0.

Worse was to come for the visitors when they went down to nine men, when Dan Brown conceded a clumsy foul near the halfway line and received a second yellow and subsequently a red card.

It was a shame that the game finished under such a cloud, because up until the penalty, it had been compelling viewing with both teams giving a good account of themselves and obviously not in the mood to settle for a point apiece.

With both a two goal and two man advantage, Rossington saw thee remainder of the game out comfortably while Campion left Oxford Street with nothing to show for their efforts.

FT: Rossington Main 2 v Campion 0

It had been a really enjoyable game to watch, until a few of the visiting team lost their discipline towards the end of it.

Campion make the short trip to Eccleshill United for a Bradford derby at the weekend; while Rossington are hosting NWCL Premier Division side Bootle FC in a FA Vase fixture.

Good luck and best wishes to Lee Holmes and his team on the road to Wembley.

Wednesday 21st September 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at the Roundwood Sports Complex, Rawmarsh
Parkgate (1) 3
Alex Lill 29
Joshua Moore 45
Lebrun Mbeka 81
Cleethorpes Town (1) 3
Brody Robertson 35
Jonathan Oglesby 62
Marc Cooper 82
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 97

Parkgate FC:
Josh Lill, Ollie Yates, Tafadzwa Mumbanya, Ross Shelton, Richard Hague, Connor Griffin, Lebrun Mbeka, Michael Cuckson, Josh Moore, Alex Lill, Sam Foulds
Subs - Conner (with an E) White, Jake Ashton, Scott Wesley, Andy Higgins, Danny Kabeya

Cleethorpes Town:

Liam Higton, Tim Lowe, Peter Winn, Jack Richardson, Matt Bloomer, Kieran Wressell, Caine Winfarrah, Liam Dickens, Marc Cooper, Brody Robertson, Jon Oglesby
Subs - Matt Kingston, Alex Flett, Lawrence McKay, Josh Sunter

At this rate the NCEL will be receiving recognition in the New Years honours list for services beyond the call of duty to the entertainment industry.
On paper tonight probably looked like a formality as league leaders Cleethorpes Town visited Parkgate, who were in joint bottom place without a point to their name before kick off.
But football isn't played on paper... it's played on Suth Yorkshire blustery nights, in heavy downpours.
And besides, the Steelmen's manager Steve Adams, has been busy strengthening his side with a host of new signings as he looks to steer his tide back on course in an upwardly direction following a shaky start to the season, where a 5-0 reversal at home against Retford United, seems to have been the catalyst for some much needed drastic changes.

Left: Bruce Bickerdike. Right: NCEL Fixtures Pest.

Before I commence rambling on about tonight's compelling contest, I would like to wish the Parkgate FC club secretary, Bruce Bickerdike, all the best for a full and speedy recovery, after a recent fall down some stairs has left him incapacitated, needing an operation and a stay in hospital.
Bruce is one of those people whose considerable presence adds warmth and colour to local non league football's rich tapestry of larger than life and unique, one off characters.
Get well soon pal. I look forward to seeing you out and about again any time soon.

Cleethorpes will have known not to underestimate the Rawmarsh based club, after they came unstuck on the road here last season, see HERE, when I'd boldly predicted that: "You have applaud Parkgate for their performance today; if they carry on playing like that they'll be well clear of the drop zone in no time at all".
Well it's taken a while to actually get around to hatching that particular plan, but anybody who was present at Green Lane tonight, would probably think that those words were more apt after this performance from the Steelmen, who certainly lived up to their nickname and weren't afraid in the slightest of some of the Owls big hitters as they competed neck and neck with their high flying opponents right until the final whistle.

The best league in the world.
Possibly.

In fact, if truth be told; though most people would've been expecting the visitors to win this game quite comfortably; on the balance of play, Marcus Newell's side could probably consider themselves slightly fortunate to head back to the east coast with a point from a game in which they came back from going behind three times.

Cleethorpes started the game well, but Peter Winn drilled a free kick over the bar after Liam Dickens had been fouled and Jon Oglesby, back in the Owls starting line up tonight, saw his left wing cross heading in the same direction.

Josh Lill ran from the Steelmen's goal area to intercepted a long pass intended for Marc Cooper and was forced into chesting the ball away, it bounced into the path of Brody Robertson out on the left, bouncing up abruptly off of the wet pitch, which caused the visitors number 10 no end of embarrassment, as his attempt to hook the ball over Lill and towards the goal failed miserably and he scuffed it in the opposite direction, over the stand that runs for half the length of the Roundwood pitch.

The anticipated one way onslaught never came and Parkgate picked up the ante instead, with Josh Moore seeing one effort go wide of Liam Higton's goal and another shot moments later, was saved by the Cleethorpes keeper.

On ten minutes Lebrun Mbeka saw a narrow gap in the visitors defence and threaded the ball through to Alex Lill, who kept his nerve as Higton came out to block him and planted the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the net to give Parkgate the lead.

Even the most optimistic and upbeat of locals said "I wish that had happened with ten minutes left, rather than with ten minutes gone".

Everone agreed universally that his cautious and not entirely optimistic observation was a good point well made.

'Clee' tried to force the issue again; Cooper's long shot was well held by (J) Lill, Liam Dickens dangerous cross from a right wing corner was headed clear by Mbeka. Richard Hague stopped Cooper's goal bound run through the left channel, with a tackle worthy of comparison with Bobby Moore on Pele. Younger readers ask your dad/granddad who these two players who used to represent two countries who were half decent at football, back in the day.

Robertson broke down the left flank, turned and delivered a cross to Cooper, whose long shot was blocked by Hague. Caine Winfarrah tested Lill with a stinging shot that he turned wide and Robertson lost his footing with just Lill to beat when Cooper flicked the ball on to him from the resulting corner.

But the visitors were finally on level terms, when Jack Richardson took advantage of a momentary lapse in concentration by the hard working Parkgate defence and rolled a slide rule pass through to Robertson, who put his previous slapstick finish and belly flop in a puddle behind him and rolled a precision shot past (J) Lill to equalise in the 35th minute.

Moments later, Robertson almost scored again from Winn's cross but his shot was saved.

"Oh well, nice while it lasted I suppose!" espoused the in house eternal pessimist. Ye of little faith!

Josh Moore advanced towards the visitors goal from out on the right, saw four Owls players ahead of him and 'dinked' a dipping shot over them that Higton had to tip over the bar.

Right on the stroke of half time, with the Parkgate faithful seemingly accepting that the visitors would turn up the heat after the break and that their lead had been nice while it lasted, Moore broke forward again... this time the 'Clee' defence had switched off completely, allowing the centre forward a clear run on goaland he gleefully accepted the opportunity to smash the ball into the roof of the net.

HT: Steelmen 2 v Owls 1

Parkgate attacked first after the break, Mbeka played the ball forward to (A) Lill but the Owls captain Matt Bloomer intercepted the ball and broke down the move before playing the ball out of defence.

Winfarrah picked up the initiative, but his shot crashed against Hague and another opportunity had gone.

The travelling contingent of Owls fans called for a penalty, but there was very little that Hague could've done to get out of the way of the ball as it hit him and in my humble and unbiased opinion, awarding a spot kick would've been harsh.

Both Cooper and Winn were only slightly wide of target from just outside the area.

The Parkgate number 3 Tafadzwa Mumbanya ('Taf' to his friends), seemingly has a right to roam clause in his contract, because he was popping up all over the place and was close to making it 3-1 with an angled shot from just inside the left edge of the penalty area, but Higton stood firm.

Cleethorpes pushed forward down the left flank and Winn's cross caused problems for the home side's defence, who only half cleared the ball away as far as Oglesby who drilled the ball across the face of the goal from just outside the right hand side of the area and his shot found the bottom left hand corner. It was a quality strike and once more the scores were level after 62 minutes.

The visitors were guilty of missing a couple of sitters as substitute Josh Sunter knocked a decent chance wide with his first touch of the ball and Richardson headed wide with the goal at his mercy.

Both Cleethorpes full backs had to get across to cover their central defenders as Moore and (A) Lill both went close.

'Taf' showed some great skill out on the left and delivered a great cross to (A) Lill, but he couldn't get up yo meet it with his head because he was being restrained on the referee's blind side, which kind of offsets the visitors earlier penalty claim and proves the old adage about these sort of things balancing out.

Conner White came on from the bench and was straight in the thick of things as he chased a long knock forward down but was narrowly beaten to the ball by Higton whose sliding challenge, just inside the box had to be executed just right for a whole host of reasons.

Parkgate's third goal was an absolute peach of a strike, when (A) Lill took the ball past two challenges on the left flank before crossing to Mbeka who crashed the ball from 12 yards via the slightest of deflections that barely altered the course of the ball that was already destined for the back of the net anyway. 81 minutes gone, 3-1 to Parkgate.

But the scores were level yet again just sixty seconds later, when Cleethorpes mounted an attack from the restart and Cooper added the finishing touch with a well placed angled shot inside a crowded goalmouth. A real Lincolnshire Poachers goal if ever there was one.

White. one of Parkgate's recent captures from Parkgate was making a good impression after coming on for the last fifteen minutes, injecting new life and energy into the Steelmen's attack, but inspite of the combined efforts of Moore and Mumbanya late in the game, the full time scored remained 3-3.

Both managers were probably pulling their hair out at various times as the goals kept flowing, but what a cracking game that was as a spectacle, topping of a great night in the company of a fine body of men.

FT: Parkgate 3 v Cleethorpes Town 3

For the record, 'Clee' are still top of the league and unbeaten in 10 games, but they now face a ten day break until their next game, while Parkgate have yet another big ask on the horizon, when they visit Handsworth Parramore on Saturday.

Thursday 22nd September 2016
Worksop Van Hire North Midland U19 League (South)
at the Worksop Van Hire Stadium
Mansfield Town U19 (5) 9
Lots of Stags U19 players
Kimberley Miners Welfare U19 (0) 0

As one sided mismatches go, this was a completely one sided mismatch.
In mitigation, Kimberley had concentrated their efforts this week on a FA Youth Cup match against Leicester Road at the Stag Ground last night, which they won 2-1.
The Stags saw the final ten minutes out virtually at walking pace and barely celebrated any more, as the goals rained in past Ryan Davey at regular intervals.

There are obviously a few decent stand out players among the home sides ranks, but they'll need to be involved in slightly more competitive games than this one, if they are to develop and learn their trade.
That isn't meant as a criticism to Kimberley in any way, shape or form, they had a fixture clash to contend with and had to make a decision as regards their own priorities.
Mansfield for their part, could only play what was in front of them and knuckled down and got on with things in a professional, if not overly exerted manner.
FT: Mansfield Town U19 9 v Kimberley MW U19 0

Saturday 24th September 2016
EFL U18 Youth Alliance
at Kirklington Road, Rainworth Miners Welfare FC
Mansfield Town (4) 4
Zayn Hakeem 3, Ashanti Pryce 17, 34, Nyle Blake 44

Bradford City (0) 0
For more photos from this game click: HERE

Mansfield Town:
Sam Wilson, Teddy Bloor (Aiden Walker 83), Henri Wilder, Cain Smith (C), Kane Baldwin, Kieran Harrison, Nyle Blake (Devante Reittie 52) Cameron Healey (Surafel Behailu 73), Zayn Hakeem, Ashanti Pryce (Alistair Smith 79), Tom Marriott (Harry Bircumshaw 76)
Bradford City:
George Kenworthy, Jake Maltby, Tom Windle, Sam Wright, Ollie Fitzpatrick, Reece Powell, Ville Mollanga, Kwame Boateng, Casey Taglione, Niall Payne (C), Ellis Hudson
Subs -Ross Mullett, Harry Warren, Christian Farrar, Dan Aitken

John Dempster's young Stags did the double over Bradford City last season, with Cain Smith netting the only goal of a close game at Rainworth, while Ali Smith scored two and Surafel Behailu claimed a third and final goal in a 3-1 win at Rawdon Meadows, with Ellis Hudson scoring a consolation goal for the Bantams.
Mike Whitlow and Mark Peters took charge of the Under 18 side for this game at Rainworth, which was effectively over as a contest after 45 minutes, by which time the home side had stormed into a four goal lead.

Mansfield made the early running through Tom Marriott out on the left. Inside the opening minute the tricky winger sped forward past Jake Maltby's challenge, but having done the hard part and making himself room to shoot, he launched his effort over the crossbar.
But Marriott's blushes were spared when he tore down the left flank again after three minutes and played a slide rule pass into the path of Zayn Hakeem who opened the scoring from ten yards.
Cain Smith and Cameron Healey were fighting for every ball and winning control of the midfield as the Stags kept pushing forward in an attempt to cement their lead, but the Bantams counter attacked at speed and Casey Taglione was unlucky to see his volley from Niall Payne's cross, crash back off of the crossbar.

He was even more unfortunate to come up against Kieran Harrison today, who is playing out of his skin at the moment for both the Under 18 and 21 sides and the Bradford striker barely got another sniff of a goal scoring opportunity all afternoon.
Henri Wilder picked up the ball on the left hand side of midfield and advanced towards the Bradford area before delivering a defence splitting through ball into the path of Ashanti George, who left the Bradford defence chasing shadows before drilling the ball past George Kenworthy to double the Stags lead after 17 minutes.

Sam Wright tried to get the visitors back into the game, but just as he was about to shoot, Harrison timed his tackle to perfection, before taking the ball away from the danger zone, while Kane Baldwin moved across to cover his position. These two are developing a great understanding in centre of defence in Morgan Ratcliffe's (who had traveled to support his teammates today) absence with a shoulder injury.
Mansfield were putting on a great demonstration of pass and move flowing football, with the full backs linking up with the midfield engine room and wide players in an aesthetically pleasing fast tempo manner, that was a pleasure to watch and sweetened the bitter pill coming through from the One Call Stadium that the first team had fallen behind against Grimsby Town.

The Stags were using both flanks well, with Blake and Marriott causing the visitors a lot of problems.
Bloor launch a long free kick into the visitors goalmouth, that Bradford's defence struggled to deal with as Healey chested the ball down into the path of Pryce and Hakeem, but Kenworthy came off of his line quickly to retrieve the situation.
The Stags made it 3-0 in the 34th minute, when Wright bravely threw himself in front of Hakeem's shot from just outside the area, only to see the ball arc over his head and fall at the feet of Pryce, who took a touch before planting the ball past Kenworthy.
Birmingham City's loss has definitely been Mansfield Town's gain as regards Ashanti Pryce.

Hakeem broke into the Bantams area but his cross was cleared behind by Ollie Fitzpatrik. Baldwin almost scored from Marriott'scorner kick, but Niall Payne managed to scramble the ball away from the Bradford goal.
In the final minute of the first half, with Mansfield still pushing forward in search of another goal, Reece Powell managed to nudge the ball out of the path of Pryce, but only managed to knock it into the path of Nyle Blake, whose first time shot found the back of the net via Kenworthy's outstretched fingertips.
HT: Stags Youth 4 v Bantams Youth 0

The second half carried on in pretty much the same vein as the first half had finished, with the vast majority of the game being played in the Bradford half.
Wright did well to block Pryce's shot from Hakeem's cross at the expense of a corner, Kenworthy saved from Hakeem's close range effort from (C) Smith's through ball and Tom Windle managed to divert Marriott's effort wide of the upright after Harrison had diverted Bloor's free kick into his path.
In spite of him not having an awful lot to do today Sam Wilson, still was alert and focussed and he made a double save, parrying a long ball into his area that moved all over in the ever increasing wind, before recovering quickly and smothering the ball at Talione's feet.

Today marked Wilson's fifth clean sheet in six league games with his only 'goal against' coming in last Saturday's 3-1 win at Grimsby Town. Outfield players often get all of the glory, but Wilson is underpinning his side's title defence this season and his contribution shouldn't be underestimated.
Hakeem executed a 'step over' of sorts, in the middle of the park, before spraying the ball wide to Marriott, who had now switched to the right wing, but as Pryce pounced to put the final touch to his cross, Kirkpatrick hooked the ball away.
Marriott went close when Harrison rolled the bbal intohis path from Bloor's free kick, but Windle blocked his shot on the line.

Maltby air kicked as he attempted to clear the ball on the edge of the Bradford area and Hakeem, who had instinctively anticipated the potential for error, seized possession and raced forward, but shot straight at Kenworthy.
Wilder put on a burst of pace and left two defenders in his wake on the left flank, but found the side netting with his cross.
Surafel Behailu dug the ball out of a congested midfield and played a diagonal pass out wide to Marriott, but within seconds he found himself surrounded by four Bradford players before he could deliver a cross.
Pryce came close to claiming his hat trick when Dan Aitken struggled to clear Harrison's free kick, but Kenworthy plucked his header from under the bar.

Alistair Smith went close from Hakeem's through ball, but Windle managed to get a touch on the ball and steer it past the post.
It was one way traffic as the game reached it's climax but the final touch to increase the margin of victory was proving to be elusive.
The visitors defence now had the added problem of dealing with the lively Devante Reittie, whose pacey movement both on and off the ball was pulling them out of position. Hakeem almost took advantage of the space that Reittie's introduction had created, but the ball clipped off the underside of his boot when he looked odds on to score from close range.
All in all an excellent display of attacking and entertaining football from the Stags youth team as they collected another well deserved three points, to keep them perched at the top of the table.
FT: Mansfield Town U18 4 v Bradford City U18 0

Saturday 24th September 2016
FA Vase 2nd Qualifying Round
at the Forest Town Arena
AFC Mansfield (3) 4
Ryan Williams 3
Danny Naylor 36
Gary Bradshaw 43 pen
Oliver Fearon 82
Radclffe Olympic (1) 2
Ryan Smith 2
Scott Litchfield 84
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 49

AFC Mansfield:
Myles Wright, Matty Plummer (Brad Wilson 76), Mark Dudley, Grant Allott (Chris Timons 70), Josh Madin, Danny Naylor (Jordan Annable 73), Ryan Williams, Glyn Cotton (C), Ollie Fearon, Carl Bradshaw, Jimmy Ghaichem.
Unused Subs - Jon D’Laryea, Jason White.
Radcliffe Olympic:
Chris Bennett, Sam Adams, Jan Yeomans (Jake Morris 80), Liam Motson, Wes Spencer, Paul Durham (Joe Hegarty 72), Ryan Perkins (Wes Henry 62), Ian Marley, Scott Litchfield, Ryan Smith (C), Connor Moore
Unused subs - Jake Towers. Matt Fowler.

While AFC Mansfield are chugging along comfortably in mid table, with games in hand on just about every other team in the NCEL Premier Division, in what is their maiden season at such a level.

Radcliffe Olympic currently occupy third place in the EMCL, just one point behind Barrow Town and two adrift of Aylestone Park.

The visitors are based to the south east of Nottingham and have been plying their trade since 1876 and joined the ECML from the CMFL in 2009.

Once upon a time, a much younger, and far more naive and eager to explore yours truly, turned up in Radliffe-on-Trent one Saturday afternoon by public transport, because I had seen that Radcliffe Borough were at home. Imagine my surprise when I found out that there is another Radcliffe in that hinterland to the north of Manchester, between Prestwich, Bolton and Bury a mere 118 to the north west of where I was. I ended up going to see Nottingham Forest v Coventry City instead... that taught me to plan things more fastidiously and thoroughly in future.

The game kicked off with a strong wind blowing straight down the pitch in the general direction of Clipstone, where Sherwood Colliery of the CMFL South were beating their NCEL Premier Division hosts 3-1.

It would be fair to say that the blustery conditions played a significant part in the opening stages of the game and added a touch of comedy to the opening goal after two minutes, but I doubt if the Bulls rookie keeper, Myles Wright, who has played just ninety minutes with the Under 21 side this season prior to this afternoon, saw the funny side.

A long hopeful punt towards the home side's area looked to be covered by Wright, who'd taken up a position on the edge of his box, but the ball held up in the strong wind and bounced in front of him and instead of taking a comfortable catch, he was left flailing his arms in vain, as it cleared his desperate grasping reach and left the visitors captain with a clear root to goal, which he gratefully took advantage of and the EMCL side were ahead. Albeit very briefly.

Don't go too far, you'll be doing this again in two minutes.

Within a minute the Bulls were level, when Ryan Williams directed Jimmy Ghaichem's left wing cross past Chris Bennett at the back stick.

From the restart, Wright was caught out with another bouncing ball on the edge of his area, which Smith beat him to in the air and headed over the stranded keeper before continuing his run, but from all of twenty four imperial inches out from the goal line, he scuffed his shot and hit Mark Dudley instead of the target and had to settle for a corner.

To be fair to Wright, he didn't let the two calamities inside the first five minutes get to him and after a few encouraging words from Grant Allott and Mansfield's goalkeeping coach Graeme Rodger from the bench, he barely put a foot wrong again.

Ollie Fearon broke forward from a long, wind assisted clearance, but didn't trouble Gary Bradshaw as he lobbed the crossbar as well as the Radcliffe keeper. The Bulls striker ought to have done better moments later but Bennett got down well to his left to make a save.

Ghaichem broke into the left hand side of the visitors area, but shot straight at Bennett.

Fearon threatened the Olympic goal again, but as he ran onto Williams long pass he couldn't get any power behind his shot and another opening went begging.

Smith went to ground under a challenge in the Bulls area from Dudley, but in spite of some vociferous protestations from a gathering of Radcliffe players, the referee Colin Bailey was unmoved.

Bennett was in avtion again when he kept out a stinging shot from Danny Naylor, but as it transpired, the Bulls play maker was merely finding his range.

Ryan Perkins slipped by a challenge on the right and found Smith with his cross, but Josh Madin read the situation well and cleared the ball away. Ian Marley delivered the resulting corner into the six yard box, but the ref blew up for a foul on Wright.

Ironically, the Bulls keeper almost created a goal at the other end, when his long free kick held up in the wind and skimmed backwards off of Liam Motson's head as he attempted to head it away and fell just wide of the left hand upright.

Wright delivered another long clearance and showed that he had now mastered the conditions by picking out Fearon, who nudged the ball past Motson but couldn't quite keep his effort on target.

The Bulls had to defend two corners in quick succession, with Sam Adams heading the first one wide, while the second was dealt with by Allott.

Mansfield finally took the lead (it had been coming), after thirty six minutes, when Matty Plummer's long free kick was half cleared by Wes Spencer into the path of Danny Naylor, who unleashed an unstoppable shot past Bennett from twenty yards, into the left hand corner of the net.

Radcliffe closed ranks and were keen not to concede again before the break, but Perkins upended Bradshaw with a clumsy challenge inside the visitors area as he challenged for a left wing cross from Ghaichem, giving the referee no option but to blow up and point to the spot.

Bennett dived to his left as Bradshaw placed the ball to his right... and the Bulls had a two goal cushion to take into the break.

HT: 3-1

Bradshaw plants his spot kick to the keepers right hand side

The second half was much less eventful than the first, which was a blessed relief as my writers cramp reached excruciatingly painful levels.

Ryan Williams had obviously been singled out as a creative force by Radcliffe and Jan Yeomans spent the second forty five minutes behaving as if he was the diminutive ex Mansfield Town, Hull City, Wycombe Wanderers and that other team from over the M1's wide man's Siamese twin.

Perkins sprinted forward as Litchfield knocked the ball over the Bulls rigid line of defence, but Wright advanced quickly off of his line and snatched the ball away.

Ghaichem was covering every blade of grass across the final third, but when I pointd this out a critical local hissed "Aye, you're right, probably because he's lost and wandering about!"

It is always interesting to hear contrasting opinions of how different people view games, if nothing else.

The visitors were defending ruggedly as Mansfield sought another goal to kill the game off; Fearon flicked the ball on to Bradshaw but Motson got a foot in and cleared the danger... and when Williams picked out Cotton with a right wing corner, Spencer blocked his twenty five yard shot.

A mystery West Ham supporter won the 50/50 draw.

The visitors weren't ready to chuck in the towel just yet and Smith headed just wide of Wright's goal from Perkins dipping cross.

A great exchange of passes between Bradshaw and Williams on the right, pulled the Olympic defence all over the place, with Ghaichem making up the triangle to release Williams, it looked like game over as he crossed to Fearon, who narrowly failed to connect with a free header and the goal at his mercy.

A glut of substitutions broke up the rhythm of the game and chances were at a premium for a while, but Wright saved well from Adams close range header as the visitors counter attacked.

While Bradshaw knocked the ball wide from Fearon's knock at the other end.

Plummer and Cotton both created opportunities for each other in quick succession but couldn't quite find the final touch on either occasion,

Both teams scored again inside the final ten minutes, with Fearon heading a fourth for the Bulls after Ryan Williams had flicked a short cross up at a great height for him, after picking up a loose ball from Bradshaw's crashing shot, that had rebounded back into play off of the upright.

Radcliffe gabbed a goal back on 86 minutes, when he unleashed an unstoppable shot past Wright from a Jake Morris right wing cross.

Right at the death, Williams pushed a free kick down the right flank to Bradshaw who crossed into the visitors six yard box, to where Motson will have been relieved to see the ball go wide as he inadvertently got in the way of Bennett, preventing him from punching clear while deflecting the ball past the right hand upright.

FT: AFC Mansfield 4 v Radcliffe Olympic 2

The Bulls go into the draw for the next round of the FA Vase on Monday and they also face Stamford AFC at home in the FA Cup 3rd qualifying round next Saturday.

Does today's victory indicate that the NCEL is stronger than the EMCL?

Well that is open to conjecture, but in the only other Vase tie between clubs from the respective leagues today, Bottesford Town (who were promoted to the NCEL Premier Division along with Hemsworth Miners Welfare and AFC Mansfield last season) beat Dunkirk 4-1 away from home... just saying!

TUE 2/ SEPTI 9 45

Tuesday 27th September 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at the Jones & Co Solicitors Stadium
Cannon Park, Leverton Road, East Retford
Retford United (0) 0
Thackley (1) 2
Ryan Farrell 8 pen, 84 pen
Admission £5. Programme £2. Attendance 94

Fourth placed Thackley travelled due south from Bradford to the sprawling metropolis of East Retford tonight, to take on a Badgers side who kicked off the night in eighteenth position, despite having plucked a couple of decent results out of the air, away from home at Worksop Town and Parkgate of late.

Some people seem surprised that the Dennyboys have made such a great start to the current season, but you'd do well not to underestimate the club who gave the footballing world the 'legend' that is Ian Ormonroyd (the father of the Featherstone Rovers player Jack), who played in the Football League for: Bradford City, Oldham Athletic, Aston Villa, Derby County, Leicester City, Hull City and Scunthorpe United.

His lack of prowess at Villa Park, where he scored only 6 goals in 56 appearances probably cost Graham Taylor's side the League Championship title in 1989-90, when they were runners up to Liverpool.

But I'm meandering again, so without further ado, I'll get back on track...

It would be fair to say that tonight's visitors are a fairly established NCEL Premier club by now, as they enter their 35th consecutive season in this division, since entering the competition at it's inception, having spent the previous 15 years in the Yorkshire League.

Upon arrival at Cannon Park we were stunned to

discover Luke Walker knocking one out in his car.

These two sides have already met at Dennyfield this season, with Thackley triumphing 5-0 last month, thanks to first half goals from Aohden Brownlee (x2), Jerome White, Craig Bentham and Dan Broadbent.

Most recently, Retford United were knocked out of the FA Vase by a solitary goal at Oakham United on Saturday, while Thackley squandered a 3-1 lead at Muglet Lane (which is where I'll be tomorrow night), to draw with Maltby Main for the second time this season.

The game kicked off late, due to the curse of the M62/A1 that has blighted this league all season, striking yet again.
There is a simple solution to this... parliament need to implement legislation decreeing: "If you're not travelling to football in an evening, get off the bloody road!"
Tonight's win saw Thackley climb up to third in the table, behind Cleethorpes Town and Liversedge, who went back to the top by virtue of an 11-0 thrashing of Barton Town Old Boys (it was 9-0 by half time).
Two Ryan Farrell penalties, both conceded by Keith Melvin, who was subsequently shown a red card (second yellow) by match referee Kenwyn Hughes with six minutes of the game remaining, separated the two sides at Cannon Park, where the home side showed plenty of creativeness, but were found slightly wanting in front of the Dennyboys goal.

It was fairly obvious where a section of the home support thought the responsibility for their sides downfall laid tonight when I was told: "If that referee is a mate of yours, it's time you got some new friends".
Their ire seemed to be based around the second penalty and red card.
Well (tin hat on), I had a good view of the offence and though Ben Joyce went to ground, when he was through one against one with Adam Valente, under the slightest of nudges in the back, there had been deliberate contact, albeit minimal, from behind, inside the box, on the last man who had a clear goal scoring opportunity... and the perpetrator was already on a yellow card.
Therefore, in applying the rules to the letter of the law, all the boxes were ticked and Mr Hughes was left with no option but to hand out the punishment he did. Granted, it was harsh and the Thackley striker certainly made sure he was getting a penalty, regardless of how minimal Melvin's contact was... but rules are rules.

Those stood on the clubhouse side of the ground were on the 'bilnd side' of the nudge, but the people sat in 'old codgers corner' will have seen it... which probably explains where some of the anger, frustration and misunderstanding comes from. The referee certainly had a clear, close up view of the incident.

From the outset of the game, the Badgers real Achilles heel was demonstrated, when they failed to capitalise on Matt Convey dropping a catch into the path of Niall Sultan, who pounced on the error and rolled the ball sideways to Cameron Dear, whose shot from ten yards was blocked by Jerome White. That is to say, regardless of what opposition players and match officials do, if you're having no luck at all in front of goal, you're not going to win games. And perhaps Retford were also guilty of playing too much football in their own penalty area instead of getting the ball away, when their captain conceded the first penalty after seven minutes, which Ryan Farrell put away emphatically.

"Excuse me. Could you take a photograph of me
stood with Paul O'Grady (he used to be a lady)

Dan Murray broke clear of the Thackley defence and homed in on Matt Convey's goal, but Jerome White caught him up and got a toe to the ball to thwart the Badgers striker.
White, a contender for man of the match, also thwarted the lively Sultan, who must also have been in the reckoning, at the expense of a corner.
Sultan and Murray were combining well, but couldn't quite pick out Dear at the far post.
The same three players were involved again, when Sultan released Dear on the overlap, but Josh Snowden headed the cross to Murray away.
The home side were giving it their all, but while they showed a great flair for engaging in foreplay, it was all fingers and thumbs without any actual penetration. They really need to start ramming it in, so to speak.

Jordan Rouse broke free down the right, but Ben Wyld got across quickly and put in a great tackle to stop him in his tracks.

Rouse took the flag kick, but it evaded Broadbent at the back stick and came to nothing.

Once again, the home side were good in the build up, with Dear attacking down the wing before playing the ball back to Sultan who crossed first time for Murray, but Convey saved and another chance went begging.

James Done was hacked down crudely by Kristian Hargreaves as he danced down the right flank and was booked as a consequence of his actions. But in spite of several more transgressions over the course of the night, managed to avoid getting a second yellow card.

HT: Retford United 0 v Thackley 1

News filtered through over the course of the night, that the England team were once again on the look out for a new manager.

Personally I have no sympathy whatsoever for Sam Allardyce, he had to go, but anybody who believes that financial and material bungs and sweeteners aren't par for the course at all levels of the game... and I mean ALL, really needs to take their blinkers off.

Allardyce will be the only England manager ever to have a 100% win record during his tenure, but ultimately his greed and arrogance knew no boundaries.

But moving swiftly on...

Disco Dave... he's available ladies!

The second half swayed from end to end, with the first real opening falling to the visitors, when Adam Valente had to charge out of his area to clear the ball from Farrell.

The visitors went direct in an attempt to release Broadbent, but Melvin was well placed to retrieve the situation.

Hargreaves, living dangerously on his yellow card, conceded a clumsy free kick in the centre circle, but escaped with a talking to and two hundred lines and detention after training on Thursday.

Sultan attacked down the right wing twice, with his first cross narrowly failing to put Dear through on goal, while White cleared his second.

Pat McGuire was beginning to impose his influence on the game, but Chris Pauley stood his ground cleared the Thackley captain's long pass to Broadbent.

McGuire delayed his right wing corner while White crept into a gaping space just beyond the Badgers penalty spot, but as the Dennyboys centre half rose to meet the ball, he could only direct it beyond Valente's right hand post.

Wyld and Danny Vincent exchanged passes and sent Sultan on a sprint down the right wing and across the bi-line that would've put Forrest Gump to shame, with a lung busting run that incorporated overtaking Alistair Nelson (the referees assistant) by going around him off of the pitch, before seeing his knockacross the face of goal cleaered for a corner.

Dillan O'Connor's in-swinging kick was cleared as far as Vincent, whose dipping twenty yard shot crashed off of he crossbar, in a moment that typified the sort of luck the home side were having tonight, i.e. none!

The lively McGuire broke free on the right flanl andcrossed towards Broadbent whose stooping header went wide of the right hand post. Within a minute, McGuire was back on the attack. but when his shot deflected into the path of Broadbent he shot straight at Valente.
Retford mounted an attack and won a free kick just outside the Thackley area, but Pauley's adventurous attempt from the dead ball cleared the crossbar.
Valente was in action again when he held onto Craig Bentham's right wing cross, but the visitors picked up the ball from the Retford keeper's clearance and Farrell made a diagonal run from left to right across the front of the penalty area, before cursing his luck (and his centre forward) as his shot hit Broadbent and went wide.
The home side introduced Jack Walters and Ash Shannon from the bench, a combination that gave them more width and attacking options, with both substitutes using their pace to put Thackley on the back foot.

Unfortunately for Retford, who were now definitely well in the hunt for the next goal, Melvin conceded another penalty as Joyce advanced on Valente and Farrell all but wrapped up the game with his second penalty kick of the night with just six minutes remaining.

As Melvin left the pitch the match officials came in for some abuse from the crowd, with Mr Hughes having it pointed out to him in expletive laden angry tones that: 1) Joyce hadn't been tripped (which is technically correct: he had been pushed and lost his balance, just like attackers at all levels of the game will do, if they are afforded such an opportunity) and 2) The infringement wasn't worthy of a straight red card, which is actually debatable, but for purposes of clarification, it was Melvin's second yellow card anyway.

I'm neither taking sides, nor sitting on the fence here... and for the record I happen to think that Keith Melvin has been one of Retford United's better signings this season, but the referee applied the rules 100% correctly.
Which was a shame for the home side because they were starting to look as though they were on the verge of getting back on level terms.

Thackley pushed forward inside the final minute, looking for a third goal, but young Walters did well to cut out George Eustance as McGuire slipped a through ball to him against the ten man Badgers.

The oldest and youngest of Retford United's adult supporters

Retford United had worked really hard tonight and on the balance of things probably deserved a point, but the fates weren't with them, especially in front of the visitors goal, besides the Dennyboys had dug in and grafted well too and aren't in third place in the table (for tonight at least) for nothing.

It can't all be about luck, dodgy referees and soft penalties, cant it eh!?

FT: Retford United 0 v Thackley 2

Thackley are at home to NCEL newcomers Harrogate Railway Athletic on Saturday, while Retford United face a tricky away game at Hemsworth Miners Welfare.

Wednesday 28th September 2016
Central League
at Kirklington Road, Rainworth Miners Welfare FC
Mansfield Town U21 (1) 2
James Baxendale 35
Jason Law 67
Grimsby Town Reserves (3) 6
Scott Vernon 4 14 80
Browne 5 73
Zak Mills 70

Mansfield Town:
Alex Roughton, Teddy Bloor, Ollie Humphrey (Kieran Harrison HT), Joe Fitzpatrick, Drew Ricketts, Corbi Shires, Adriel George (Jason Law HT), Lewis Collins (Ben Brown 81), Zayn Hakeem (Ashanti Pryce 64), James Baxendale, CJ Hamilton (Tom Marriott HT)
Grimsby Town:
Dean Henderson (Oakley Heath-Drury 50’), Zak Mills, Andy Boyce ( Adam Lawis 73’), Dan Jones, Craig Disley, Josh Venney, James Berrett, Tom Bolarinwa, Max Wright, Rhys Browne, Scott Vernon
Unused subs - Cameron Hough, Tom Sawyer, Charlie Lofts

Mansfield Town past and future: Craig Disley & Zayn Hakeem

THE66POW Flickr photo Gallery: HERE

Stags website report, by Tathagata Mukherjee :HERE

James Baxendale pulls a goal back for Mansfield

Wednesday 28th September 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at Muglet Lane, Maltby
Maltby Main (0) 1
Steve Hopewell 88
Armthorpe Welfare (1) 1
Craig Aspinall 40
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 78

Maltby Main:
Louis Jones, Callum Cheetham, Gary Hibbert, Nicky Darker, Daniel Reilly, Shawn Mitchell, Ollie Lawrence, Jordan Snodin, Steve Hopewell, Josh Schofield, Jordan Poole
Subs - Derrelle Goodison, Connor Gregg, Ryan Carroll, Jack Greeves, Craig Mitchell
Armthorpe Welfare:
Liam Copley, Jack Bonser, Tom McLaughlin, James Walker, Steve Garner, Jack Waldron, Jake Stannard, Craig Aspinall, Darren Mansaram, Liam Radford, Joshua Brigham
Subs - Michael Collins, Joshua Lamming, Stuart Preston, Josh Gibbons, Gary Collier

The eagerly anticipated 'Coal Classico' saw Armthorpe pick up their first point of the season, after drawing a blank in their previous ten outings... and if truth be told they were probably a bit unlucky not to be heading back across the A1 with all three.
Meetings between these two sides are usually well contested and keenly fought and with that in mind it was probably good practice for the NCEL to appoint a strong referee for this derby encounter, so they chose Ed Stapleton, who is renowned for being able to bench press 600 KG for the occasion.

Michael Bell ran the line on the cricket field side, while Umah Ahmed, a young man with the most splendidly appointed bouffant hairstyle Ihave ever seen since Alvin Stardust used to appear regularly on Top of the Pops and in Green Cross Code adverts, lost the toss and had to patrol the infamous 50 yard stretch that runs in front and within earshot of the rogues gallery, which tonight was inhabited with outspoken purveyors of the finer footballing arts, from both Maltby and Armthorpe.
Though to be fair 'within earshot' probably encompasses Tickhill and Harworth on nights like these.

The first chance fell to Maltby, when Steve Hopewell spanked the ball just past the right hand post inside the opening five minutes.
Shawn Mitchell and Ollie Lawrence were combining well on the left for the Miners and the game seemed to be adhering to the current form book as Jordan Poole went close as his header dipped over the visitors crossbar and Jordan Snodin received the ball with his back to goal from a free kick and turned on the spot, but... err I'm sure the routine worked on the training ground and I'll be generous and say the ball got caught up in the wind before it left the ground in a northwesterly direction.
But the Welafre's recently installed new manager Mike Carmody has introduced a few new faces to their ranks and they looked tonight, like a team who are willing to fight doggedly for their Premier status from hereon in this season.
It certainly won't be pretty at times, but having given the rest of the division a ten game head start, Armthorpe aren't really in a position to play tippy tappy football. Horses for courses rules apply from now on in for the Church Street based club, I would assume.

The first of approximately 134 full blooded challenges on the night, was executed (quite literally) by Mitchell when he clattered into Liam Radford on the halfway line.
It was probably crime of envy, after the Maltby chairman Wilfred Race had expressed his admiration for the visitors new signing in his excellently written programme column, on page 5 of what is a mighty fine publication indeed, which has a (credited) photograph on the front cover from this very blog.
Maltby (and Armthorpe of course) are among a number of clubs who have my blessing to use anything they want to from THE66POW if they are desperate enough to need any space filler material for their match day publications or websites (and lets face it, they would have to be really desperate at times), but there are others who don't credit filched material, or who most certainly haven't been given the nod to indulge in such an arrangement... and they better digress with their plagiarism forthwith, or I'll tell my mum and then they'll be in trouble!
Either way, Mitchell's stalling tactic worked, Radford was unable to make full use of his creative bent and Maltby were back in numbers to clear from Steve Garner's long free kick towards Darren Masaran.

A thumbs up to indicate he just walked the whole length of the wall,
without the use of a safety net... nerves of steel!

Liam Copley held onto Hopewell;s cross/shot, that could have gone just about anywhere with the wind howling down the pitch towards his goal, while at the other end, Dan Reilly did what it his he does best, when he cut out Mansaram's through ball to Josh Brigham (another new signing for Armthorpe) and tidied things up at the back for Maltby.
Maltby's right back Callum Cheetham turned awkwardly on his ankle and had to limp out of the game on 34 minutes and within a minute of the game restarting, the Welfare were in front when Radford and Mansaram combined to put Craig Aspinall through on goal and he beat Louis Jones with an angled finish from ten yards on thirty five minutes.
Jack Waldron was on hand to make a clearance for the visitors, as Hopewell hooked the ball towards Josh Schofield and Jordan Poole... but it was Armthorpe who finished the half on top with Jones being forced into making a great stop down by his right hand post from Aspinall's twenty yard shot, with Mansaran almost getting to the loose ball before the Miners cleared their lines.
The referee added three minutes of stoppage time to the end of the first half, "Where the f*ck have you got three minutes from ref!!??" bawled Mr Carmody. Might I suggest: ninety seconds for the time it took to remove the injured Callum Cheetham from the pitch and an additional five seconds for every time you shouted that rude word at the match officials. Just saying ;-)
HT: Maltby 0 v Armthorpe 1
At half time we stood and watched the Maltby subs taking turns to shoot at an empty goal and agreed that the safest place to stand in the ground if you didn't want your drink spilling, was probably in the back of the net.

Maltby tried to break Armthorpe down via the right flank at the start of the second half, but Welfare's well drilled defence were determinedly repelling each and every ball into their area that Liam Copley didn't pluck out of the air.
The people's republic of Armthorpe's local nutcase 'Acker' had travelled over (he won't mind me calling him that btw, because it's true!) to Muglet Lane, as he often does and was bellowing with all of his might about the Welfre's battling qualities and "Dunkirk spirit!"
Truth be told it was probably easier to run on Malo Les Bains beach during 'Operation Dynamo', in the Northern French port, than it is on Maltby's pitch, when that nice Mr Mills has *accidentally* forgotten to cut the grass for a couple of weeks to coincide with any team that likes to play pretty passing football visits... not that there are an awful lot of those in the NCEL. And just like that silly old sausage Adolf Hitler, who let 330,000 allied troops who were holed up like sitting ducks for the Wehrmacht, escape fromthe beaches, the Welfare back four (or back seven from time to time) weren't taking any prisoners either,

The vocal section of the crowd from Armthorpe, were given a good run for their money by the noisy presence of Maltby's Under 13 side who were stationed in the main stand, cheering their local team on. It's good to see the youngster getting involved in an inclusive way at this inclusive community club... long may it continue.

Ryan Carroll came on in place of Ollie Lawrence, who was covering a role as a wide midfielder instead of playing in his more preferred central berth, as the Miners looked to reshuffle the pack.
But it was Armthorpe who stepped things up a notch again, with Jack Greeves having to put a spurt on to catch Radford to block him as he shot from just inside the area.

Darren Mansaram showed good feet, to turn on a sixpence and drill the ball across the face of Jones goal, but his effort was wasted because none of his teammates had anticipated his subtlety on a night where 100 MPH, nobody gets out alive, crunching (just about) fair but (definitely) firm and often mistimed tackling was the order of the day.
Maltby's captain and pitch width wide engine room Nicky Darker, played a measure ball wide to Schofield, but Copley got up under pressure to pluck his cross out of the glare of the lights.

Armthorpe were keeping their shape well and working at a frantic pace to clear ball after ball into their midriff, while always having the option to push forward through Aspinall and Radford, who Maltby had to hold players back to keep tabs on.

The referees needed to have eyes everywhere as the tackles started flying in and for a few moments the tempo of the game spilled over as 21 players went face to face, with just Louis Jones staying well out of it.

The infamous 'Acker' responded by pulling a toweling belt from his pocket, fastening it around his balding cranium as a headband and adopting a few David Carradine 'Kung Fu' poses, whilst singing "Everybody was Kung Fu fighting" and "Get me that Wilf Race, I'll have him!"

The referee dealt out a string of yellow cards, while being advised loudly from the terraces: "Don't forget about that number five referee, he tackles like a ruptured fanny!"

As the dust settled, calm was restored and a night of light hearted pleasantries resumed, as Maltby launched the ball forward to Greeves who launched a shot towards the night sky from twenty yards out.

Armthorpe were absorbing everything that the Miners were mustering to throw at them, while the ball bounced up for Poole as he was about to shoot as time began to run out for Spencer Fearn's team.
Jones kept his side in the game, saving twice from Aspinall as Radford picked him out inside the Maltby six yard box...
There were just under two minutes remaining, when Darker launched a long throw into the Armthorpe area from out on the right, that glanced over a cluster of four Armthorpe defenders into the path of Hopewell, who gratefully steered it just inside the post past Copley, to Salvage a point for the home side.

Acker - An Armthorpe and South Yorkshire football legend
Pictured at Rosso Main earlier this season

The visitors will probably feel hard done by that they had to settle for a point... and there would be no small amount of justification in that, but Maltby showed a lot of character to keep chasing a result until the final whistle even though it was looking increasingly like a lost cause.
Snodin shot wide from long range in stoppage time... but a Maltby win would definitely have been a bitter pill for the Welfare to swallow.
FT: Maltby Main 1 v Armthorpe Welfare 1
It's a real shame that these two sides have now played each other twice this season (Maltby won 3-0 at Armthorpe), because I'd love to see these two sides going head to head again anytime soon.

October:

Sat 1 Oct - Doncaster Rovers v Mansfield Town - EFLYA - 11AM at Cantley Park

Sat 1 Oct - Lincoln United v Handsworth Parramore - FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round - 3pm

Tue 4 Oct - Nostell Miners Welfare v Harworth Colliery - Sheff & Hallam Senior Cup - 7.45pm

Wed 5 Oct - Retford United v Chesterfield - WVH NMU19L - 7. 45pm at DN22 6QF

Thu 6 Oct - Mansfield Town v Sandiacre Town - WVH NMU19L - 7.45pm at Clipstone FC

Fri 7 Oct - Chesterfield v Handsworth Parramore - WVH NMU21L - 7.45pm at Play Soccer USA Arena (3G) NG16 3HB

Sat 8 Oct - Hartlepool United v Mansfield Town - EFLYA - 12 noon venue TBC

Sat 8 Oct - Billingham Synthonia v Alnwick Town - Northern League Div 2 - 3pm

Tue 11 Oct - Knaresborough Town v Campion - NCEL Div1 - 7.45pm

Wed 12 Oct - Mansfield Town v Farsley Celtic - National League U19 Alliance LC - 2pm at Brooksby Melton College

Wed 12 Oct - Ollerton Town v Penistone Church - NCEL Div 1 - 7.45pm

Thu 13 Oct - West Bridgford Colts v Mansfield Town - WVH NMU19L - 7.45pm Regatta Way NG2 5AT

Fri 14 Oct - Mansfield Town v Rotherham United - EFLYA - 2pm

Fri 14 Oct - Nottingham Forest v Birmingham City - EFL Championship - 7.45pm

*Sat Oct 15 & Wed 19: Standing in for John Mills as Matchday Secretary at Maltby Main for two games

*Sat Oct 15 - Bottesford Town v Maltby Main - NCEL Prem - 3pm

Tue Oct 18 - Retford United v Penistone Church - NCEL LC3 - 7.45pm

*Wed Oct 19 - Maltby Main v Staveley Miners Welfare - NCEL LC3 - 7.45pm

Sat 22 Oct - Mansfield Town v Walsall - EFLYA Cup - 11am at Clipstone FC

Sat 22 Oct - Handsworth Parramore v Shepshed Dynamo - FA Vase R1 - 3pm

Tue 25 Oct - Southwell City v Mansfield Town - WVH NMU19L - Bishops Drive NG25 0JP

Wed 26 Oct - Parkgate v Worksop Town - NCEL Prem - 7.45pm

Sat 29 Oct - Lincoln City v Mansfield Town - EFLYA - 11AM Venue TBC

Sat 29 Oct - Newark Town v Dinnington Town - CMFL North - 3pm

November:

Tue 1 Nov - Eastwood Community FC v Mansfield Town - WVH NMU19L - Play Soccer USA Arena (3G) NG16 3HB - 7.45pm

Wed 2 Nov - Brigg Town v Emley AFC - NCEL Div 1 - 7.45pm

Sat 5 Nov - Mansfield Town v Notts County - EFLYA - 11AM Venue TBC (Clipstone & Rainworth MW both at home)

Tue 8 Nov - Derby County v Mansfield town - EFL Trophy - 7.45pm

Fri 11 Nov - England v Scotland - WC Qualifier - 7.45pm at Wembley Stadium

Sat 12 Nov - Retford United v Maltby Main - NCEL Prem - 3pm

Sat 19 Nov - Mansfield Town v Crawley Town - EFL League 2 - 3pm

Tue 22 Nov - Mansfield Town v Blackpool - EFL League 2 - 7.45pm

Wed 23 Nov - AFC Mansfield v Bridlington Town - NCEL Prem - 7.45pm

Sat 26 Nov - Handsworth Parramore v Maltby Main - NCEL Prem - 3pm

Wed 30 Nov - Romulus v Mansfield Town - National U19 Alliance Div I - 2pm at Castle Vale Stadium B35 7NH

December (more games TBC IDC):

Sat 3 Dec - Mansfield Town v York City City - EFLYA - 12 noon at Clipstone FC

Sat 3 Dec - Rainworth Miners Welfare v Clipstone - NCEL Prem - 3pm - or FA Cup game

Sat 10 Dec - Bradford City v Mansfield Town - EFLYA - 12 noon venue TBC

Sat 10 Dec - Liversedge v Maltby Main - NCEL Prem - 3pm

Sat 17 Dec - Mansfield Town v Doncaster Rovers - EFLYA - 11am at Clipstone FC

Mon 26 Dec - Handsworth Parramore v AFC Mansfield - NCEL Prem - 3pm

Sat 31 Dec - Mansfield Town v Doncaster Rovers - EFL League 2 - 12.25pm

To be continued.

Watch this space!

However, I am impetuous by nature and prone to straying off my patch, so I might end up just about anywhere on any of the above dates instead.

A world record attempt, for the longest U18 match report ever.

Saturday 1st October 2016
EFL Youth Alliance
at Cantley Park, Doncaster
Doncaster Rovers U18 (0) 0
Mansfield Town U18 (0) 1
Tom Marriott 69
For action photos and rogues gallery click: HERE

Doncaster Rovers:
James Leverton, Tyler Walker, Coby Price, Morgan James, Reece Fielding (C), Joe Dunnett, James Morris, Jacob Fletcher, Lewis Scattergood, Will Longbottom, Matt Overton
Subs - Keegan Townrow, Louis Jones, Brandon Horton, Cameron Barton
Mansfield Town:
Sam Wilson, Teddy Bloor, Henri Wilder, Cain Smith (C), Kane Baldwin, Kieran Harrison, Nyle Blake (Surafel Behailu 73), Cameron Healey, Zayn Hakeem, Devante Reittie (Alistair Smith 87), Tom Marriott (Keaton Ward 87)
Unused subs - Aiden Walker, Harry Bircumshaw

Tom Marriott's 'crafty' opportunist second half strike, was all that separated the two sides at Cantley Park, as the young Stags maintained their unbeaten start to the season, that now stretches to nine games in all competitions, including six back to back league wins, while they've conceded just one goal in seven starts in the North East Division, which they currently lead by five points from second placed local rivals Notts County.
There was just one change to the Stags line up today, with Devante Reittie making the starting eleven due to Ashanti Pryce being unavailable, the quality of the available replacement illustrates the strength in depth of the current squad.

In spite of their league position, Doncaster gave John Dempster's side a decent game, with a line up that included several players who can boast of having been involved with the first team this season, in actual fact, some of them played at the One Call Stadium in the EFL Trophy game against Adam Murray's side in August, which Rovers won.
As reigning champions, teams seem to be going that extra mile to topple the Stags off of their perch, but they adapted well to the threat posed by Rovers today, as they implemented a 'horses for courses' policy to deal with their South Yorkshire opponents, who play on a ground that quite literally backs onto Doncaster Racecourse and is surrounded by streets and public houses named after famous horse racing venues and events.

On a perfect pitch, the going was good to firm, as the players went under starters orders and the thoroughbred that is Cameron Healey got the game underway.
It soon became apparent, that Doncaster would be giving no quarter and that they considered the Stags scalp a very desirable one to take on their home-turf.
The home side were well drilled, strong in the tackle and robust in the way that they applied their game plan across the middle of the park, in a manner that augmented their no frills, no nonsense approach to defending.
Given the 100% commitment and effort they were showing, it wouldn't surprise anybody who is au fait with Mansfield Town's recent first team playing history, that the 'hard working and combative' Former Stags midfielder enforcer John Schofield is one of Rovers youth team coaches.
As an aside, Schofield was actually linked with the first team manager's job at Field Mill a few years ago, but Billy McEwan was appointed instead.

Rovers keeper, a Retfordian by the name of James Leverton, was making his first start since these two sides last met back in March at Rainworth (another closely fought game that the Stags also won 1-0) and evidently had a point to prove as he put a determined shift, while Sam Wilson was made to work hard to add to his impressive clean sheet tally at the other end too.
Without the heroics of both keepers, the score would quite probably have been far greater today.
Marriott created the visitors first opening of the game, when he ghosted past Tyler Walker on the left flank, but Leverton got down to parry his shot away and when Nyle Blake reached the rebound first, the local assistant referee raised his flag to penalise Zayn Hakeem for straying offside.
Hakeem's frustration was compounded throughout the afternoon, when the same eagle eyed match officials seemed to be having an amnesty on big centre halves called Reece, restraining and pulling the shirt of any player wearing a number nine on the back of an amber coloured garment.

Rovers pushed forward in numbers and it took the combined efforts of Cain Smith and Henri Wilder to clear the danger created by Matt Overton's left wing cross, but the home side picked up the ball back up and James Morris made a darting run down the right flank, but Marriott was faster than his opponent and having caught up with him, put in a tackle to prevent a cross.
Morris won the ball back from the corner kick, but Wilson rushed from his line forcing the 'Donny' midfielder to hurry his shot, which flew harmlessly past the post as a consequence.
Cain Smith unleashed a shot from twenty five yards that deflected wide off of Reece Fielding.
Marriott picked out Kieran Harrison from the corner, who rose like a salmon to head the ball down into the path of Hakeem, but he cleared the crossbar (and then some) with a wild shot.

Once again Leverton denied Marriott from close range, before getting his fingertips to the same players corner and helping the ball on towards Joe Dunnett, who launched it away to safety.
Hakeem tried freeing Blake down the right flank with a diagonal ball, but Rovers were defending in two banks and they closed the lively attacker down in numbers.
Reittie picked up the ball in midfield and ran forward thirty five yards, before the home defence crowded him out as well.
Doncaster looked very adept at smothering out any sort of creative forward movement by the league leaders, while getting the ball to their attackers quickly, once they had (re)gained possession.
Mansfield for their part were doing well to absorb the home sides fast paced counter attacking prowess, with Kane Baldwin and Kieran Harrison in particular dealing with being thrust into the line of fire. But the visitors had Wilson to thank for keeping the score level, when he pulled off a good instinctive save, as Lewis Scattergood hit a rasping shot on the turn from the edge of the area.

As the home side advanced down their left wing, Teddy Bloor won the ball with a firm but fair tackle that both John Dempster and Mark Peters would've been proud of in their playing days (in fact even the legend that is Brian Kilcline might have jumped over that one) and stroked the ball forward to Healey, who slipped a measured pass through to Hakeem, but as he stormed forward with menace he was stopped by in his tracks by Fielding, with a tackle that would've had Eddie Waring purring with unrestrained joy.
While Zayn put his clothes back on, the referee took Fielding to one side and yellow carded him.

Reittie collected the ball with his back to goal and turned it into the path of Hakeem, but Cody Prior intercepted the intended pass and cleared towards the halfway line... and when Blake showed a clean pair of heels to three Rovers players out on the right flank, he found that pretty much all their other lads were waiting to clear his cross... safety in numbers n' all that.
With some of the tackles and close 'marking' that the match officials were letting go, it was somewhat ironic that Tom Marriott was cautioned for speaking out of turn after being clattered into.
But dealing with the way that different referees interpret the rules (and for the most part Mr Blades and his two assistants had a good game), is just as much a part of learning about the game as getting to grips with hard working opponents is... and Donny Rovers certainly fell into that category today.

Bloor, Blake and Hakeem, were combining well with the midfield duo of Healey and (C) Smith to try utilising Reittie's pace on the deck against Rovers towering central defensive pairing, but their back three/seven (depending on which team was in possession) proved to be just as comfortable with the ball at their feet as they were in the air.
Rovers almost nicked the lead right on the stroke of half time, but Wilson did well to pluck the ball from under his crossbar, as Scattergood met Prior's left wing cross head on.
HT: 0-0
The visitors had done well to repel Rovers tactic of containing the ball in midfield for long spells and not giving their visitors any time to dwell on the ball or make decisions, before attacking the Stags at a high tempo down the flanks and through the channels.

Doncaster were combining their pace with no small amount of physicality, not in a way that could in any way be considered dirty or against the rules of the game, but they definitely excelled in the ancient art of maximum competitiveness and keeping things tight.
Which is exactly the sort of thing that any of the youth team who make it through to the first team will come up against each and every week, when time will be of the essence whenever they're on the ball, in a man's world where a win at all costs mentality prevails.
During their half time team talk, Mansfield had tweaked things just enough to overcome the problems that they needed to solve against a very resolute home defence.

Marriott was openly enjoying his forays down the left flank far more than the Rovers right back was and he came close to breaking the deadlock from the restart, when he skipped past a tackle and cut inside before shooting over the bar.
Moments later, Hakeem broke through the middle of the Rovers defence from Blake's knock and was only denied by Leverton's quick reactions.
The Rovers keeper was soon in action again, when he did well to get down to his left and keep Reittie's close range shot out, after Hakeem had shrugged off his marker and unselfishly laid the ball off sideways to his striking partner.
Marriott danced past two defenders and delivered another teasing cross and when Fielding managed to knock the ball off of Hakeem's shooting foot, it fell into the path of Reittie who was thwarted by yet another stop by Leverton.

Harrison picked the ball up in midfield and played it to Bloor on the right wing, but Leverton was having a great game and plucked his cross out of the air.
Having withstood a wave of attacks, Rovers countered and Scattergood unleashed a shot from twenty yards, but Wilson twisted in the air and tipped the ball over.
The Stags rode their luck when Hakeem only half cleared the resulting corner into the path of James Morgan who drilled his shot just past the right hand post and into the side netting.
Reittie chased the ball down towards the left hand corner flag, but having reached it, found himself heavily sandwiched between two defenders while a third one kicked out at him.

"What for ref!?" protested one of the culprits (as Mr Blades awarded the inevitable free kick), without even a hint of irony in his tone, in spite of the fact that at least two assaults and one foul had been committed, along with several other infringements that any judge and jury worth their salt, would have had to take into consideration.
So on 69 minutes, Marriott stood deliberating his options as his team mates jostled for position with the Rovers defenders at the back stick, before spotting that Leverton had moved slightly off of his line to gain an advantage when the cross came in, so Marriott swung a crafty free kick into the space between the keeper and his near post, that curled in under the crossbar as Leverton back pedaled desperately, but could only get his fingertips to the ball as it crossed the line.
What a brilliantly executed moment of quick thinking by Tom Marriott, who immediately vanished beneath a pile of celebrating team mates.

With their noses in front, Mansfield grew in confidence, (A) Smith rolled the ball forward to Hakeem, who nudged it back into (C) Smith's path, but Leverton was equal to his effort from twenty yards.

Doncaster dusted themselves down and went looking for an equaliser, but it was Mansfield's turn to show how to absorb pressure and counter attack now.
The home side forced two corners, but Harrison cleared the first and Wilson was fouled as he rose to collect the ball from the second.

Hakeem stayed forward to battle it out to the finish with Leverton, who made two saves from the Stags striker and also did enough to put him off with another goal attempt right at the death, when Zayn was booked for time wasting, after kicking a ball (but not the actual match ball) away, out of frustration, as his momentum carried him beyond the touchline.

As Keaton Ward ran the clock down by the right hand corner flag, the referee blew for full time and John Dempster's side had ultimately 'out fought', but more importantly 'out thought' a very good, well organised and hard working Rovers side.
Doncaster gave the young Stags a different set of problems to deal with today, but they gamely battled on and worked out all of the answers and won the day, by virtue of Marriott's cheeky finish and Wilson's agility at crucial times. But, that said, it was also great team effort and example of the camaraderie that keeps on building between everyone involved, as the Stags go marching on.
FT: Doncaster Rovers 0 v Mansfield Town 1

Saturday 1st October 2016
Emirates FA Cup Third Qualifying Round
at the Sun Hat Villas Stadium, Ashby Avenue, Lincoln
Lincoln United (1) 3
Sean Wright 19, Gary King 65, Jack McGovern 90
Handsworth Parramore (0) 1
Jon Froggatt 81
Admission £8. Programme £1. Attendance 318

Lincoln United:
Mario Ziccardi, Luke Hornsey, Sean Wright, Michael Jacklin, Callum Ward, Matt Cotton, Rob Norris, Tom Maddison, Kallum Smith, Gary King, Jack McGovern
Subs - Phil McGann, Danny Brooks, Jack Wilkinson, Harry Millard, Sean Cann, Jordan Hempenstall, Sam Mullarky.
Handsworth Parramore:
Joe Green, Ben Starosa, Connor Smythe, Simon Harrison, Michael Harcourt, Gareth Griffiths, Connor Higginson, Stephen Warne, Jon Froggatt, Kieran Wells, Tom Dugdale
Subs - Alex Rippon, Danny Holland, Tom Claisse, Danny Buttle, Colin Marrison, Sam Denton, 'Archie' Sneath (GK)

Upon entering the ground at Ashby Avenue, I overheard a conversation that went along the lines of: "You wouldn't believe it, but a month ago you could've played crown green bowls on this pitch". Looking out over the playing surface I was gobsmacked, it was awful; with big threadbare patches of scorched earth all over the place, you could easily have mistaken it for the local 'rec a couple of days after a few hundred new age travellers had just been evicted.
But the guy I had eavesdropped was 100% correct... I didn't believe him!
Apparently a batch of rogue fertilizer has caused the problem. I hope the 'Whites' (who I could have sworn used to be called the Lillywhites, whenever I have visited Ashby Avenue in the past) find a solution and can rectify their surface, but it's going to be difficult now the pitch is getting regular use as the fixtures pile up thick and fast.

Sadly, both remaining NCEL clubs were knocked out of the FA Cup today, with Handsworth going down 3-1 here at Ashby Avenue on the outskirts of Lincoln, while AFC Mansfield lost 2-1 at home against Stamford, who beat the Bulls 2-1 by virtue of a 90th minute goal.

On the way across from this mornings EFL Youth Alliance match in Doncaster, I had pondered over how this afternoon's game might go and fancied the Ambers to take at least a draw and subsequent replay at Sandy Lane on Wednesday. But although that did look like a distinct possibility in the closing ten minutes, as Jon Froggatt's strike from the penalty spot injected new life into Parramore'splay and raised their spirits, they were nobbled by a last minute sucker punch too.

Not that Lincoln United's efforts hadn't actually warranted the win over the 80 minutes prior to that anyway.

It was more of a step up in class, rather than a gulf, but the Ambers were struggling to make much headway against a side who marked tighter and got stuck into their tackles much harder than they were accustomed to in the NCEL.
Although they weren't actually overrun or thrashed, it will have been an eye opener as they were undone by a team from a league above.

One thing is certain, the referee definitely appeared to let more go, as regards the way that the defenders could manhandle, harass and 'legitimately' make contact with Handsworth's forwards, than they would have usually expected.
That isn't an excuse for why the visitors misfired at times throughout the afternoon, but it was, without a doubt, a contributing factor.
In a nutshell, Lincoln were the stronger side and imposed themselves on the game better than their NCEL visitors.

It was suggested to me that perhaps one or two of the Handsworth players had suffered from stage fright upon reaching the dizzy heights of the third qualifying round. I would suggest that was a bit harsh, but can possibly see why anybody would make such an observation, even though you couldn't fault Micky Godber and Mark Ward's side for effort.
The visitors weren't their usual selves and the trademark fluent passing and movement was missing at times, or maybe it just looked that way because their EvoStik League opponents gave them less time to think on the ball and closed them down a lot more quickly than they are perhaps used to.
Joe Green got lucky during the opening exchanges, when Lincoln's prolific front man Jack McGovern, crashed a shot against the left hand post that rebounded back into the arms of the Ambers keeper.
Alas the bounce of the ball didn't always fall so kindly for Green over the course of the afternoon.
McGovern picked up a pass from Kallum Smith on the edge of the area, but Gareth Griffiths put himself in the line of fire and blocked the shot.

Michael Jacklin intercepted the ball as Connor Higginson combined with Jon Frogatt twelve yards from United's goal, after Kieran Wells had played the ball forward from Green's long kick.

But it was mainly the home side who were on the attack and Matt Cotton went close as his shot dropped just wide of Green's left hand post.

Jacklin was assigned the task of man marking Wells this afternoon, by the end of the game they had spent so much time intertwined that they'll probably have to get married now and attend ante natal classes together.

The visitors were dealt a blow after 19 minutes, when Sean Wright met Rob Norris' right wing corner with a downwards head, that crashed into the ground and spun up viciously over Green's head, to open the scoring.

Shortly afterwards, they suffered a second setback when Higginson took a knock as he tried his luck with a twenty five yard shot and had to leave the field of play, to be replaced by Tom Claisse, who was making his final appearance for the 'Parras' before leaving to do his bit for Queen and country.

McGovern threatened Green's goal again, but Griffiths was playing out of his skin, along with his defensive partner Micky Harcourt and he thwarted the Lincoln hit-man, who has found the net in every cup game his side have played this season so far... a record that he held onto in dramatic circumstances late in the game.

Handsworth were under the cosh as the first half headed towards the break, with the home side's wide midfielders Matt Cotton and Kallum Smith making regular in roads into the final third.

But it was United's left back Callum Ward who almost provided his side with a second goal right on the stroke of half time, when he drilled a dangerous ball across the face of Green's goal that only needed a touch... but Gary King couldn't quite provide it and the dominant home side had to settle for a solitary one goal interval lead.

HT: Whites 1 v Ambers 0

Mariano Ziccardi did well to tip Froggatt's header over from Harcourt's free kick.
The game had now reached that 'next goal is crucial' stage, but Lincoln were withstanding every Handsworth attempt to get goal side of their back four, while the direct and long ball approach that was dictated as a means to an end by the prairie that was just about managing to impersonate a football pitch evidently suited Lincoln better.
When Handsworth get accused of being a 'hoof-ball' team, by those who don't understand their penchant for getting the ball forward quickly to the feet of their strikers, their system requires a half decent pitch for their fast forwards and wingers to provide the finishing touches.
But that wasn't an option today, by any stretch of the imagination. And it appeared that Jacklin and Wright between them were on the verge of making a claim to the Guinness book of Records, for the biggest amount of defensive headers completed in a game.

Danny Holland was sent on to bolster the Ambers attack, but almost immediately that plan came unstuck, when Lincoln picked up the ball and Cotton crossed from the right to King who directed a header across the face of Green's goal that nestled just inside the right hand post on 59 minutes.

Cotton ought to have added a third for the home side when he pushed forward into the Ambers goalmouth twice, before planting the ball wide of the goal.
With the Lincoln defence looking solid and crowding the route to go for the Ambers, both Harrison and Froggatt tried their luck with shots from outside the area, which weren't far off the mark.

A brief stand off flared off involving a few players in front of the dug out and unfortunately for Handsworth, Harcourt raised his hand in the heat of the moment and was dismissed. However, the visitors were given a glimmer of hope on 81 minutes when Connor Smythe's cross from out on the left flank was handled as a scrum of defenders moved in to clear the ball and Froggatt duly dispatched his spot kick to the keepers right... and with nine minutes still remaining, regardless of all of the percentages, the numerical advantage and lop sided stats thus far, it was 'game on' for the closing stages.

But much as the ten men of Handsworth battled, attacking the end of the ground where their young supporters were making one hell of a din, the ball just wouldn't run for them in front of Lincoln's net... and moments after Ziccardi pulled off a save at full stretch from Griffiths, who planted a header towards the goal from Smythe's cross, the Ambers cup exit, following a magnificent run that they should justifiably be proud of, still had a sting in it's tail.
And as Lincoln stood up to the Alamo like scene unfolding around their goal area, a stoppage time counter attack, saw McGovern break into the left hand side of the Parramore goal area and nudged the ball (from an improbable angle) beyond the reach of Green, who had unfortunately used up his entire share of good luck in the first few minutes.

Gareth Griffiths, so close to making it 2-2

The home side had obviously watched Handsworth before today, because their midfield ganged up on Stephen Warne to prevent him from fulfilling his duties as the engine room of the team, which unsettled the Ambers momentum no end.
Lincoln were the better team, on a number of levels, but they left the pitch knowing that they had been in a game.
FT: Lincoln United 3 v Handsworth Parramore 1
Well done Handsworth Parramore on your magnificent FA Cup run... and good luck to Lincoln United with both their next game in the competition and their forthcoming pitch repairs.

Lincoln United face Romulus at home in the FA Trophy next weekend, while Handsworth Parramore have a midweek trip to Barton Town Old Boys on Tuesday and a home game against last season's NCEL Division One champions Hemsworth MW on Saturday coming up.

Tuesday 4th October 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at Church Street, Armthorpe
Armthorpe Welfare (0) 1
Craig Aspinall 82
Harrogate Railway Athletic (0) 2
Stephen Bromley 58
Brandon Deane 76
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 99

A night of thrills and spills was always likely to be on the cards tonight, as 22nd (and bottom) placed Armthorpe Welfare hosted Harrogate Railway Athletic, who kicked off tonight in twentieth position.
The Starbeck based club have found it hard going since they were relegated back into the NCEL at the end of last season, a decade after they last competed at this level.
Tonight's win saw player manager Paul Beesley's side move out of the bottom three on goal difference, as they leapfrogged over Barton Town Old Boys, despite the fact that the Swans picked up a point themselves from a 1-1 draw against promotion contenders Handsworth Parramore at Marsh Lane.

To date 'the Wellie' have picked up just a solitary league point so far all season, in last week's hard fought 'Coal Classico" at Maltby Main's Muglet Lane ground, a venue that I will be frequenting again tomorrow night.
At the weekend 'the Rail' went down narrowly at Thackley by two goals to one, while Armthorpe led through an 18th minute Liam Radford strike at Bridlington Town, before the Seasiders hit back... seven times, to record an emphatic win over Michael Carmody's side.
Curtis Woodhouse will have enjoyed his second game a Brid's manager even more tonight, as they saw off Retford United 8-0!

A lively, end to end encounter ensued, that gave little indication to any neutral onlooker, that either side was struggling to get away from the bottom end of the table. In actual fact the two sides put on a decent game of football for all 99 spectators who were present to enjoy.
Armthorpe almost snatched the lead inside the opening two minutes, directly from Jake Stannard's left wing corner but Greg Kidd headed the ball away from under the crossbar.
Craig Aspinall, who had impressed me with a battling performance at Maltby last week, imposed himself well in the middle of the park again tonight... if there was such a thing as a NCEL Representative Side and I was picking it (lord forbid, eh!?), the former Retford Unted would be a strong contender for the number 8 shirt. His influence on the game reminded me of Jake Scott when he was doing his bit for Worksop Town... and if you aren't familiar with the role Scott played for the Tigers, it would be fair to say that they lost their way completely when the wheels came off, after he moved on from Sandy Lane.... it is fair to say that the comparison doesn't constitute faint praise.

Tom McLaughlin advanced down the left wing and picked out Darren Mansaram, but the Welfare striker didn't get enough purchase behind his hearer to trouble Adam Birkenshaw in the visitors goal.
Harrogate's Paul Beesley paced through the middle of the home sides defence in pursuit of a through ball from Ryan Sharrocks, but he had strayed offside.
But Beesley was back moments later, released by a similar pass from Lewis Riley, but he shot straight at Will Biggs.
Biggs was in action again when he turned Stephen Bromley's shot from Sharrocks left wing free kick around the post.
Sharrocks delivered the corner with pinpoint accuracy to Beesley, who planted a firm header on target but was denied by Biggs agility as he managed to turn the ball over.
Another Sharrocks flag kick was half cleared by the Welfare defence, but only as far as Luca Baravelli, who couldn't keep his shot down and the ball disappeared into the distance over Biggs goal.

Liam Radford, gambling on the percentages intercepted a poor clearance and advanced on 'the Rail' goal through the left channel, but drilled his shot wide of the left hand upright.

Jake Stannard pick out Mansaran to the right hand side of the visitors goal with a diagonal pass, but Armthorpe's number 9 unleashed the ball across the face of Birkenshaw's goal and wide of the left post.

Radford thought he had put the home side in front just before the half hour mark, but he had netted from an offside position.

Beesley picked up possession on the edge of the home sides area and threaded the ball through to Brandon Deane, whose angled shot went behind off of Biggs outstretched arm.

Baravelli found Beesley with a dipping kick, but he fired wide. Armthorpe broke quickly from box to box from the goal kick and Birkinshaw saved well from Josh Brigham.

The match referee Ian Johnston, was having a good game, along with his assistants Ricky Taylor and Neil Munday, which helped to keep the game flowing along nicely from end to end.

Aspinall was a whisker away from breaking the deadlock, when he connected with Stuart Preston's corner, while at the other end, one can only assume that Deane made himself dizzy when he turned two defenders inside out at speed, because when he put his foot through the ball to shoot, he was facing away from Armthorpe's goal.

Right on the stroke of half time, Mansaram went past a challenge on the left hand side of the visitors area and when his sideways ball evaded Aspinall, Preston crashed a shot towards the bottom right hand corner of Harrogate's goal that Birkenshaw did really well to keep out.
HT: 0-0 but plenty of action.

The first chance of the second half, just as it had in the first, fell to Armthorpe.
Chris Ovington didn't stand on ceremony as he upended Aspinall, out on the right flank just inside the visitors half.
McLaughlin's long free kick towards Mansaram at the back post was headed away from the goal line by Toby Lees, but fell into the path of Josh Brigham who miscued his shot from eight yards.
Mansaram dispossessed Kidd and nonchalantly backheeled the ball towards Brigham, but Lees was alert to the situation and cleared up at the back for 'the Rail'.
Brandon Deane escaped the attentions of Scott Rhodes but Biggs was off his line quickly to smother the ball at the lively wingers feet.
Mansaram hooked the ball wide to Brigham on the left wing and continued his run to meet the return pass, but Sharrocks intercepted and moved forward quickly before sending a long pass into the path of Stephen Bromley who put on a burst of pace before planting the ball past Biggs to give the visitors the lead on 58 minutes.
The home side were almost caught out by another counter attack after a promising move forward broke down, when Sam Chapman took the ball off of McLaughlin after Preston and Dan Bulman had exchanged passes and fed the ball wide, with McLaughlin stranded out of position Chapman took advantage of thee space and drilled a long range pass to Sharrocks whose shot across the face of goal cleared the back post.

When you're bottom of the league, nothing ever seems to go right for you. And that old adage has never rung more true than when Aspinall found McLaughlin with a pass towards the left hand side of the final third, the full back's sideways knock found Preston whose thumping header looked to have 'equalising goal' written all over it, but Birkenshaw managed to scoop the ball out from under the bar and it ricocheted wide off of Mansaram, who couldn't have been more than three feet away from the goal.

Radford went close again, but couldn't keep his shot down when he was well placed and put the ball over the bar.

In the 76th minute, Armthorpe suddenly had a mountain to climb, when Jack Bonser hesitated in possession before under hitting the ball to Biggs and Deane sprinted forward to reach the loose ball first and found the back of the net via the right hand upright.

Aspinall stroked a free kick to Bulman inside 'the Rail' area, he shot first time but when Birkenshaw could only parry the ball back to the same player, he knocked it wide.

Birkenshaw was involved again moments later, when he had to race out of his area and tackle Radford, who was otherwise advancing on his goal unchallenged.

In the 82nd minute, Bulman spotted the run of Aspinall into the visitors goalmouth and slipped a slide rule pass through the narrowest of gaps to his captain, who placed an assured shot into the back of the Harrogate net.

Ovington was booked for time wasting as he kicked the ball away (twice) to prevent Armthorpe from taking quick free kicks... and for the benefit of the 'Rail' supporter whowas loudly demanding toknow where the few minutes stoppage time had come from, there is your answer pal!

Though the time that Deane spent on the floor with cramp in the 92nd minute, probably accounted for a few more moments too.

Aspinall put the ball over from Mansaram'slob into the six yard box and Bulman cracked a shot high and wide from the edge of the area, as Armthorpe finished with a flurry, but it just wasn't going to be Armthorpe's night and Harrogate held on for all three points.

FT: Armthorpe Welfare 1 v Harrogate Railway Athletic 2

Image result for armthorpe football sign

A decent game all told, that was fairly evenly contested throughout.

But ultimately, Armthorpe were punished ruthlessly for conceding possession twice and the visitors shaded it in the end, even though the consensus of opinion around us, seemed to suggest that the people sat nearby though that a draw would've been a fairer result.
Armthorpe entertain Barton Town Old Boys on Saturday, while Parkgate travel up to North Yorkshire to face Harrogate Railway Athletic, two games that encompass the bottom four teams in the Premier Division... there's never a dull moment in that there Northern Counties East League.

Ball boys

Wednesday 5th October 2016
Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup First Round
At Muglet Lane, Maltby
Maltby Main (4) 6
Jordan Poole 18
Jordan Snodin 39, 76
Derrelle Goodison 21
Ryan Carroll 43 pen
Connor Gregg 69
Denaby United (0) 0
Admission £5. Programme £1.50.
Attendance 34 plus a good few who bunked in over the wall
behind the visiting team dug out. We were all young once!

It's a Maltby tradition for the U13 team to Christen the away
dug out seats before County Cup matches at Muglet Lane

After sadly going into decline and vanishing off of the local football landscape altogether for a while in 2002, since their rebirth in 2011, Denaby United are steadily progressing, with an aim of becoming a force again in local non league circles and rekindling the flames of a bygone age, which can be traced back as far as 1895, when they played under the name of Denaby Parish Church.
If the conviction, unstinting effort and unswerving dedication of those who are carrying the proud name of Denaby United forward towards a new era is anything to go by, they are well on course to achieving their aims, given a realistic timescale.
United currently play in the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League (a step 7 competition), having previously plied their trade in the Doncaster Senior League.
Tonight demonstrated to the visitors, the kind of level they will need to aspire to, when the time comes to push on for promotion to the NCEL league infrastructure.

In his programme notes, Maltby's chairman Wilf Race (himself a former Denaby United player), talked of how he used to climb in over the wall at Tickhill Square to watch tonight's visitors in action while he was still in his teens, which is probably why he was turning a blind eye to the dozen or so local youths who did exactly the same thing under the cover of darkness at Muglet Lane tonight.
We've all done it haven't we?
To the untrained eye these lads (they're mostly young alpha males) are freeloading scallywags, but some time further down the line, once they've developed an infinity with their surroundings, these 'reprobates' will become the future supporters of local non league football clubs, i.e. the next generation of lifeblood, the paying spectators and willing volunteers.
Trust me on this one, I have a lot of inside information and knowledge of this particular subject.

In my teens I knew scores of local grounds (and not all of them were necessarily non league ones) that you could bunk into for 'nowt... but now, several decades on, although my dimensions prevent me from squeezing through gaps, crawling under corrugated iron fences and scaling walls anyway, I am more than happy to put my hand in my pocket and pay, retrospectively, for my pre-pubescent sins.
Putting something back in so to speak.
Sadly I never found to time to finish off my book "Bunking In... watching football for nothing", when I was a resourceful youngster, because we were always too busy: dodging train guards and leaving Retford Station via the ridiculously small wall at the opposite end of the platform from the ticket collector (and it's still there now kids, but don't get caught!) to ever find the time to bugger about boring you all half to death with my half baked opinions, poor grasp of grammatical correctiveness and stream of consciousness unhinged rambling.

It was fairly obvious, as the Miners went on the attack from the outset, that it was always going to be a case of when Maltby would score tonight, not if.

And though Denaby weren't without several attacking moves of their own, it was, in the main (you can have all of these puns for free), Spencer Fearn's side who dominated, as they approached the game in exactly the same way that they would any other and gave their visitors the due respect that they deserved.

With the Maltby Under 13 team out full voice yet again, the home side got the game under way, playing towards Outgang Lane and could quite easily have been three goals to the good inside the opening five minutes.

Ben Parker muscled his way into the Maltby area, but Dan Reilly got goal side of and diverted the ball out of harms way.

The opening goal duly arrived on 18 minutes, when Ryan Carroll swiveled in mid air and forced a save out of Ben Priestley as he hooked an overhead kick towards the Denaby goal, but the visitors keeper could only claw the ball into the path of Jordan Poole, who added the finishing touch from close range.

Three minutes later Derrelle Goodison combined with Poole and Josh Schofield on the right hand side of the visitors area and latched onto a return pass from the latter to crash the ball past Priestley from twelve yards.

It's just over six miles to the visitors ground from Muglet Lane, via the winding roads to Conisborough, but the distance between the two divisions that these two sides compete in, was becoming increasingly more evident as the game wore on and was proving to be two giant steps for mankind as Denaby struggled to get into the game.

Priestley denied Schofield twice, while both Goodison and Poole had efforts that went off target.

Ainsley Finney and Steve Ellor countered at pace after Denaby cleared their lines from yet another Maltby push forward, but Jack Greeves was taking no chances and he intercepted Ellor's run and launched his clearance out of the ground.

But 'the Miners' turned the screw again on 39 minutes, when Schofield crossed the ball into the visitors six yard box and Priestley's defence deserted him as Jordan Snodin planted an unchallenged downward header into the back of the goal to make it 3-0.

With the Maltby back line presenting an obstinate wall of defiance whenever it looked as if Denaby might be on the verge of reducing the arrears, Finney and Cory Goodwin peppered Louis Jones goals with shots from range, but Reilly and Nicky Darker were on hand to put a foot in and block both goal attempts.

Denaby had a penalty appeal and a shout for "Handball!", when Ellor's cross hit a Maltby player on his arm. Memo to MMFC, get some white numbers on your shirts so old men with fading eyesight, AKA me, can identify your players more easily during midweek games, but the referee didn't see anything wrong with what I am assuming he must have called as a "Ball to hand" non punishable transgression and play moved quickly from end to end and the visitors last line of defence, Aiden Oakley had no option but to break down yet another Maltby attack, by committing a foul just outside the goal area.

But the match officials thought otherwise and a penalty was awarded, which Carroll drilled past Priestley to give the home side a comfortable four goal cushion at the break.

HT: Maltby Main 4 v Denaby United 0

The extremely fortunate old lass who gets to spend lots of quality time with me (when there are no football matters to attend to. AKA at least a few hours per week) was on a mission of mercy at Bassetlaw Hospital tonight and texted me at half time to ask if it would be possible for me to pick her up on my way home at around 10pm.

I replied: "Of course, even if there is extra time here tonight, I will leave anyway because you are my number one priority always and football is just a game".

Even though there was a zero likelihood of Denaby scoring four second half goals, or even of Maltby not increasing their lead; football is a funny old game and you never know, eh!?

My commitment to my relationship knows no boundaries, even though I 'accidentally' put my phone on silent mode for the duration of the second half.

But as for her... I ask you, since when has Worksop (that's where Bassetlaw Hospital is) been on the way home from Maltby to Retford?

Tsk! She's a selfish chuff piece at times... and then some.

The damage had already been done in the opening forty five minutes and Maltby, understandably perhaps, seemed to take their foot off the gas after the break, or perhaps after reshuffling their pack during the half time team talk, Denaby were now dealing with their hosts more effectively.

Either way, it was Denaby who went on the attack first from the restart, but Louis Jones was off his line quickly to prevent Ellor from putting a dent in the scoreline, by heading the ball away just outside his goal area.

Reilly and Goodison both went close for 'the Miners', but although Ellor continued to look half decent for the visitors, they still didn't look like they were going to find their way to goal tonight.

Maltby scored a fifth in the 69th minute, when Priestley struggled to clear a cross and Goodison nudged the ball to Connor Gregg, who will never get a simpler chance to score again in his life as he rolled the ball into an empty net, while the Denaby keeper laid on the ground wondering where the hell his defence had gone again.

Goodison went close again but was thwarted by Priestley, who got down well to deny Poole another goal.

The rhythm of the game was broken up somewhat as the substitutes entered the fray, but the home sides captain Darker, rolled a sideways pass to Snodin, from a free kick all of thirty yards and he thumped an unstoppable shot past Priestley.

Phew! I was relieved that I definitely wouldn't have to leave early and miss any extra time now.

And though I am taking up a (very) temporary job with Maltby Main any time soon, so I am always likely to be ever so slightly biased about their results, I hoped that they had punished Denaby enough for one night now, after capitalising on several defensive errors, because the visitors were still putting the effort in and didn't really deserve to be on the end of an even bigger score.

BUY IT NOW! From your local NCEL club.
@TheBootifulGame #2
Contains 2 pages about Maltby manager
Spencer Fearn & 3 pages written by yours
truly, but don't let that put you off buying one.

Ben Priestley had pulled off several blinding saves over the course of the night, while Steve Ellor, ably assisted by Cory Goodwin and Ainsley Finney had made a good impression, but ultimately, the home side had too much in reserve for United and comfortably made it through to the second round of the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup. Maltby had played the right sort of game at the right tempo, but as I was actually in the same room as that nice Mr Fearn when he was prepping his players before kick off, it would be wholly inappropriate of me to make any further comment to that end.

FT: Maltby Main 6 v Denaby United 0

Denaby face a trip to Millmoor Juniors in the Pete's Patisserie County Senior Football League, Premier Division at the weekend, while Maltby Main face Rainworth Miners Welfare in what promises to be a close game in the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division.

One final thing, their are currently opportunities available for players to join in with Maltby Main Under 13s. Interested parties should send direct message to @cdonfielding via Twitter, for more details.

Saturday 8th October 2016
EFL Youth Alliance
at Blackhall Colliery Welfare Park
Hartlepool United (0) 1
Liam Travers 90+4
Mansfield Town (0) 0
For more pictures from this game click HERE

Hartlepool United:
Scott Moloney, Kenton Richardson, Jack Cooper (Brooklyn Miller 58), Jacob Owen, Jordan Fielding, Ethan Wood, Liam Travers, Lewis Orrell, Connor Simpson (Dan Fell 72), Josh Hawkes, Jon Weirs
Unused subs - Alex Lawrence, Dan Boyle
Mansfield Town:
Sam Wilson, Teddy Bloor, Henri Wilder, Cain Smith, Kane Baldwin. Kieran Harrison, Nyle Blake, Cameron Healey, Zayn Hakeem, Devante Reittie (Alistair Smith), Surefel Behailu (Keaton Ward 77)
Unused Subs - Harry Bircumshaw, Aiden Walker, Xavier Sundby (GK)

What had been great week, all told, for the Stags youngsters, that saw Tom Marriott pick up the man of the match accolade after being fast-tracked into first team action in an EFL Trophy win at Port vale in midweek and Zayn Hakeem called up for international duty with Antigua; ended in frustration, as John Dempster's side went down 1-0 to a sucker punch in the fourth minute of added time, at what is fast becoming a bit of a bogey ground for them, having capitulated in the second half at the same venue last season.
It would be churlish to point out the lacklustre nature of Mansfield's performance as a contributing factor to their own downfall, given that they went into today's game previously unbeaten all season, particularly when they ultimately fell to late, late goal after the referee had added an unfathomable amount of stoppage time on at the end of a scrappy game.
But in the final analysis they didn't play anywhere near as they're capable of and were found wanting as regards that extra push of power and penetration required in the final third to grind out results in these sort of games, as Pools defended well against a decent supply of ammunition from Nyle Blake, Teddy Bloor and Henri Wilder.

As reigning champions and current league leaders, this Mansfield side are going to find teams putting in that bit extra and upping the ante against them this season, wanting to be the ones to pull the rug from under their challenge... and so it proved to be today, a Hartlepool, who haven't exactly been pulling up any trees this season, competed for everything and anything and closed ranks to squeeze the life out of any attacking inclination that their illustrious visitors might have had. A point that was demonstrated right from the off, from the Stags first attack, when Cain Smith threaded a pass through to Zayn Hakeem, who was met head on by the home side's goalkeeper who charged from his line like a man possessed and cleared the ball with a no nonsense challenge.

Sam Wilson will probably have been the most frustrated player on the pitch when the winning goal went in, because he, more than anybody, had done more than his share of hard work to salvage what had looked like a draw as several of his teammates had a collective off day.
He saved from close range as Connor Simpson got onto the end of Liam Travers' sideways pass, smothered the ball down by his right hand post as Kenton Richardson's cross/shot almost crept into the corner of the goal and got behind Travers' long shot to collect the ball safely.
The Stags keeper had only conceded one league goal prior to today this season, his contribution to their league position and unbeaten run shouldn't be underestimated.
The Stags were passing the ball around well on what was a decent playing surface, but most of their aesthetically pleasant movement was width ways across the pitch, rather than from back to front.
Whereas whenever the home side picked up possession, they built up the momentum forward from their defence. It wasn't always easy on the eye, but it was effective nevertheless.

Blake was fouled out on the right wing and Bloor made could use of the chilling coastal breeze from the free kick, but Moloney palmed the ball away from under his bar and the Pools defence reacted quickest to reaching the loose ball.
Devante Reittie forced a save from Moloney, that resulted in a corner that Surfel Behailu dropped into the six yard box, causing chaos among the defending team, but Moloney managed to punch Wilder's goal bound header away.
Pools came close to breaking the deadlock Jack Cooper's long range cross into the Stags area, but their towering centre forward Connor Simpson headed wide.

Whenever the Stags crossed the halfway line the home side got behind the ball in numbers, so spotting having worked out that his passing options were severely limited, at best, Kieran Harrison, who has been Mr Consistency for both the Under 18 and Under 21 sides this season, unleashed a twenty five yard shot, that Moloney did well to hold onto at full stretch.
Jordan Fielding under hit a clumbsy back pass to Moloney, that Reittie couldn't quite get a meaningful touch on, but still managed to roll the ball into the path of Blake, who uncharacteristically shot wide with the goal at his mercy.

Hakeem sliced an angled shot past the post, after taking the ball wide past Moloney.
A good striker should never be afraid to miss or let their head drop when they have just spurned a good opportunity. Especially in Zayn's case, who has been in great form all season and had scouts from Manchester City and Fulham running the rule over him today following the announcement of his call up by Antigua, but moving swiftly on, that particular finish wasn't exactly international class
To compound his misery, Hakeem was then booked for an innocuous foul, the first he had committed all game, just before the break, moments after the referee had also cautioned Pools Jon Weirs, rather harshly, for a mistimed challenge.
In first half stoppage time, Travers went close to grabbing the lead for the home side, but Kane Baldwin prevented him from shooting with a well timed tackle.
HT: 0-0

Travers was proving to be a thorn in the Stags side, but he blazed a shot high and wide at the beginning of the second half. Wilson went 'route one' with his goal kick that travelled in the wind as far as Blake who travelled down the right flank, before Cooper got his foot in, but he only managed to clear the ball as far as Bloor, who was tracking Blake's run and he chipped a deep cross into the Pools box towards Hekeem, that Moloney did well to intercept.
The clearance found it's way harmlessly back to Wilson who launched the ball to Hakeem, who in spite of Cooper's close attention, managed to direct the ball wide to Blake, who rode a challenge before forcing a good save from Moloney, down to his right, with a low curling shot that was destined for the bottom left hand corner.
Cain Smith and Cameron Healey were having to dig deep into their resources of energy to get a foothold in the overcrowded middle ground of the pitch as the game became increasingly scrappy as both teams contended with the stiff wind.
Reittie and Bloor made some headway down the right flank, But Moloney held onto the former's cross, while Jacob Own held on just as tightly to Hakeem to prevent him from challenging for the ball.

The Stags striker wasn't getting either the rub of the green or the benefit of any help whatsoever from the referee as his frustrating afternoon went from bad to worse.
Hakeem was then pushed off the ball by Cooper and though it was possibly the easiest call that the referee had to make all afternoon, the Pools full back had an attack of the red mists and remonstrated so angrily with the official, that his manager took the wise precaution of substituting him, before he got himself into real bother.
The Stags got the ball into Hartlepool's area via a string of flicked on headers from Bloor, Reittie, and Blake, before Hakeem nodded the ball down into the path of Behailu who beat Moloney but saw his shot skim wide of the left hand upright.
Hawkes played a rangy ball down the flank to Lewis Orrell, who swung a first time cross towards Simpson, but Harrison authoritatively took control of the situation and headed the ball firmly away into the distance.

Hartlepool surged forward again, with Hawkes taking a return pass from Simpson, before Bloor blocked his shot at the expense of a corner.
Blake took up the initiative down the right flank, but was stopped in his tracks by Weirs, who was living life dangerously after already being booked in the first half.
Harrison put himself bravely in the way of Travers' shot from the edge of the box and turned the ball behind. Orrell played the ball towards Hawkes, who was hovering near the touchline and planted an inswinging cross onto the head of Fielding whose header was kept out acrobatically by Wilson.
The home side were peppering balls into the Stags rearguard for a spell, but Wilson and his defence were showing the sort of form that has taken them to the top of the table.
Blake showed a clean pair of heels to Weirs and picked out (C) Smith with his cross, but Brooklyn Miller blocked the resulting shot and diverted the ball wide.
The home side struggled to clear the resulting flag kick and the ball found it's way back to (C) Smith, who was only denied by a great save from Moloney.
Pools counter attacked from Moloney's drop kick and there was (C) Smith again at the other end, clearing a flick on from Travers.

Wilson pulled off a top draw save that looked to have added another notch onto his clean sheet record and preserved a point for thee unbeaten Stags, when he did well to reach the ball in his top left corner. when Travers met Hawkes cross with a thumping header.
Moloney, who hitheto hadn't put a foot wrong all game, dropped Blake's cross in his six yard box, but the Stags players didn't react quickly enough to capitalise as the Pools keeper breathed a sigh of relief.
Hakeem went over in the box under a challenge from Kenton Richardson, but it was a fair tackle and another opening went begging. Bloor won the ball out on the right and laid a pinpoint pass into the path of Blake through the channel, whose shot across the face of goal only needed the slightest touch as it went agonisingly wide of the upright.
Kearon Ward was now probing for an opening down the left flank having entered the fray from the bench, but the home side were putting up a determined resistance.

Deep into stoppage time, the Stags repelled Hartlepool for what looked like the last time as they saw the ball out for a corner. But as the ball came in, Travers got up above a scrum of players and planted a downward header into the mix, that Wilson manged to get a hand too but couldn't keep out.
So with 94 minutes on the clock, the Stags restarted but didn't have enough time to salvage a draw and their impressive nine game unbeaten run had been cruelly ended, just moments before they had moved into double figures.
Mansfield had been out of sorts at times and nowhere near their best, but it would be difficult, churlish and harsh to say anything too disparaging about today's 'one off' in lieu how the team have applied themselves as a whole and what they have achieved over the season so far.
They now need to show a positive response to today's performance, when they come up against Rotherham United on Friday afternoon.
FT: Hartlepool United 1 v Mansfield Town 0

Saturday 8th October 2016

Ebac Northern League Division 2

at the CLS Sports Stadium

Billingham Synthonia (1) 3

Nathan Steel 28

Matt Osmond 48

Danny Brunskill 85

Alnwick Town (0) 0

Admission £5. Programme £1. Attendance 142
Flickr photo group, click HERE

Billingham Synthonia:

G Craggs, Grier, O'Sullivan, Osmond, Rowbotham, Crust, Langstaff, Liddle (Burton), Steel (Brunskill), M Craggs, Peacock(c) (Wilson)

Unused Subs - Snook, Bythway

Alnwick Town:

McMahon, Douglas, Dundas, Giles, McPherson(c), Jackson, Riddell, Brown, Hay, Brooks, Graham (Lowes)

Unused Sub - Bailes

A twenty minute drive due south down the A19 from this mornings game at Blackhall Colliery brings you onto Central Avenue in Billingham, which leads straight to the CLS Sports Stadium.
Today's fairly emphatic 3-0 win, saw the Synners finish the afternoon comfortably positioned in fourth place in the table, with games in hand over all of the other teams who are currently jockeying for promotion places.
Visitors, mid table Alnwick Town, did produce two or three half decent chances over the course of the game... but only two or three, as the home side put on a dominant display that really ought to have seen them win more comfortably, which they would've done, had it not been for a man of the match performance by the visitors keeper Dominic McMahon.

Macauley Langstaff caught the eye from the off, with his pace and close control causing the visitors no end of problems; most frequently, but not exclusively on the right of the Synthonia attack, though he was just as likely to pop up just about anywhere across the width of the final third. He almost gave Billingham the lead after just three minutes, but having skipped past two challenges through the right channel, he curled the ball narrowly wide of the far post with his left foot.
The Wick goal was leading a bit of a charmed life in the opening exchanges and Nathan Steel was inches away from connecting with a free header from Langstaff's cross as the home side regained possession from the goal kick.
Liam O'Sullivan launched a long kick from just inside the Magpies half out on the left, towards the Synners centre half Josh Rowbotham, who planted a header over the crossbar.
The game was only ten minutes old, yet Synthonia could and probably should already have been three goals to the good.

It's just his hand dangling between his legs and your dirty mind

The home side's captain Peacock (are you free Mr Humphries!?) took the ball down on his chest with his back to goal and shot on turn, which was welled saved by McMahon... and even if this hadn't happened, I was never going to miss the opportunity to insert a crap pun joke anyway and I would have made something similar up.
Moments later, Langstaff took a corner from the left, that was parried by McMahon, before being cleared back towards the Synners lively play maker and he cut along the bi-line towards the visitors goal, but drilled the ball into the side netting.
Synthonia attacked once more, but Chay Liddle's strike was deflected for yet another flag kick, that Langstaff dropped perfectly into the path of Steel, but it skimmed off of his head and the chance went begging.

However Steel had been kidding us all on that he couldn't find the net all along and on 29 minutes, he surprised everybody, possibly including himself, when he added the finishing touch to Langstaff's delivery from a free kick out on the right.
"Bugger me, the lad can score after all!" muttered a silver haired gentleman sat to my right, as Steel claimed his fifth goal of the season.
The Synners right back Ryan Grier went for a 50/50 ball with Callum Brooks and the referee blew up for a free kick in the Magpies favour (Alnwick Town have two nicknames before any of you pendantic lot pull me up).
Tony Brown; not the former England international who played for West Bromwich Albion, Torquay United and Stafford Rangers, but another Tony Brown who I can tell you nothing more about other than the fact he's 29 years old, pumped the dead ball into the home sides area, but Matt Crust cleared the ball before it had even touched the ground and Alnwick's first potential opening had gone.

Langstaff and Liddle combined and presented Max Craggs with a free header on goal, but McMahon pulled off another good save.

A moment of hesitation in the visitors defence left Liddle with a free run on goal, but this ever so slightly one sided game was fast becoming 'The Dominic McMahon Show' and the visitors keeper sprinted from his line to get the ball away ...for now.

Synthonia were denied again by the Wick number 1, who pulled off a fine save down to his right from Liddle's crashing shot from Peacock's cross.

(M) Craggs was also denied by McMahon on the stroke of half time.

It was something of a minor miracle that the score was only 1-0 at the break.

I located the Synners T-Bar, a bijou but well stocked kiosk, with a serving hatch that was so low, it suggested that in days of yore, Billingham had been inhabited by Pygmies.

"Are you being served?" asked the nice lady selling a mouth watering array of fare, "I'm freeee!!", I gleefully replied, keeping the Grace Brothers angle going for far longer than I ought to have.

She looked at me blankly and said "Do you want something pet!?", I resisted the temptation to ask her which floor I could find the Haberdashery on and settled for a man sized burger and a cup of coffee that was so strong, I new that there was no chance of me nodding off on the way home, either tonight, or probably until approximately Monday tea time. I can heartily recommend the Synners T-Bar, they don't do things by half and even I didn't want any tea when I got home.

McMahon didn't have a save to make again, until the second minute of the second half, when he turned (M) Craggs long range shot round the post at the expense of a corner.

But within sixty seconds, the home side finally doubled their lead, when Steel swept the ball out wide to Langstaff and Matt Osmond turned home his cross from close range.

The home side celebrated, while McMahon stood with his hands on his hips surveying his teammates with a fixed stare, a bit like that angry looking keyboard player out of Sparks, that suggested his exact thoughts at that moment in time were: "Any ****ing chance of you lot joining in any time this afternoon?"

The Alnwick keeper was called into action again, when Langstaff took a return pass from Steel, but saw his effort blocked by the overworked McMahon.

Their was a ripple of applause from the away supporters, who had travelled with a whole washing lines worth of flags, as James Jackson headed over a corner kick from Ryan Douglas and the Synners keeper Guy Craggs, who I have had no reason whatsoever to mention thus far, ventured off of his line to collect a long ball that had been aimed in the general direction of Josh Hay.

With twenty minutes still to go, any sort of Alnwick goal, even though it would've been against the run of play, would have set up a grandstand finish... but to be honest, such a scenario never looked even marginally possible.

The sun was shining and the Billingham Synthona Under 7s, who were posted around the perimeter of the track that surrounds the pitch at the CLS Sports Stadium, like an army of small soldiers were obviously enjoying the match and their ball boy duties. It was good to see the youngsters, who play on a ground next door to the main ground getting involved in non league football.

Osmond delivered a cross to Steel, who got his header on target, but 'you know who' was equal to it and pulled off approximately his 47th impressive save of the day. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but only a slight one!

McMahon was beaten inside the final five minutes, with the kind of strike that even he couldn't do anything about, when the Synners substitute, Danny Brunskill, headed the ball into the path of (M) Craggs, who rolled the ball back to former Evo-Stik League striker, who unleashed the sort of shot that made you really glad that their was a goal net between the ball and that Under 7 player, diligently patrolling the grassy expanse behind it.

And that was that, Billingham Synthonia had clinched all three points with their third goal, to maintain their promotion push, whilst the Alnwick Town supporter I spoke to on the way back to my car, conceding that his side hadn't really been in it today.

Billingham Synthonia are a very friendly and welcoming club and if today's performance was anything to go by this season, they are well worth making the effort to watch if you should get the opportunity.

FT: Billingham Synthonia 3 v Alnwick Town 0

Tuesday 11th October 2016
Toolstation NCEL Division 1
The Fairfax Plant Hire Stadium, Richard Street, Selby
Selby Town (0) 1
Scott Jones 90+3
Dronfield Town (0) 0
Admission £5 Programme £1.50 Attendance 111

In days of old when Knights were bold and King Coal was still a merry olde soul, a 16 year old management trainee (AKA me) was offered a very generous package by the National Coal Board, to relocate to the booming Selby Coalfield after being shown plans for the future of the mining industry, that encompassed 'super pits' in the area, boasting sufficient coal reserves to sustain maximum productivity for the next three centuries. Apparently.

Alas, when it comes to political nous, there are a lot of people in this country who have a disturbingly small capacity for looking at the bigger picture before putting a X in a box... and the day before I actually left school, somebody, or some thing, called Margaret Thatcher was elected into government and spitefully set out to destroy the industrial landscape as we knew it and ruin the lifetime prospects of working class people who wanted to better themselves for generations to come. The rest is history.
Selby, like so many other communities was never going to be allowed to prosper, because it isn't in the Tory heartlands.
Suffice to say: I never moved their, but the Robins very nearly became my local team back in the day.

If you ever get the inclination to visit Selby Town FC, I would advise that you should arrive early to afford yourself the time to browse through the Aladdin's cave of treasures and bargains, to cater for all tastes, stocked in their thriving club shop.

If there is another shop with such a vast array of desirable purchases in the NCEL, then I must have missed it on my travels.

Selby just about shaded the first half, by virtue of getting the ball into the last third more often than their visitors, with attacking right back Craig Maynard seemingly pivotal to a lot of their forward movement, operating out on the left flank.
But in Richard Mintoft and Tom Fairweather, Dronfield had a centre half pairing, who didn't shirk a single tackle or defensive header all night. And as a consequence, it wasn't until the third minute of stoppage time right at the end of the game, that the Robins finally punctured the Derbyshire side's rearguard.

Craig Butler's side must've been gutted to concede so late in the day, but they had been under the cosh for the majority of the second half and although they battled resolutely and absorbed a lot of pressure, I would imagine that the home side would have been equally frustrated if they didn't take all three points from the game, after dominating most the game after the half time interval.

The Robins haven't conceded a goal in four games and tonight's win took their unbeaten run to seven games as they climbed up to sixth in the table, which after last season's change to the league format, now constitutes a play off berth.

The two first real chances of the game fell to Selby and they were both the consequence of Maynard getting forward on the right wing and delivering quality crosses;the first one fell to Jason Crisp, who was unlucky to see his shot from twenty yards clear the crossbar and the second saw Gary Lumley direct a downwards header wide of the left hand post.
Ryan Ruddiforth was trying to get some momentum going for the visitors down the right flank but James Arnold was keeping a close watch on him.
Maynard found Scott Jones with his back to goal on the edge of the area with a diagonal pass and his shot on the turn was only a matter of inches wide of the upright.

Dronfield won a free kick out on the right wing and Jack Stocks was forced to clear the ball away from danger at the expense of a corner from Harley Wilson's delivery.
Carlton Dickinson connected with the flag kick, but Peter Lawrie pulled of a great save.
Moments later Callum Mawbey set Dickinson up for another attempt, but Lawrie did well to deny him again.
The visitors advanced forward again, but when Fairweather launched a long free kick into the area towards Blake Owen, Lawrie was fouled and the chance amounted to nothing.
Stocks blocked Owen's shot, but (H) Wilson put the ball behind from the resulting corner.

With half time approaching, Lawrie saved with his feet from Jamie Willis, Selby countered and Joe Taylor did well to prevent the home side from taking the lead, as Jones broke free and kept his shot on target.
Mintoft floated a long free kick to Fairweather, who directed his header just over Lawrie's goal and in stoppage time Dickinson held the ball up on the ege of the area before rolling it into the path of Owen, who was denied by another good stop by Lawrie.
HT: 0-0

Dronfield had a lot of possession in the first half, but Selby turned the game on it's head after the break and mounted a relentless bombardment of the visitors goalmouth.
Mintoft cleared the ball as an all hands to the pumps situation unfolded in front of the visitors goal, but Jones charged down the ball and went close from six yards.
Will Ramsey saw off a tackle before crossing to Crisp who shot over, while Ramsey himself was denied by a good reflex save by Taylor from Arnold's cross.
Taylor was called into action again just moments later, when he needed to push Ward's effort around the post.

Selby poured men forward and penned the visitors back in their own area with a series of aerial raids, but found Mintoft and Fairweather to be a formidable barrier, winning a string of challenges and last ditch headers.

Maynard pushed his way into the visitors area and squezzed the ball through the scrum into the path of Ramsey, who couldn't quite get a touch, with the goal at his mercy.

combination of Mintoft and Fairw4ather's 'never say die' determination, Taylor's agility and some bad luck in fron of their visitors goal for Selby, saw the game heading for a goalless draw. The point apiece would have been hard won and highly deserved by both teams, though probably for completely different reasons as regards the second half juxtaposition of the action.

However, right at the end of the second half (and then some), Liam Flanagan made some space as he stormed into the left hand side of the visitors goal area, before thumping the ball across the six yard box, where Scott Jones reached it with his right foot, at full stretch, as he slid in to divert it into the goal before it reached the visitors keeper, Joe Taylor, who had just pulled off two quite magnificent saves, both of which thwarted Flanagan, in stoppage time.
What an agonising way to lose a game of football, that must have been for a very hardworking Dronfield side.
But credit where it's due, Selby mounted wave upon wave of attacks after the break and never let up right until the final whistle... and ultimately, that is why they claimed all three points.
FT: Selby Town 1 v Dronfield Town 0
A thoroughly enjoyable game all told.

Wednesday 12th October 2016
English Colleges Football League
Kick off at 12.30pm at Brooksby Melton College
Mansfield Town (Brooksby Melton College) (3) 6
Easton & Otley College (0) 0

Mansfield Town Brooksby Melton College:
Ryan Lewis, Jack Beasley, Ben Browne, Ollie Humphrey, Tyler Johal, Justin Trow, Sam Grouse, Reece Lefley, Lewis Matthews, Rheiss McLean, Josh Paskell
Subs - Myles Saxton, Jacob Toon, Harry Johnson, Edward Heginbotham

A delayed kick off, due to traffic congestion, that had caused the visitors to take over three and a half hours to reach their destination at Brooksby, also meant that the away team arrived just in time to coincide with the heavy rainfall that had been very accurately forecast for early afternoon.
As the handful of players parents and spectators headed under the trees to seek shelter from the downpour, it was the home side who dealt with the conditions best from the outset and after settling into their rhythm took the lead on ten minutes, when Sam Grouse struck home an angled shot from just outside the visitors area.
Grouse was causing a lot of problems for the Stags East Anglian visitors and after twenty two minutes, his shot was deflected into the path of Jake Toon who guided the ball into the net for goal number two.

Within three minutes Ben Browne added a third when he spanked the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the goal from twenty five yards.
Tyler Johal went close twice and 10 threatened again but saw his effort narrowly clear the bar, while Easton & Otley didn't really offer very much in the way.
HT: 3-0
The second half carried on pretty much in the same vein as the first and the home sides lead was extended to four nil, when Justin Trowe headed home Ollie Humprey's left wing cross after fifty four minutes.
Johal moved the ball from his left foot to his right but saw his shot go narrowly wide of the right hand post.

But moments later the match referee Carl Henry awarded Simon Ward's side a penalty and Johal put the game beyond the visitors lead on sixty seven minutes.
With nine minutes remaining Browne's right wing corner evaded a scrum of players crowded into the six yard box, but found Ollie Humphrey at the back post, who stooped forward to head the ball through the most improbable and narrow of gaps.
Both teams had chances in the closing minutes, but with the contrary weather now bathing the college grounds in bright sunshine, there was to be no further scoring as the Brooksby side record an emphatic home win.
FT: Mansfield Town B.M.C. 6 v Easton & Otley College 0

Photo Gallery LINK for both of these games.

Wednesday 12th October 2016
National League U19 Alliance League Cup
Kick off 14.25pm at Brooksby Melton College
Mansfield Town U19 (0) 3
Ellis Williamson 62,
Alistair Smith 67,
Sam Jackson 79
Farsley Celtic U19 (0) 1
Brandon Hughes 85

Mansfield Town:
Alex Roughton, Cameron Weston, Jordan Wells, Surafel Behailu, John Fragakis, Max Hunt (C), Jacob Dumbleton, Charlie Shaw, Ellis Williamson, Alistair Smith, Cameron Jones
Subs - Sam Jackson, Adam Swain, Regan Nairn, Lewis Gibbons, Joe Christopher
Farsley Celtic:
Dan Crook, Kieran Watson, Brandon Hughes, Dan Bambrook, Nathan Hawkhead, Harvey Booth (C), Luke Gibson, Junior Piba, Jordan Hobson, Danny Edwards, Jack McGahan
Subs - Daniel Kanga, Azi Gattulan

The home side mounted the first attack of the game, when Cam Jones threaded a great pass through the visitors defence for Jacob Dumbleton to run onto, but the referee's assistant, a chap going by the name of Morgan Ratcliffe who looked very familiar from somewhere, raised his flag and decreed that Dumbleton had strayed offside when the ball was played.
The game was closely contested as the first half picked up momentum and the visitors from West Yorkshire were keeping Cameron Weston busy down their left flank, as Brandon Hughes and Jack McGahan attacked in tandem, while Luke Gibson and Jordan Hobson, teamed up to threaten John Fragakis and the Stags captain Max Hunt down the middle.
But although the 'Villagers' had obviously decided that attack was the best form of defence, the home side were proving to be a tough nut to crack.

McGahan put on an extra burst of pace and found himself with just Alex Roughton to beat, but the Stags keeper had closed down the options available to the visitors wide man quickly and he rushed his shot wide of the upright.
Meanwhile, the Stags countered from the goal kick and Dumbleton's dipping shot wasn't far away, as it skimmed over the crossbar.
Weston caught McGahan with a mistimed challenge, but from the resulting free kick Gibson put the ball wide, when he had better options available to him.
Fragakis got a touch from Nathan Hawkhead's shot and took the sting out of it for Roughton who gathered the ball easily.

Ali Smith exchanged passes with Surafel Behailu, to make space for Charlie Shaw to advance into the area where he passed sideways to Ellis Williamson, whose shot was blocked on the line.
On the stroke of half time McGahan delivered a cross in towards Jordan Hobson, who was thwarted by Roughton's save from close range.
HT: 0-0
Mansfield had started the first half on the back foot, but after their half time team talk, they recommenced the game with an all guns blazing, shoot on sight approach.

Dan Crook did well to get down and push Smith's shot round the post and from Charlie Shaw's corner kick, Max Hunt was unlucky to see his header narrowly miss the target.
Shaw released Jones down the left flank and having taken two defenders with him, turned and knocked the ball back for Jordan Wells to deliver the ball into the six yard box, where it dropped narrowly wide of the upright.
Dumbleton picked up the ball on the right, before advancing forward and delivering a cross, that held up in the wind before dropping onto the roof of the net.
Although the Stags had dominated the first fifteen minutes of the second half, Farsley still looked dangerous whenever they broke forward and as if t prove such a point, when Hunt scooped the ball away from the home sides goalmouth, Dan Bambrook chased it down and crashed a shot past the right hand upright.

Sam Jackson was careering around the fringes of Celtic's area like a whirlwind and the threaded a great pass into the path of Williamson who was denied from twenty yards by another good stop from Crook. As Farsley tried to clear their lines, Ali Smith intercepted the ball and nudged it forward to Williamson, who opened the scoring from ten yards.
Hunt went close again,towering above the Farsley defence but heading over from Shaw's free kick, after Weston had been fouled.
Anticipating their hosts would be looking for a second goal to give themselves some breathing space, the Villagers packed their area, so when Smith picked up the ball just outside the box, he shot first time, allowing the ball to bounce in front of the already unsighted Farsley keeper. A clever goal to give the home side a two goal cushion.

With Farsley having to commit men forward to chase the game, Scott Rickards shuffled his pack, using his available substitutes well, while switching Jones from the left flank to the right.
The fine tuning paid off almost immediately, when Lewis Gibbons won the ball in the visitors area and slipped it to Jackson, who danced past three challenges before drilling a shot into the bottom right hand corner.
Farsley played to the whistle as Fragakis laid injured in the Stags penalty area and Hughes hooked the ball into the back of the net with five minutes remaining.

Hawkhead tripped Smith just outside the area and the industrious midfielder dusted himself down and opted to take the free kick... but his initial shot rebounded back too him off of the visitors defensive wall and his second one flew high and wide of the goal.
Shaw and Gibbons mounted a stoppage time attack but Crook came off of his line to gather the ball safely.
FT: Stags U19 3 v Farsley Celtic U19 1

Friday 14th October 2016

EFL U18 Youth Allaince (NE)

at the Worksop Van Hire Stadium, Clipstone FC

Mansfield Town (1) 1

Kiearan Harrison 41

Rotherham United (0) 2

Josh Kayode 52, 77

For more photos from this game click HERE

Mansfield Town:
Sam Wilson, Teddy Bloor (Surafel Behailu 80), Morgan Ratcliffe, Cain Smith (Alistair Smith 80), Kane Baldwin, Kieran Harrison (C), Henri Wilder, Cameron Healey, Zayn Hakeem (Devante Reittie 8), Tom Marriott, Nyle Blake
Unused subs - Xavier Sundry (GK), Aiden Walker
Rotherham United:
Harry Fiddler, Deegan Atherton, Akeem Hinds, Lewis Murr, Adam Saxton, J.Cee Abraham, Revarnelle James, Tom Maguire(Sam Martin 71), Josh Kayode, Reece McGinlley, Matt Wilson (Akeel Francis 55).
Unused subs - George McMahon, Carlton Mitchell, Matt Coleman

The Millers arrived at Clipstone sat in third place in the league table, off of the back of a six game unbeaten run and proved to be a stiff test for the young Stags who were looking to bounce back from last weekend's 1-0 reversal at Hartlepool United, which they lost by virtue of a stoppage time goal.

Alas, several of John Dempster's side were feeling the effects of a sickness bug in the camp and struggled to put in a whole 100% and their game plan was disrupted further and probably to a far worse degree when Zayn Hakeem picked up an injury after just four minutes, when he landed awkwardly after challenging Josh Kayode.

To compound matters, the Rotherham striker then landed on Hakeem's injured leg.

Having limped his way through a couple more minutes it was obvious that he wouldn't be able to play on, and sadly, he limped off the pitch, just 48 hours before he is meant to be flying out to make his international debut.

Matt Wilson battled his way past Kane Baldwin, but Morgan Ratcliffe, back in action for the first time since missing several games through injury and Teddy Bloor combined to clear up the threat he posed.

The same duo were involved at the other end a few minutes later, when Cameron Healey flicked on Bloor's right wing cross to Ratcliffe whose first time shot on the run was blocked in the six yard box.

Revarnelle James made inroads deep into Mansfield territory down the right wing, but as he delivered the ball for Kayode, Kieran Harrison, relishing the captain's role, won the aerial battle and headed the ball away to safety.

Tom Marriott back on board from his night out, living the dream of being chosen as the man of the match in the first team EFL Trophy game away at Port Vale, put a decent corner into the Millers area from out on the left, which was only cleared as far as Bloor, who skipped past two challenges, but saw his shot charged down by J.Cee Abraham.

With half time fast approaching, clear cut chances had been at a premium at both ends thus far, with much of the game developing into a real battle for the midfield, with physicality rather than finesse seemingly being the preferred option for both teams, with Mansfield withstanding a few borderline firm but fair challenges from the larger players in the visitors ranks.

But Mansfield finally broke the dealock just four minutes before the break, when Harrison timed his run well to meet another well executed flag kick from Marriott and powered a header past Harry Fiddler.

The Stags almost doubled their lead in first half stoppage time, when yet another good delivery by Mrriott was headed down by Cameron Healey to Devante Reittie, whose shot was cleared off of the line and when the rebound fell to Nyle Blake, he crashed a shot against the upright.

HT: 1-0

Rotherham came out after the break like an express train; James tore forward down the flank, but his route to goal was blocked by Blake, back helping his defence, who headed the ball away.

But the visitors were soon back on the attack as Kayode turned a header onto the bar from Tom Maquire's right wing cross. Alas, that one was just the dress rehearsal, because less than a minute later, James found Kayode with an identical ball and he made no mistake with a free header from eight yards out to level the score.

The Stags almost replicated their opening goal, but this time Harrison nodded Marriott's probing cross just wide of the right hand upright.

Blake was battling to find a way through to Fidler's goal, but Rotherham were defending well and it was becoming apparent why they haven't been losing games this season.

James unleashed an angled shot at the Stags goal from the left hand edge of the area, that Sam Wilson did well to keep out and he was alert enough to deal with Marquire's attempt at reaching Kayode from the resulting corner.

Their were appeals for a Stags penalty when Reittie went down under a challenge from Abraham, but the referee Minesh Gupta decreed that the two players had merely tangled while challenging for the ball and waved play on.

Healey threaded a sideways pass to Marriott just outside the Millers area and the way he executed his shot reminded me of a world class England international... Jonny Wilkinson!

Special camera effects (major fail)

Kayode hit a shot on the turn, that Wilson could've only have seen for a split second, before he still managed to make a save.

Rotherham were rampant,but when Kayode pushed the ball into the path of James, Wilson saved Mansfield once again as he smothered the ball.

Reittie, Blake and Marriott were still trying to unlock the visitors defence, but Abraham had thrown away the key.

Everybody makes mistakes, even match officials of the calibre of Mr Gupta and he missed a blatant push in Marriott's back by James as he nicked the ball and sprinted forward down the right flank, before teeing the ball up for Kayode to place just inside the left post from a free header.

Trick photography - Mansfield equalise and make it 2-2 on 88 minutes ;-)

The Stags were in a quandary now. They were already under the cosh and pushing men forwards to chase the result would leave them even more exposed, but merely sitting back and absorbing pressure would have been tantamount to accepting defeat and throwing the towel in, while resorting to damage limitation... never an option for champions.

In the event Marriott pushed forward down the left, cut inside and drilled the ball just wide of the right hand post.

Wilson was tested once again, but got down to his right to deny Kayode his hat trick.

With the clock ticking down, both sides were guilty of putting in a few overly heavy challenges, which had more to do with battling for space in a heavily congested middle third of the pitch. But Rotherham had the resolve to hold on to all three points in a very competitive, no holds barred encounter.

FT: Stags Youth 1 v Millers Youth 2

The young Stags are still at the top of the table, but Rotherham have well and truly announced their arrival on the scene and are obviously capable of putting together a very serious challenge for the championship themselves.

Friday 14th February 2016
SkyBet EFL Championship
at the City Ground, West Bridgford, Nottingham
Nottingham Forest (1) 3
Eric Lichaj 33, Apostolos Vellios 63, Hildeberto Pereira 83
Birmingham City (0) 1
Lucas Jutkiewicz 71
Admission £24. Programme £3.Attendance 19,208

Nottingham Forest:
Stojkovic; Lichaj, Mills, Perquis, Traore (Pereira 76); Lansbury, Vaughan, Cohen; Carayol (Lam 82), Bendtner (Vellios 57), Osborn.
Unused subs - Dumitru-Cardoso, Kasami, Henderson, Grant.
Birmingham City:
Legzdins; Shotton, Morrison, Robinson, Grounds; Cotterill, Gleeson, Davis (Brown 86), Maghoma (Donaldson 70); Adams (Fabbrini 64); Jutkiewicz.
Unused subs - Kieftenbeld, Wiggins, Stewart, Kuszczak

I believe that those within the betting fraternity refer to this kind of game as a coupon buster.
Forest hadn't won a league game since they beat Leeds United back in August, whereas Blues arrived at the City Ground unbeaten in their last eight away games... in actual fact they had only lost one game all season and that was when Wolves visited St. Andrew's on August 20th.
So how did the game unfold tonight then?
Obviously I must start with the much overused cliche, about football being played on grass, not paper.

But while those in the red corner will claim that they over ran their play off chasing visitors and dominated play so much that they stifled Gary Rowett's preferred 4-4-2 formation, or 4-4-1-1 if you really must, while those of a Blue persuasion will point out that they misfired so badly on all cylinders, they made Forest look good.
There is definitely at least a good dollop of truth in the narrative of both camps, but this was the best performance I have seen from the home side for a very long time, while City got nowhere near the standards that their travelling support have come to expect of late.

Personally, I was actually impressed with the way that Phillipe Montanier's side imposed themselves, but was thoroughly disappointed by the way that Birmingham didn't.

It used to be the infamous West Midlands police force who saw all football supporters as public enemy number 1 and made things as unpleasant as possible for anybody who merely wanted to attend a game of football, but their latter day Nottinghamshire equivalent are currently making a real fist of snatching that lob sided crown for themselves.
Many people assumed that tonight's game must have been scheduled to be shown on live TV, but as fans of Mansfield Town and Notts County have already found out this season, the local police round here are on a mission to inconvenience fans as much as they possibly can.
Sky TV were actually showing Cardiff City v Bristol City; the real reason that this game had been switched to a Friday night, was that the powers that be felt that their resources would be somewhat overstretched, if that had to police this game at the City Ground on the same day that two potentially high risk fixtures (I'm being sarcastic here) were also going ahead in the same county.
Namely: Mansfield Town v Wycombe Wanderers and Notts County v Crewe Alexandra, which are both League 2 (AKA Division 4) fixtures.

Clubs are getting shafted by expensive bills from their local constabulary, while supporters are being messed about, with games getting their dates swapped about, or kicking off in the morning, on the pretence that the police have 'inside information' that trouble is potentially afoot, here there and everywhere, when that is clearly not the case at all.
But returning swiftly back to the City Ground from whatever off kilter tangent that I was stomping off on into the distance, let's concentrate on football issues.
As I was driving away from the game, Radio Nottingham's team of 'expert' reporters were putting the feel good factor and cheery ambiance around the stadium down to the breaking news of a potential boardroom takeover, whereby Forest's unpopular chairman Fawad Al Hasawi could soon be on his way, which would be good for both the club and football in general in my humble opinion.

But the twice European champions (and you thought they had those two stars on their shirts because they also worked at McDonald's) aren't the only club who should be bathed in optimism at this current moment in time, because Hong Kong stock market announcement at 2AM this morning, heralded final confirmation that Paul Seun Chu Hung's 'Trillion Trophy Asia', will takeover as Birmingham City FC's new holding company, with a 60% stake in the club as of Monday, when shares in Birmingham International Holdings Ltd resume trading.

At which time Blues fans can get the red carpet down to welcome such business luminaries as Zhao Wenqing, Daniel Sue Ka Lok, Ms. Chan Yuk Yee, Yiu Chun Kong and Zhu Kai to St. Andrew's as well as the TTA's non executive board members: Yan Ming, Pun Chi Ping and Christine Leung Pik Ha.
I have followed this long running saga with a close interest for quite a while now and can thoroughly recommend that you trawl through all of the lengthy documents pertaining to City's imminent takeover that are available to read online, particularly if you suffer from insomnia.
But though you'd have to say that any leap of faith, or jump into the dark, is never going to be entirely risk free, there are definitely enough pointers to feel more optimistic, or cautiously optimistic at least, that BCFC are going to be on a stronger footing than they have been for several years.
I guess that only time will tell.
Either way, if the local radio show was speculating that the Forest hordes were of a cheery demeanour because there is a possibility that their football club was about to enter protracted takeover talks (there is no other kind), I can confirm that the vast majority of Blues fans in the sold away section were bloody miserable because their team were playing shite.

Henri Lansbury, who commanded a fee of £1 million when he joined Forest from Arsenal on a four year deal, shot from the edge of the box in the first minute and Blues keeper Adam Legzdins struggled to get to grips with the ball, but eventually got to grips with it at the second attempt with Ben Osborn almost benefiting from his indecisiveness.

Legzdins was beaten by Lansbury's free kick after nine minutes, inside his near post with a low shot... a goalkeepers nightmare if ever there was one.

But, the match referee Jeremy Simpson was summoned over by his assistant and the goal was ruled out for an offside infringement.

Osborn delivered a free kick to Nicklas Bendtner, who like Lansbury is another former Arsenal player, but he diverted his header just wide.

Legzdins was then tested again from another free kick by Lansbury.

Forest had a moody looking firm out tonight

Following a sustained spell of pressure from the home side, Eric Lichaj took Bendtner's pass down on his chest and drilled the ball across the face of Legzdins goal and bulled the inside of the side netting to put Forest ahead... it had been coming. Just to rub it in to the travelling Blues, before he scored, every time Lichaj had touched the ball, he was roundly booed for his previous involvement with another club that plays within the city boundaries of Birmingham.

Half time came and by my reckoning the Forest keeper Vladimir Stojkovic hadn't had a single save to make.

HT: Reds 1 v Blues 0

Michael Morrison collided with Bendtner as they both went for the ball at the same time and the Forest play maker never got up again and left the pitch on a stretcher grasping an oxygen mask to his face.

Hopefully the extent of his injuries won't be as bad as they looked as he was carried away.

My favourite Welsh player, Dave Cotterill, showed why Gareth Bale takes the free kicks in international games, when he scuffed a free kick from twenty yards that harmlessly bobbled though to Stojkovic.

Aspostolos Vellios, on as a substitute for Bendtner, doubled Forest's lead with his first touch when he diverted Lansbury's cross past Legzdins at full stretch from close range after 63 minutes.

Ryan Shotton didn't look especially comfortable playing at right back, after an enforced Blues defensive shuffle, but it at least afforded him the opportunity to get down the wing and cross for Lucas Jutkiewicz to head the ball past Stojkovic to half the arrears in the 71st minute.

The goal boosted Birmingham and backed by their noisy supporters in full voice, the visitors upped the ante for almost five or six minutes before vanishing back into their shells.

Hildeberto Pereira had only been on from the bench for a few minutes,when he struck the final hammer blow, with a goal was probably the pick of the bunch, on a night that was punctuated by some quality finishes.

The Portugese Under 20 international, who is on a one year loan at the City Ground from Benfica, picked up the possession on the edge of the Forest area and raced forward into Birmingham's half, before playing the ball out wide to Osborn on the left flank and continuing his run into Legzdins

area and adding the finishing touch when he received a return pass straight in front of the Blues goal.

The game was now effectively over and Gary Rowett's side will now be chomping at the bit and hoping to get back in the saddle immediately when Rotherham United visit an 'under new ownership' St. Andrew's on Tuesday night, while Forest face a tricky away trip to Ewood Park on the same night, where Blackburn Rovers will be looking to avoid defeat, because as things stands, they are anchored into one of the three Championship relegation spots.
FT: Nottingham Forest 3 v Birmingham City 1

Upon arrival at my desirable homestead, I was taken aback to read the stats for tonight's match that suggested Blues had seen more of the ball over the 90 minutes.

Possibly they had, mathematically at least, but not in the areas of the pitch where they were ever likely to cause their hosts much damage.

Least ways, you can dissect any game of football statistically, but there is only one real count that matters at the end of the day... and to that end Forest came out on top by virtue of three really well taken goals.

Out of interest, the respective Under 23 sides of Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City face each other on Tuesday night, in a game that kicks off at 7pm at the Impact Arena, the home of Alfreton Town FC, which can be found at: North Street, Alfreton, Derbys. DE55 7FZ

Saturday 15th October 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at Birch Park
Bottesford Town (0) 1
Gareth Barlow 79
Maltby Main (2) 2
Ryan Carroll 29
Steve Hopewell 35
Attendance 65
Photo gallery from this game HERE

Bottesford Town:
Arron Busby, Danny Gibbons, Laurence McKay, Lee Ridley (C), Oliver Donald, Terry Barwick Elliot Broughton, Matt Steeper, Louis Grant, Gareth Barlow, Jack Cross
Maltby Main:
Louis Jones, Reece Wesley, Liam Flint, Nicky Darker (C), Danny Reilly, Derelle Goodison, Josh Schofield, Shawn Mitchell, Steve Hopewell, Ryan Carroll, Jordan Snodin

Inside the opening minute, Bottesford's Terry Barwick headed the ball away from under Arron Busby's crossbar, as Danny Reilly moved in to meet Jordan Snodin's right wing corner.
The Poachers first attack, moments later was thwarted when Shawn Mitchell intercepted Louis Grant's through ball to Elliot Broughton.
From the outset the game was a fairly open affair and the Miners went close again, when Josh Schofield attacked the home side's goalmouth through the right channel, but couldn't quite keep his angled shot on target.
Louis Jones did well to stop the home side from breaking the deadlock, when he turned away Matt Steeper's close range shot and then recovered in time to repel Grant as well.

Mitchell took one for the team and blocked Barwick's shot from the edge of the box and as the home side started to find their rhythm, Jones had to sprint from his line as Schofield under hit a back pass straight into the path of Grant, but the Miners keeper cleared the ball to safety.
Barwich had obviously packed his shooting boots into his kit bag today and he tried his luck again from all of thirty yards, but his effort didn't have enough power to trouble Jones who saved comfortably from the former Scunthorpe United, Grimsby Town and York City player, who eventually wound up at Birch Park, via a circuitous trail of several quite notable non-league clubs.

Derrelle Goodison ran twenty yards towards the Bottesford area, but having skipped past two attempted challenges, he rolled his shot wide of the goal.

The home side broke forward down the left and Gareth Barlow showed some neat touches before feeding the ball through to Grant with a slide rule pass... but the Poachers striker is too honest for his own good and as he nudged the ball past Jones, he hurdled over the Maltby keepers outstretched leg and by the time he had recovered his footing, Jones had recovered his position and held onto Grant's cross come shot.

I reckon that approximately 99.4% of centre forwards would have gone to ground under similar circumstances and claimed a penalty while the keeper sweated over what colour card he was going to be shown. I hope that Jones got him a pint in after the game for being such a good sport.

Steve Hopewell shielded the ball well, before laying off a sideways pass to Ryan Carroll, who was a fraction away from scoring, but saw his shot come back off the crossbar.
Elliot Broughton showed good close control as he swept forward into the final third and released Barlow on the left, but Reece Wesley had been holding his ground well at right back and forced the Poachers attacker to go wide instead of cutting inside,there's a knack to defending like that, so well done Reece. Barlow did get a cross of sorts in, but Jones dealt with it and the ball was cleared quickly into the Bottesford half, where the wind carried it all the way into the penalty area where Carroll chased it down and threaded the ball past Busby from twelve yards, while the home defence were caught flat footed as they desperately tried to recover their ground.

It's called 'smash and grab' when the likes of Maltby Main benefit from getting the ball forward from box to box quickly, but when Arsene Wenger's Arsenal side did it in 2004, the Premier League champions were called 'the invincibles'.
Not that I'm comparing Ryan Carroll to Thierry Henry you understand, because he, the latter the latter that is, is obviously too old to play at this kind of breakneck pace these days... and he's never been tackled properly by Terry Barwick either.
Carroll was through on goal again two minutes later, but fell over and lost possession, proving once and for all, that there are no likenesses whatsoever between him and Mr Va Va Voom.
Mitchell headed wide from Snodin's corner, as Maltby's wind assisted break and goal visibly lifted them.

The visitors were two goals to the good after 35 minutes, when Hopewell squeezed the ball just inside the near post from Darker's right wing cross, before colliding with the Poachers keeper.
Both players required treatment before the game could continue, but they're a rough and tough lot in Rotherham and Sunny Scunny..
Maltby at this point will have been acutely aware of the fact that they had also cruised into a two goal lead against Rainworth Miners Welfare last Saturday, before having to hang on for a draw late in the game, so they would be taking absolutely nothing for granted.
Gareth Barlow's right wing cross spun up off of Wesley's right foot and Jones caught it.
There were a few appeals for a penalty, including some particularly loud ones from the home side's captain Lee Ridley, but the referee, Mr Hawksby had a good view of the incident and ruled that Wesley's "Backpass!" had been completely unintentional.

Barwick, uncharacteristically, almost committed defensive suicide, when he carelessly rolled a pass back to Busby as Schofield ran through on his blind side and was only a couple of feet away from reaching the ball before the Bottesford keeper launched it up into the clouds.

Caution prevents abortion n' all that.

A third Miners goal before half time would leave Bottesford with a mountain to climb after the break, but at 0-2 with the wind behind them and players of the calibre of Broughton, Grant, Barlow and McKay (who signed yesterday from Cleethorpes Town) out on the park, who can cause any NCEL side problems, this game was far from over.

Maltby were well aware that another goal cushion could be critical and they very nearly increased their lead, when Danny Reilly put a header just over the bar from Snodin's cross and Schofield's shot across the face of the goal went wide from Goodison's opening.

HT: Poachers 0 v Miners 2

Bottesford were throwing everything in their armory at their battling visitors, but as of yet, Maltby were chucking everything back again too.

The scene was set for an intriguing second half.

In fact the excitement was getting all too much for one of our travelling party, who declared that he was going to celebrate with a "long slow wank!" if Maltby held on for all three points.

I hope he'd had a wash before we shook hands at full time.

Pretty much as everyone had anticipated, the home side had the lions share of the ball after the interval, as they looked to turn the score around. But right at the start of the second half, it was Spenver Fearn's side who were looking the most likely to score, with Snodin starring as the architect behind their attacking intentions, as he set up Mitchell who forced a good save out of Busby, who got down to his right to turn the ball round his post.

With Laim Flint looking solid at left back and chipping in with more than his fair share of organisational 'verbals', Bottesford took to doubling up through McKay and Jack Cross down the opposite flank, where in spite of Wesley putting in a really hard slog of a shift, the Poachers number 11 lived up to his name and delivered the ball into the visitors area twice in quick succession.

Reilly headed the ball away from his first knock, while Barlow scored from his second that came about from Barwick playing the ball out wide to Cross... or at least he thought he had scored, but his effort was chalked off for an offside offence.

I was actually at Birch Park today in an official capacity, standing in as an acting matchday secretary for Maltby, in the very rare absence of Mr John Mills, so my narrative could possibly be ever so slightly biased in places, however, donning my neutral hat on to comment on the disallowed goal, it did look ever so slightly harsh on Barlow from where I was stood.

These things even themselves out over the course of... well, y'know what they say!

Schofield rudely gatecrashed what was meant to be Bottesford's comeback party and took the ball down the right flank before picking out Snodin who headed over as Busby collided heavily with him.

Snodin didn't last much longer after taking the full force of Busby crashing into him (not intentionally I must add) and was replaced on the hour by Marcio Virira, who was making his Miners debut.

The anticipated bombardment of the Miners goal duly arrived, perhaps a little later than expected, but when it came, Maltby had to dig deep and park a whole Moxon's depot worth of buses across their defence.

The home support groaned as Grant scuffed a shot wide across thefront of Jones' goal. Danny Gibbons cross was headed away from virtually under the bar by Flint and Cross launched a blistering shot over the goal that actually cleared the adjacent sports centre roof.

Danny Boulton headed McKay's cross back towards Grant, but Reilly doesn't miss much in the air and he was on hand to get rid of the ball in the nick of time.

Jones was busy as he kept out both Barlow and Boulton within the space of a minute, as the ball was launched into the visitors area, at disturbingly frequent intervals.

The referee made a terrible error of judgement, as Virira mistimed an attempt to take the ball away from Boulton and took away both of his legs instead.

As the (very) clumsy tackle had taken place well inside the Miners area, it was clearly a blatant and stonewall penalty to Bottesford and it looked for all the world as if Maltby would now be facing an onslaught for the remaining twenty minutes, if the home side converted the spot kick and the game would be well and truly in the balance.

But... the referee waved play on and either ignored, or missed the challenge completely.

As I've said, I was in Bottesford with Maltby, so although I have got a lot of time for many aspects of what the host club represents, I didn't actually want them to win today, but in spite of my undisguised bias, there is no way that even I could re-invent what I had just seen, or whitewash over it, or even claim that my view was obscured.
I can connfirm 110% that Bottesford definitely should have been awarded a penalty.

With ten minutes to go, the home side finally found the back of the net, to set up a grandstand finish, when Barlow played a short pass to Boulton twelve yards from goal, Wesley blocked his shot but the loose ball fell to Barlow, who reacted quickly and thumped a shot past Jones from the rebound.
"I'll take a draw now!" was the immediate response of one Maltby fan to Barlow's unstoppable strike.
The bulldozers arrived and removed the parked buses and there will be some tired, bruised and aching limbs in South Yorkshire tomorrow morning as the Poachers battered the living daylights out of Maltby for the remainder of the game.
The defiant and resolute defending displayed by Maltby today deserved something, even though Bottesford will feel disappointed not to have claimed all three points, either by virtue of the one way traffic they directed towards the Miners goal in the closing ten minutes, or a couple of questionable refereeing decisions not going their way.
FT: Bottesford Town 1 v Maltby Main 2

Both teams put so much effort in this afternoon, I was knackered just watching it all.

My final game of my 'loan spell' as a glorified timekeeper and pen pusher for Maltby Main is on Wednesday night, when Staveley Miners Welfare visit Muglet Lane for a NCEL League Cup game.

It would be nice to sign off with my 100% record intact.

Bottesford Town have a blank midweek, to prepare for next Saturday's FA Vase tie at Birch Park, against West Midlands Regional League side Haughmond FC.

Good luck to both teams as they endeavour to reach the next round of these competitions.

Image result for the66pow bottesford town

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