THE66POW

A night out in Worksop by train. Avoid eye contact and any conversation
with anybody who frequents this railway station at night. Weirdo Central.

Tuesday 22nd November 2016

Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at the Windsor Food Servive Stadium, Sandy Lane, Worksop
Handsworth Parramore (1) 1
Connor Smythe 34
Cleethorpes Town (1) 2
Andrew Taylor 24
Brody Robertson 83
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 159

The Cleethorpes Town mini bus probably has it's own reserved parking bay at the Windsor Foodservice Stadium by now, given how frequently it rolls up there, as the Owls flew in from the east coast yet again, as they do with unyielding regularity, by virtue of these two sides getting paired together in just about every cup competition imaginable, over the past few seasons.

The Ambers master of ceremonies, Mr Steve Holmes, read out the crowd changes for the benefit of the players, because everybody was already on first name terms with and recognised the members of the two sides anyway... and it was game on.

Both teams had enjoyed comfortable wins in the league at the weekend, with Cleethorpes taking all three points from a 3-0 win at AFC Mansfield, while the Ambers beat a below par Retford United 10-0 on home turf; which by way of a massive coincidence, is exactly the same hefty margin of victory that the Owls inflicted on the very same opposition just over a month ago.

As a consequence of Retford United's recent (mis)fortunes, somebody has been writing offensive, trolling messages and posting them on the Badgers supporters club Facebook page, using the alias David James... what a Wally!

The visitors started the night sat in second place in the table, with games in hand over (the then) league leaders Thackley, while the Ambers are tucked in the chasing pack just below them, currently poised for an upwards push from sixth place.
There are still a lot of points left to play for and a long, long way to go still until the end of the season yet, but tonight's 'smash and grab' ram raid of a win for Marcus Newell's side, saw them open up a nine point gap over Handsworth, as they returned back to the top of the table, with a performance that owed more to guts than guile at times. But needs must as the rain kept coming down and remaining upright on the slippery surface, let alone trying to do anything else, became an increasingly difficult enough task in itself as the game went on.

With both teams having a well deserved reputation for working their socks off, both on and off the ball, there would obviously be times tonight, in conditions such as these, when a strong referee would be needed, but alas, Eamonn Keane, who holds the world record for bench pressing, having once lifted 15,344lbs four years ago, was unavailable and I suspect that his replacement, Edward Stapleton would struggle to shift a mere 40lbs, so there just might have been one or two contentious decisions and potential flash points over the course of the ninety minutes, especially on the occasions when not only did he feel inclined to ignore the appeals of the players and management teams, but also chose to ignore his assistants when they had a better view than him, were better placed to call a judgement and were vigorously waving their flags and trying to attract his attention.

Far be it from me to suggest that the ref dropped a few clangers tonight, but this isn't football and the guys with the flags aren't just there for throw ins and offside calls... just saying!
That said, I wouldn't ever want to be a football referee, especially on a night like this, when the persistent drizzle never let up for a moment. And the be fair, the one thing that Mr Stapleton did do really well, was to make allowances for the conditions and take them into account when players came together at ramming speed because it was nigh on impossible to apply the brakes.
Inside the opening couple of minutes, the referee had his first penalty appeal to with, when Andy Taylor went to ground under a challenge inside the Parras area, but his 'optimistic' claims were quickly waved away.

For the record, Taylor didn't dive, but he wasn't fouled either, his momentum, speed and gravity on such a tricky wicket were always stacked against him.
Was he right to cry 'Foul!' as he hit the deck? Probably not... but he only did what every other player in the known universe would've done in the same circumstances, so you can't knock him for that.
Archie Sneath got an early touch when Liam Dickens unleashed a twenty five yard shot, that skimmed along the wet pitch in a manner that would have given Barnes Wallace a boner, but the Ambers keeper held onto the wet ball well.
Aaron Moxam was buzzing around the edge of the visitors area during the opening exchanges, while at the other end, Connor Smythe nipped an Owls attack in the bud, with a well timed tackle on Luke Mascall as he advanced forward on the right flank.
Alex Flett was on hand to intercept the ball and clear the danger when Jon Froggatt slipped a through ball into the path of Luke Fletcher.

The visitors were thwarted by Sneath who got down to collect the ball, with Brody Robertson bearing down on his goal, after a well directed flick on from Luke Mascall fell into the path of the prolific Cleethorpes front man. From the Handsworth stopper's clearance, play switched to the other end and Frogatt was denied by a well timed, no nonsense intervention from Matty Coleman who quite possibly found the goal round the back of Redlands School on the opposite side of Sandy Lane with his hefty clearance.

Smythe picked up the replacement ball and Buttle headed his throw in back towards the Ambers left back and he delivered a dipping cross towards Froggatt; but this time Matt Bloomer had picked up the strikers run and got the ball away.

Groucho, Harpo and the other one

Mistakes were always likely to happen in such wet conditions and sure enough, the first goal came from a defensive error, when Stuart Ludlam under hit a back pass towards Sneath that dragged it's heels in the surface water and allowed Taylor, who had gambled on chasing the ball to reach it first and nick it past the Parras keeper, to give 'Clee' the lead after 24 minutes.

The home side went straight on the offensive and Liam Higton did well to keep out Simon Harrison's shot on the turn.

Handsworth pushed forwards again and Danny Buttle nudged a probing pass into the path of Fletcher who made an angled run into the right channel and into the Cleethorpes area where his run was abruptly halted by Peter Winn's outstretched boot. Fletcher get up and tried to keep his shot on target, but to no avail, but the linesman was flagging like mad to indicate that Winn's timely stalling tackle was indeed a foul as he'd got nowhere near the ball. Mr Stapleton ignored his assistant and let play go on.

I would imagine that the people I know in both camps would know that I am neutral enough to make an unbiased judgement regarding this particular decision.

Before I call it how I saw it, just let me say, that I think Peter Winn is one of the better players in this league, a grafter and reliable complete all rounder for the Owls cause, but in this instance, deliberately or otherwise, I am convinced that it was a foul!

And Handsworth should have been awarded a penalty.

These things balance themselves out over the course of... well, y'know!

The Smythe and Buttle combination on the left for Mick Godber's side, who had been so effective against Retford at the weekend, combined again to level the game at one apiece on thirty four minutes.

Buttle crossed to Moxam, who on finding his route to goal blocked played the ball back out to the Ambers left winger and his second delivery bounced up perfectly on the edge of the area for Smythe, who left Higton clutching at fresh air as he let fly with an unstoppable half volley.

The remainder of the first half, though condensed mainly in the middle third of the pitch, was compelling viewing as two evenly matched sides, fought tooth and nail for every ball. The Tim Lowe battle to keep Buttle at bay was just one of many intriguing sideshows to the main event, as was the Luke Fletcher v Alex Flett tussle,that ended upjust about honours even.

No doubt there will be a few aching calves and lumps and bumps all round tomorrow morning.

Right on half time Harrison had the opportunity to put the Ambers ahead, but what his twenty yard free kick had power wise, it lacked in precision.

HT: 1-1, all square, everything still to play for and equal in every way at the half way point.

Amidst a goalmouth scramble, of which there would be several throughout the second half, in the visitors goal area, Gaz Griffiths knocked the ball back to Moxam who saw his shot charged down by Coleman who took one for the team.
The home side chiseled away at the Cleethorpes rearguard, around the edge of their area, but were struggling to find the final ball and incisive cutting edge to penetrate the Owls, who had rolled up their sleeves and putting in a real determined effort.
As both the rain and the pitch started to get heavier, Wigton pulled off an instinctive save to keep out Buttle's angled shot.
On any other given night, Buttle would probably have been on the score sheet, but Coleman was in a defiant mood and cleared his goal bound header off of the line. Lowe to was covering his keeper Higton's back and hooked Froggatt's close range effort away.
Jon Oglesby, out on the left for Cleethorpes can cause real problems when he is allowed the time and space to create, which is probably why Ludlam wiped him out as he advanced down the left flank. Flett delivered the resulting free kick into the Ambers area, but the ball was cleared.

Image result for handsworth parramore the66pow

Froggatt chased down a long ball into the area that was cleared for a corner, but before the ball had actually gone out, an Owls defender scooped it over the line with his hand.
Mr Stapleton had obviously made a pact prior to kick off, that there wouldn't be any penalty awards honoured whatsoever tonight and ignored the transgression. It was certainly a very odd heat of the moment blood rush to the head thing to do when the ball was already going out anyway.
Strange days indeed!
Moxam went close again; but Cleethorpes, fresh from their afternoon visit to the Tattooist parlour, just off Isaac's Hill in Cleethorpes, where they had all had THEY SHALT NOT PASS inked upon their battle ready torso's, were in a very uncompromising mood tonight and the victory was borne out of ninety plus minutes of hard graft and a time honoured second half away team tactic, of absorbing a lot of pressure and then delivering a sucker punch on the counter attack.

Cleethorpes were pressing the game further up the pitch now and defending across the middle of the pitch, that gave them a well placed foundation to build a quick attack from and sure enough, with just seven minutes remaining Oglesby and Robertson broke forward in tandem, with the latter running five yards in front of the Owls number eleven who was in possession.
Oglesby rode a challenge and prodded a slide rule pass forward into the path of Robertson and though Sneath spread himself to limit the striker's options, he side footed the ball under the Parras keeper from eight yards out to put the visitors back in front.
Handsworth could see the game slipping away as Buttle's dipping corner into the Cleethorpes six yard box was cleared by Flett and with so many Handsworth players up the pitch as they looked for a late equaliser, they had left room for Oglesby to race forward again. But he was hacked down by a late and quite deliberate foul by Griffiths, who swung his leg across the Cleethorpes winger after the ball had gone... and players from both teams ran over to get involved in a heated argument.

I like Griffiths, he's a great centre half and good at getting up from box to box for set pieces and he isn't shy about getting stuck in; but in this instance, he was also very lucky that he was only shown a yellow card.
And that was that... both sides had ample chances over the course of the whole game to rack up a decent score, but it's about taking your chances. Handsworth had the lions share of the goal scoring opportunities, even though a lot of them were only half chances, given how hard the visitors were working to keep them at bay, but in the event, the Owls were more clinical when their chances came along... and the Cleethorpes fans serenaded everyone with a chrus of "Brody's gonna getcha!" as we filed out into the dark wet night.
FT: Handsworth Parramore 1 v Cleethorpes Town 2

The Ambers are at home against Maltby Main on Saturday, in what will be their third home game in a week. While Cleethorpes Town entertain Armthorpe Welfare in the first of four consecutive fixtures at 'the Bradley', which seems a bit daft to me after they have just completed a tour of six away games in a row.
I'm glad I am not the programme editor at either club... have you seen the price of midnight oil these days?
And I am also glad that my duties elsewhere don't extend to marking referees any more, nuff said!?

Saturday 26th November 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at the Windsor Foodservice Stadium
Handsworth Parramore (3) 5
Jon Froggatt 2, 43
Aaron Moxam 11, 90
Micky Harcourt 59
Maltby Main (0) 1
Reece Wesley 83
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 86

Since the merger of Worksop Parramore (formerly Parramore Sports, Sheffield Parramore, Worksop Parramore and Parramore FC) and Handsworth FC in 2014, the marriage of two already forward looking local clubs, has already witnessed some rapid and forward strides made within this progressive set up, both on and off the field of play, on a number of levels, including their much envied and consistently fruitful, junior and development team production line end.

After finishing in seventh place at the end of the merged clubs inaugural NCEL season, they were runners up to Tadcaster Albion last term, in the race for the solitary promotion spot, at the top of the pile.

The Ambers promotion aspirations this time around, suffered a bit of a set back in midweek, following a four game winning streak, when they lost 2-1 at home against Cleethorpes Town on Tuesday night, in a keenly fought and closely contested game.
But there is still a long way to go to the finishing line as of yet and a lot of points up for grabs.

Maltby have been members of the NCEL since its formation in 1982, when the Midlands Counties League and Yorkshire League amalgamated into one competition. And they have spent all but four seasons in the Premier Division since 1990-91.
The Miners highest finish in the NCEL's top division, came in the 1992-93 campaign, when they claimed fourth spot.

They surprised a few people last season, when a run of consistent results saw them finish in a very respectable seventh place.
However, a recent dip in form has seen today's visitors slip down the table and they kicked off this afternoon in seventeenth place, off the back of a 1-1 draw at home against Worksop Town last Saturday.

So, the scene was set...
Handsworth won the toss and chose to attack towards the clubhouse, because having warmed up there, they will have been acutely aware that the glaring sun, dipping behind the main stand, would have been shining brightly straight into the eyes of whichever goalkeeper started the game at that end, but wouldn't pose such a problem in the second half.
Maltby's debutant keeper Matt Leese and a couple of his defenders certainly seemed to be unsighted inside the second minute of the game, when Danny Buttle picked out Jon Froggatt with a right wing corner and he turned the ball into the goal from close range to open the scoring for the afternoon.

In the eighth minute, Handsworth had the opportunity to double their lead when Froggatt was tripped inside the visitors area, by... err, possibly it was Peter Winn of Cleethorpes, arriving late from a challenge he had attempted to complete on Tuesday night ;-), or more likely it was a Maltby player, who I couldn't actually identify because the sun was in my eyes! Any takers? Thought not!
The league's top scorer Aaron Moxam stepped up and drilled the ball low, hard and on target from the spot, but Leese dropped to his left to make a save, before recovering quickly to keep a combination of of Moxam and Simon Harrison at bay from the rebound.

But Maltby's reprieve was short lived, because Danny Buttle knows the mandatory pack drill that all the best fighter pilot's employ: Keep the sun behind you!

Another corner from the west was turned in at the near post by Moxam after eleven minutes.

The visitors responded to the Ambers two goal whammy, with Ollie Lawrence knocking the ball over the home side's defence for Ryan Carroll to run onto, but the former Handsworth player, who turned 21 yesterday (many happy returns) was thwarted by Archie Sneath who advanced quickly from his line to claim the ball.

Moments later, Josh Schofield flicked the ball into Lawrence's path just inside the home side's area, but Micky Harcourt moved in quickly to clear the danger.

Jon Froggatt was given the man of the match award today for his all action and unselfish role up front for Handsworth, where he weighed in with a couple of goals, but I don't think Harcourt could've been more than a few points behind the prolific striker and he would actually have got my vote, as he looked strong and unflappable alongside his ever reliable sidekick Gaz Griffiths.

Maltby's man marking of Danny Buttle was slightly excessive.

Buttle crossed, yet again and picked out Tom Claisse, but his attempt on goal deflected past the post.

"Buttle's not done much today" muttered a dissenter in the stand. I fussed his guide dog, gave it a biscuit and refused to get embroiled in an argument about the relative merits of any of the players. Partly because I am a peaceable chap who avoids any kind of confrontation at all costs, but mainly because it gets boring being right all of the time ;-)

Harrison floated a long free kick towards Griffiths that was cleared for a corner and as Maltby cleared their lines and countered, Harrison had already got back to block Schofield's forward run.
Blimey! He doesn't hang about.

Maltby tried getting into the game as Schofield slipped the ball into the path of Jordan Snodin, the son of the former England U21 international Ian, but Harcourt was well in control of his domain this afternoon and stepped up once more to intercept the ball and put it out of harms reach.

Connor Smythe ghosted past Stuart Ludlam on the left hand side of Maltby's area, but Leese held onto his shot.

"Respect my authority! Wow! Don't mess with this ref.

Buttle cut in from the right, but Jack Greeves intervened and got a touch to the wide man's right wing cross at the expense of a corner. The Parras number eleven dropped the flag kick into the six yard box, Maltby made a mess of getting the ball away and Jon Froggatt accepted the gift of a loose ball a few yards out and netted what is known in the football industry as a poacher's goal, because they don't use phraseology like 'goal hanger' these days.

The visitors had been keeping their shape well and refusing to be pulled out of the position, when the Ambers back four played the ball sideways across the final third in an attempt to entice them to open up and leave gaps to exploit; they weren't diving into tackles and had they kept the score down to two-nil at the interval, their position would still have been salvageable, particular if they had grabbed a goal on the break early in the second half, but their undoing had been their failure to defend at corners and conceding a third just before the break, had given them a whole range of mountains to climb, with a severely depleted team.

Hopefully Danny Reilly and Shawn Mitchell will be back from injury next week and Steve Hopewell's absence and recovery time won't be as long as is being anticipated.

I'm speaking from a completely neutral perspective of course.

The third goal stung the Miners into life and they almost pulled a goal back, but Sneath was relishing his one versus one tussles with Carroll this afternoon and positioned himself well to preserve the home sides three goal advantage.

Right on the stroke of half time, Lawrence and Carroll combined to make an opening for Nicky Darker on the edge of the Ambers area, but as the Maltby skipper stepped forward to unleash a shot, he lost his footing, fell over backwards and... well, let's just say, he didn't keep the ball on target and I'll leave it at that to spare anyone's blushes.

HT: Ambers 3 v Miners 0

Stuart Ludlam delivered the ball into the Miners goalmouth just seconds after the restart, but Jack Greeves cleared it away. Moxam picked up the loose ball and played it out wide to Harrison who picked out Froggatt with a first time cross, but Liam Flint denied the Handsworth striker his hat trick with a timely blockage.

Buttle escaped down the left flank, but Craig Mitchell had tracked his run and got an outstretched leg to the anticipated left wing cross and conceded a corner.

Harrison delivered the ball under the Main's cross bar but Brett Watts headed the ball away from danger.

Maltby won a free kick just inside the Ambers half and Flint launched the ball towards Carroll, who got up above two defenders, but Sneath had got up well and claimed the ball before the Main front man could get his head to it.

Schofield nudged the ball forward to Darker who rolled it into the path of Carroll, whose angled shot across the face of goal needed a last ditch clearance from Griffiths to keep it out.

Ironically, as Maltby were enjoying their best (and possibly only) spell of attacking pressure, they conceded a fourth goal. Once more from a set piece, which was executed by Buttle, whose final touch of the game saw him drop a free kick onto the head of Harcourt, who dispatched a well placed header into the top right hand corner of the visitor's goal beyond the reach of Leese.

I think it would be safe to assume that Maltby will be practicing defending set pieces and corners this week.

Buttle had done the damage and was replaced on the hour by Adam Ward, a former Worksop Town player who signed on with Parramore earlier this week.

His lively running and close control gave the Miners a whole new load of problems to deal with. And Ward was almost on the score sheet within a few minutes of him entering the fray, when Alex Rippon played him through on goal but Leese saved at his feet and Moxam put the ball over the bar from the rebound.

Smythe pushed forward on the left, fancying a piece of the action for himself after providing Buttle with great service for the opening hour, the flying left back rode a foul, stayed on his feet, saw off a challenge from Schofield, but shot straight at Leese from twenty yards out.

That kind of thing is always worth a go when your four nil up and the clock is ticking down.

Another Moxam effort was put wide via a combination of Mitchell and Leese, while Greeves headed clear from Ward's resulting corner kick, as the Miners belatedly remembered how to defend set pieces and pick up opposition players inside their own area.

With twenty minutes remaining Maltby made a double substitution, with Conner (with an E) White and Cory Goodwin coming on in place of Schofield and Lawrence. They were never going to change the outcome of the game, but their fresh legs and running at least gave the visitors some much needed impetus.

But regardless of Maltby's renewed vigour, Handsworth were still in the hunt for more goals, to keep their league table differential topped up and only an excelllent save from Leese prevented Griffiths from powering a header just under the crossbar from from Ward's cross.

Mitchell played the ball down the right wing for Carroll to chase, he struck ball firmly across the face of Handsworth's goal, but Sneath held on with White escaping the attentions of the defence and arriving behind the Ambers keeper to capitalise if 'Archie' had missed the ball.

Griffiths nudged the ball past Leese from Ward's left wing cross, but he had strayed offside and the goal was ruled out.

White picked up possession on the right hand side of midfield and paced forward, before drilling a pass into the path of Carroll, who in turn picked out Cory Goodwin whose first time shot was turned around the post by Sneath.

Handsworth fell victim to one of their own tactics, when Snodin's right wing corner zipped across the Ambers goal line and wasn't cleared, it ended up in the back of the net via Reece Wesley's chest... they all count!

It was too late to make a real dent on the final outcome now, but at least Maltby were finishing the game with a spring in their step, with Mitchell making a thirty yard run forward, before passing to Carroll, who evaded two tackles before getting his shot away, but Sneath got his angles right and held onto the ball, before releasing it quickly up the field.

Handsworth are masters of this quick box to box moving at pace stuff, so just in case Maltby were planning on a stoppage time goal every twenty seconds to salvage a point, Rippon paced forward and delivered a great pass to Moxam's feet who finished well and gave Leese no chance from eight yards out.

FT: Handsworth Parramore 5 v Maltby Main 1

You couldn't dispute, by the wildest stretch of anyone's vivid imagination that the best team on the afternoon had won comfortably.

But if Maltby had attacked from the off against such a strong side they would have left themselves exposed at the back and allowed Handsworth more time and space to hit them from out wide more often too. December is a big month for the Miners and they will be looking to rack up a decent haul of points.

As for Handsworth, in spite of their midweek defeat, they'll keep on churning the results out, it wasn't pretty at times today, but at least they adapted well and claimed the points that keep them in the mix.

Neither Handsworth or Maltby have a midweek game and they are both on the road next week, when the Ambers travel to Liversedge, while Spencer Fearn's team make the trip to Barton upon Humber to play Barton Town Old Boys.

Maltby are nowhere near the drop zone in terms of points, in spite of finding themselves in seventeenth place in the table, but Parkgate have started to put a run of impressive results together, including an eye catching 7-0 win over Barton Town Old Boys this afternoon, so the teams perched precariously above the bottom three would do well to start getting a few decent results under their belts to avoid getting dragged into a relegation scrap.

At the business end of the table, Cleethorpes Town won 6-1 today against Armthorpe Welfare and remain in top spot, while Bridlington Town chalked up their eleventh win in a row under their recently appointed manager Curtis Woodhouse (it's actually twelve in a row because 'Brid' won the game previous to him taking the job on).
Pickering Town beat AFC Mansfield 2-1 and Thackley had to settle for a point from a 1-1 draw with Worksop Town. Albion Sports had a blank afternoon, while the two other sides in the chasing pack, Liversedge and Hemsworth Miners Welfare both scored five times as they saw off Retford United and Rainworth Miners Welfare respectively.

Curtis Woodhouse... when he was at Mansfield Town

Handsworth Parramore finished the afternoon in fifth place, twelve points behind the league leaders, but manager Micky Godber is learned and experienced enough to know that his team need to focus solely on their own games and results... and let the other teams worry about keeping unbeaten runs and promotion pushes going, in the knowledge that the Ambers are breathing down their necks.
It is good to see so many teams in with a shout this term, although Marcus Newell's Owls are obviously clear favourites to win the league, because healthy competition never hurt anyone and as regards intrigue, interest and entertainment, the NCEL just keeps on giving this season.

Ta very much to that nice Mr Slesser for the lift home... muchly appreciated pal!

Friday 25th November 2016

SkyBet EFL Championship

at Oakwell, Barnsley

Barnsley (2) 2

Sam Winnall 5 Marley Watkins 14

Nottingham Forest (3) 5

Henri Lansbury 13, 45+, 82 pen

Apostolos Vellios 24, Ben Osborn 63

Admission £10. Programme £3. Attendance 13,180

Photos courtesy of Dan Westwell, thanks pal!

Barnsley:

Davies, Bree, Roberts, Jackson, Yiadom, Hammill, Hourihane (C), Scowen, Watkins, Winnall, Armstrong

Subs - Kent MacDonald, Morsy, Janko, Bradshaw, Williams

Nottingham Forest:

Stojkovic, Mills, Perquis, Worrall, Mancienne, Kasami, Lansbury (C), Lam, Fox, Osborn, Vellios.

Subs - Henderson, Bendtner, Carayol, Lica, Vaughan, Grant, Cash

I hadn't planned to go to Oakwell tonight, in fact I had every intention of cranking up the heating and slobbing out on my big comfy corner settee, with my Peaky Blinders box set. But then the phone rang, it was Carl, a Forest fan from Gainsborough I know: "If you can be ready in fifteen minutes I have a spare ticket for tonight's match against Forest and I'll pick you up".
Well it would be rude not to, so I quickly chucked on as many layers of clothing as possible and we were on our way.
The spare in question was a £10 ticket, sat with the locals, near the press area, while the visiting supporters, were being charged full price of £28 to sit in their allocated end.
I am a neutral and Carl isn't the sort of person to draw attention to himself, so there shouldn't have been a problem sitting among the home supporters.

A combination of unfair pricing and cold November night game live on TV, meant that less than the expected amount of fans travelled up the M1 from Nottingham, but those who did make the trip were in fine voice and were soon regaling the home fans with songs about being on the dole, pre-empting the inevitable response from the Yorkshire hordes about a battle of egos between Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill, that the coal mining industry and the communities that it encompassed will never recover from.
Apparently the Forest fans didn't require taxis to get home.
At least I think they were saying "Don't call us cabs!"

The game soon burst into life as both sides committed defensive suicide while netting two goals apiece in the opening twenty four minutes.
Barnsley's full back James Bree, making his fiftieth appearance for the Oakwell side, made an overlapping run down the wing, taking the ball from Marley Watkins and delivered a cross for Sam Winnall, who powered home a header after just six minutes to give the home side an early lead.
But Forest were on level terms before long when Henri Lansbury found the back of the net from a twenty five yards, with a low drive that skimmed along the wet pitch and settled in the bottom right hand corner of the goal with Adam Davies at full stretch, after he'd rolled an indirect free kick forward a few feet to Kasami, who steadied the ball for Lansbury to unleash his unstoppable, precision finish.

But the Tykes were back in front within a minute when Watkins took full advantage of the visitors back four playing a game of statues between themselves and took the ball down on his chest before planting it past Vladimir Stojkovic from ten yards out, after Bree, Conor Hourihane and Adam Hammill had combined on the right, before the highly rated Hourihane delivered a cross over the static visitors defence for Watkins to run on to, while the Forest players looked across vaingloriously at the linesman, hoping that he might put them out of their misery by raising his flag for offside, but Watkins had time his movement to perfection.

Apostolos Vellios scrambled the ball past Davies at the near post, after Forest's left back Danny Fox had exchanged passes with Osborn and dropped a cross into the Tykes six yard box that only needed a touch.
Wow! At this rate the game was going to end up six or seven apiece, with the combination of two elements warming the crowd on a bitterly cold night: text book crossing of the ball and slapstick comedy defending.
Right on the stroke of half time, the visitors were in front from yet another quality wide delivery, this time from Osborn, which was well met by Lansbury, who got across Andy Yiadom, stooped and glanced a well placed header that dipped over Marc Roberts and past Davies to net the visitors third goal of the night.
HT: Tykes 2 v Forest 3
This is only the second time I have watched Philippe Montanier's Forest side play this season, having previously seen them at the City Ground against Birmingham City.
As we stood queuing for a warm drink at half time, "How much!? It's a tea bag and some hot water!", Carl turned to me and said: "You'll have to come and watch Forest with me often, we always play well when you're here!"

Thankfully, most of the Barnsley public stood around us had gone into a catatonic stupor, brought on by the shock of seeing the food and drink prices and didn't hear Carl's risque faux pas.
The second half was nowhere near as hectic as the first, possibly because both defences had been given a dressing down and reminder of what playing in their chosen position actually entails during the interval.
Forest had a let off when Winnall diverted a free header wide of the left hand post, from Watkins cross.

But just after the hour mark, Osborn, the architect of much of what was good about the visitors performance tonight, glanced a header from Michael Mancienne's right wing cross, after Velios had won the ball in the middle of the pitch and sprayed it out wide.
Forest have only just won their only away game of the season, a two nil victory at Ipswich Town on Saturday, with Britt Assombalonga, who wasn't even available tonight, scoring twice, but even though they showed a lot of vulnerability at the back tonight, they were now well on the way to another three points on the road, that would see them leapfrog over Barnsley in the table into sixteenth place. While the Tykes resigned themselves to a seventh consecutive home game without a win.

The home side's frustrations were clear to see when Watkins was shown a straight red card in the sixty sixth for standing on Thomas Lam, on the halfway line.
With eight minutes to go, Forest's second half substitute, Matty Cash, was running away from the Barnsley goal, when he went down under a shoulder charge by Josh Scowan, who had blatantly run into him, just inside the home side's penalty area.
It was a completely unnecessary challenge and another incident that outlined the Tykes disappointment, but that was of no concern to Lansbury who emphatically put the ball away from the resulting spot kick, before celebrating in front of the travelling supporters.
Forest were home and dry, Barnsley were down and out and the Forest fans sang their heroes across the finishing line. Game over.
FT: Barnsley 2 v Nottingham Forest 5

Tuesday 29th November 2016
SkyBet EFL Division One
at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, S2 4SU
Sheffield United (0) 0
Walsall (1) 1
Amadou Bakayoko 42
Admission £18. Programme £3.
Attendance 18,343 (inc. 178 Walsall fans)

Sheffield United:

Moore, Fleck, O’Connell, Basham (Chapman 69), Sharp, Coutts, Freeman, Ebanks-Landell, Duffy, Lafferty (Lavery 80), Clarke

Unused Subs - Hussey, Scougall, Done, Ramsdale, Brown.

Walsall:

Etheridge, O’Connor, Preston, Laird, Morris, Chambers, Edwards, Dobson (Osbourne 69), McCarthy, Oztumer (Ginnelly 69’), Bakayoko (Jackson 77)

Unused Subs - MacGillivray, Cuvelier, Kinsella, Makris.

A win tonight would have seen the home side make good use of their game in hand over Bolton Wanderers, to climb into second place in the table. But despite Chris Wilder's side throwing everything they had got at the Saddlers, you got the feeling that the fates had decreed that United were not going to find the net if they carried on playing until the Northern Dairies milk float rattled its way along John Street tomorrow morning, due to some dogged determination and unrelenting hard graft from the visitors defence, a vast array of profligate finishing by numerous Blades players and the intervention of an assistant referee with a spring loaded right arm.

No expense was spared on the match advertising posters. None whatsoever!

Seventeenth placed Walsall turned up at "Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane", as all Unitedites call it, in need of any kind of positive result whatsoever, to help claw themselves away from the bottom four in the table, that currently consists of Coventry City, desperately struggling and hopefully doomed crisis club Chesterfield, Oldham Athletic and Shrewsbury Town.
The Saddlers manager Jon Whitney, employed a 3-5-2 formation and would probably have been happy with a draw at a ground his side had already won at in the EFL Checkatrade Trophy earlier in the season. Those two back rows of his strategy, were so tightly gelled together at times, that you could quite easily have mistaken the game plan as a not entirely cavalier 8-1-1, for long spells as the Blades vaingloriously tried to thread their way through a defensive maze and more often than not rushed into snatching at half chances out of frustration.

A minute's silence in respect for the Chapecoense team, supporters and
others, who sadly lost their lives in a plane crash in Medellin, Columbia.

Reading the match stats on the thirty five minute train journey home (the scenery around Darnall and Woodhouse is far more aesthetically pleasing than usual when it is dark) the numbers backed this theory up, inasmuch as United had twenty one shots tonight, of which just five were on target. Walsall had their moments to, with an accuracy ratio of three from their five attempts and these figures also reflect where the majority of the game was played, i.e. in and around the visitors defensive third.

Though I have only seen a snatch of the highlights from Chris Wilder's sides 1-1 draw at Charlton Athletic at the weekend, when they succumbed to a stoppage time equaliser, so I can't really pass judgement on that performance, while you could point to the fact that they have been unlucky twice over the past four days, it would also be fair to say that five points have gone begging because of United's failure to kill their last two games off.
No doubt the Blades manager will be looking at working on his sides finishing skills later this week in his sides behind closed doors friendly with Mansfield Town, that the Stags recently installed manager Steve Evans will be using to run the rule over some of he players he has at his disposal in the run up to the next transfer window opening.

Sham 69 belted out from the tannoy as I took my seat on the Kop, which is commendable and after everybody present immaculately observed a minutes silence, by way of a tribute to the Brazilian First Division club Chapecoense, whose terrible news as shaken football the world over, even though the majority of people in this country had probably never heard of them until they turned on the news this morning, the devastation has touched many, the game got under way. And for the most part it was one way... towards Neil Etheridge, the Saddlers goalkeeper.

Walsall, inadvertently rubbing their smash and grab win in to their hosts wounds, just that little bit more, by sporting a kit that looked like a retro version of another South Yorkshire teams strip (sans a pig badge motif), had the first real chance of the game, when, having absorbed some early pressure from United. mounted an attack, that was brought to an abrupt halt by Ethan Banks-Landell, who fouled Joe Edwards, twenty five yards out from the Blades goal. Erhun Oztumer stepped forward and delivered a dipping free kick and the ironic cheers of derision from behind the goal, as the ball looked to be going over, changed to gasps of relief in an instant, as it crashed back off the crossbar.

The close call spurred the Blades into action and it only looked like a matter of time until they would be inflicting some serious damage on their West Midlands visitors, as Mark Duffy unlocked the Saddlers defence twice to set up Leon Clarke, who put both chances narrowly wide of the target.

Duffy looked to be the Blades best bet of overcoming Walsall's stubborn resistance and he was only inches away from breaking the deadlock, when he looked up, saw that his options were severely limited by the crowded defence in front of him and unleashed a long distance shot past the post.

The Blades centre half Jack O'Connell got up into the visitors goalmouth and beat Etheridge with a downwards header from a Paul Coutts corner, but Joe Edwards made a last ditch goal-line clearance.

United were keeping the ball down on their well watered pitch and Etheridge did well to keep out Lafferty's well struck low shot.

Three minutes before the break, the United players collectively switched off allowing Otzumer to hit a hopeful long ball foward, that landed in the path of Amaduo Bakayoko, who rolled the ball into the back of the net as Simon Moore ran off his line in a desperate attempt to cut out the unexpected opportunity.

HT: Blades 0 v Saddlers 1

United had gone into tonight's game off the back of a fifteen game unbeaten run in the league, you would have expected them to cement that impressive sequence of results and come out all guns blazing and put the world to right's after going in at half time a goal down, a scoreline that was so against the run of play, it was audacious.

But it just wasn't going to be the Blades night... and after the match day announcer had heaped even more misery on the home support by playing 'Last Christmas' by Wham! at half time... it's still November for crying out loud! It was the visitors who almost struck first after the break, when Moore had to tip Otzumer's angled shot over the bar.

O'Connell thought he'd levelled the score for the home side, when he headed past Etheridge, after short corner routine from Coutts' flag kick, but the linesman in front of the South Stand, who wasn't entirely endearing himself to the home crowd, signalled that he had spotted a foul and the referee, Darren England ruled the goal out.

The home crowd were incensed by some of the referee's decisions and though you have to take into account that they are, by nature, partisan and biased, some of them to a particulary extreme degree; from my neutral, impartial and objectively unprejudiced viewpoint, I would have to say that he will definitely have better games and he probably contributed to the Blades downfall at times.

Billy Sharp was blatantly shoved in the back as he advanced on the Saddlers goal through the right challenge and lost his footing: nothing given. Adam Chambers headed a cross away from under the Walsall crossbar at the expense of a corner, but Mr England awarded a goal kick... you get the picture!?

The Kop reacted angrily to what they saw as Etheridge taking too long with every goal kick that came his way.

He launched one such delayed clearance into the Blades half of the pitch and the referee blew his whistle, ran from the half way line to admonish the Saddlers keeper for time wasting and then instructed him to take the kick again.

The guy sat a few seats away to my left, with the home made Sheffield United tattoo on his right hand, that looked more like two crossed chip forks than the rather simplistic but tasteful blades on the proper design (but I was too polite, worldly wise and frightened to point this out to him), almost went into a complete mental meltdown as Etheridge simply carried on faffing about with the ball until he eventually retook the kick.

I kept a straight face, the cold eating away indiscriminately at my fingers and toes was already causing me more than enough pain already, I'm ugly enough already without getting punched ever again..

I'm not sure who Zak Dingle is but was told he was here tonight.

Maybe Etheridge is a master of the dark arts, it would certainly explain the apparent force-field around his goal.

Fleck struck a long shot over the bar and Chris Basham headed wide after Duffy's free kick had wrong footed Etheridge and left the goal at the Blades number six's mercy.

Lafferty somehow managed to divert yet another chance for United over the bar from Fleck's lobbed pass.

The Saddlers keeper was already proving to be unpopular with the massed ranks on the Shoreham Kop behind him, when he got down well to his right to turn Duffy's free kick around the post.

Perhaps Etheridge is slightly hard of hearing and thought that a couple of thousand noisy and passionate South Yorkshiremen, where chanting "Anchor!" at him, whenever he received the ball.

With just six minutes to go, Fleck's eighteen yard shot was blocked by James O'Connors outstretched hand in the visitors area and it looked as though the long awaited breakthrough for the home side was finally on the cards as they were awarded a penalty.

But Etheridge dropped to his left and kept Billy Sharp's tame kick out.
That is to say... the Saddlers goalkeeper laid down on his left hand side and waited for Sharp's awful goal attempt to roll, nee trickle, towards his waiting hands.
It was a shocker!
And if I was Chris Wilder, I would order my players to restrain Billy Sharp and keep him out of the way the next time his side are awarded a spot kick.

Sharp thought he had made amends for his awful miss, when he bundled the ball into the Saddlers goal as the game entered stoppage time, but the referee chalked that one off, claiming that the Blades number ten had used his hand to help the ball over the line... though it did look as though it had actually gone in off of his chest to me,
The same player probably just wanted to lay down and cry in added on time, when he diverted the ball wide of the post from a good position... and that was that!
The Blades unbeaten run was gone, Walsall had taken all three points and the referee was left in no doubt about what the Blades support thought of him as he left the pitch.
FT: Sheffield United 0 v Walsall 1

Saturday 3rd December 2016
Vanarama National League North
at the Martin & Co. Arena, the Northolme, Gainsborough
Gainsborough Trinity (1) 1
Nathan Jarman 23
FC United of Manchester (0) 2
Jerome Wright 84 pen, Harry Winter 90+
Admission £12. Programme £2.50. Attendance 762

Gainsborough Trinity were formed in 1873, by the vicar at the Holy Trinity Church, Reverend George Langton Hodgkinson, as Trinity Recreationists. They were a football league club from 1896 and 1912.
When Newton Heath LYR changed their name in 1902, Trinity were their first ever opponents under their new guise as Manchester United in a game played at the Northolme.
The two clubs have taken slightly different routes since that fateful day. One is still a football club representing their local community, the other is a worldwide global brand, so detached from their roots, that a number of their disenfranchised supporters felt compelled to rip it up and start again, forming today's visiting club FC United of Manchester in 2005.

In 1911–12, when Trinity finished bottom of Division Two for the second time, they failed to be re-elected and lost their league status, back in the day when there was no such thing as the Vanarama National League (or Conference) when they received nine votes and were replaced by Lincoln City who got twenty seven. Ironically when the 'Holy Blues' home ground, the Northolme, was being used for cricket, they sometimes played home matches at the in the Football League at the Imps Sincil Bank ground, as well as the Bowling Green Ground (off Ropery Road) in Gainsborough. Several subsequent applications for re-election, the most recent being in 1976, proved to be unsuccessful.

Fast forwarding to 2004 and skipping past the club's Midland League and Northern Premier League years, for purposes of brevity (though I will happily cover those chapters in the club's history the next time I hop across the swollen banks of the River Trent, to watch the 'Holy Blues' in action from my humble homestead which is only a twenty minute drive away from the Northolme. If there is enough demand from the readership of this blog; you both know how to get in touch) Gainsborough Trinity became founder members of the Conference North, where they have remained ever since.
A few years ago, there was talk of Trinity moving to a new purpose built ground on the outskirts of the town, when Peter Swann was still the club's chairman.

But that died a death when Mr Swann left the club, citing that he no longer had the time and inclination to be involved in football anymore, just a few weeks before he was unveiled as the new chairman at Scunthorpe United.
That isn't meant by way of a criticism or derisory slight on Mr Swann. Because, when all is said and done, football is full of changes of heart, spur of the moment decisions and coincidences. And Peter certainly did his bit along the way to keep football on the map in this rural township.
Maybe he became frustrated by the obstacles that were preventing his new stadium vision getting off of the ground and he saw 'Scunny' as being more ambitious to that end, because they are planning on moving to a new ground in the near future, from Glanford Park, which itself was only opened in 1988.

Swann's successor Richard Kane, has proved to be an open, accessible and popular figurehead at the club and since being installed at the club, he has overseen a number of innovative moves at the club, under the banner heading #inittogether... and in spite of Trinity underachieving on the field of play at times, there always seems to be a feelgood factor around the club whenever I have visited them in recent times.
And by way of an introduction to this afternoon's s hosts, that is what passes for brevity on this here long winded and self indulgent football blog.

Today's visitors were only formed eleven years ago, by disgruntled, disillusioned, despondent, morally displaced and disgusted supporters, in response American businessman Malcolm Glazer and his family's takeover of Manchester United.
Or, if truth be told, Glazer effectively transferring the debts from the other tentacles of his business empire onto the cash cow and global brand that the Red Devils had become, since they played Trinity under their new moniker all those years ago.
The newly established F.C.U.M. entered the North West Counties Football League Division 2 in their inaugural, prototype season. They went on the win three consecutive promotions in the next three seasons and then reached the giddy heights of the Vanarama National League North. via their fourth promotion in 2015.

Karl Margison has managed the Rebels since their formation and they played at a number of Non League grounds in and around Greater Manchester, namely: Altrincham's Moss Lane, Radcliffe Borough's Stainton Park, Hyde United's Ewen Fields, Stalybridge Celtic's Bower Fold and Curzon Ashton's Tameside Stadium.
They also ground shared at Gigg Lane, the home of Bury FC, before moving into their own newly built Stadium, Broadhurst Park, in Moston, North East Manchester, in time for the beginning of last season, after the original aim to develop Ten Acres Lane sports centre in Newton Heath (close to where the original club who grew up to become Manchester United were formed) was kiboshed and thwarted at the planning stages.

Feelings about the 'newly' formed club have been mixed along the way, with United club legend Eric Cantona speaking out in support of the venture, while Sir Alex Ferguson had some strong reservations about them in his autobiography, where to be fair he had some fairly scathing things to say about quite a few people..
Some of the Red Rebels own committee resigned this year, citing that the club had strayed away somewhat from their original aims. ethos, foundations, intentions and constitution. Possibly they've grown too big too soon, for such aims to be wholly realistic any longer, without a serious amount of tweaking and fine tuning.

But whatever your point of view is about FC United of Manchester, they are here to stay.
The visitors went into today's game sat twelfth in the table, while Dominic Roma's side were four points and six places behind them. Barring a disastrous second half to their season, in spite of occupying a fairly uninspiring eighteenth position, Trinity should have enough quality to steer well clear of the relegation places, though I might have to come back and reassess my opinion in the near future if they don't start putting a few more points on the board any time soon; while Margison's side are sixteen points adrift of the top spot.

FCUM are to be applauded for this great gesture

And if that kind of star billing and build up isn't enough to entice a massive turn out of football supporters heading towards the Northolme this afternoon, then I don't know what is ;-)
Upon entering the Northolme, I was greeted by the strains of 'The Fairytale of New York'. I sighed and resigned myself to the fact that 'tis the season to be exposed to the same dozen crappy Xmas songs on repeat play as every other year, every time I walk into a public space or turn my radio on. Surely I can't be the only person in the world who wishes that Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan had healed their relationship difficulties before they got anywhere near a recording, or who thinks that the Pogues were always crap and were merely an in house band, catering for all those faux Irish heritage pretenders of the day, who crawled out of the woodwork during the late 1980s, or the 'Plastic Paddies' as the real sons of Ireland christened them.

I wasn't aware of there being very many people in the ground early doors, but the rattle of the shutters going up on the tea bar, summoned a gathering of teenagers from out out of all of the nooks and crannies of this fine old ground, as they ravenously descended on counter as though they hadn't had anything to eat since they left McDonald's half a hour ago.
Not wanting them to feel embarrassed about their impending diabetes, obesity and health problems.
I unselfishly joined them in their binge eating and tucked into some chunky chips and the most flavoursome slab of steak pie it has ever been my pleasure to masticate within the confines of a football ground.
I have far more respect for the cow that gave up it's life to provide me with this culinary delight, than any wishy washy vegetarian hippy could ever have.

Trinity subs:

Jordan Thewlis for Worsfold 75 mins

Noel Burdett for James Reid 75 mins

FC United subs:

Tom Greaves for Kieran Glynn 79 mins

Sam Sheridan for Tom Brown 76 mins

Garreth Arnison for Jason Gilchrist 80 mins

It is ironic that Lincolnshire is a county that is synonymous with poaching, because that is exactly what Gainsborough's Mancunian visitors got up to this afternoon, as regards the timing of their goals anyway. Because with just six minutes left on the clock, Trinity were winning this game.
Obviously they weren't home and dry yet and had been withstanding a bombardment for much of the second half, but once the Reds had pulled level from the penalty spot after Chris Chantler's shot had hit Brad Beatson's hand in a crowded goalmouth, there was an air of inevitability about where the three points would be going, as the Trinity stewards removed some celebrating away fans off of the pitch.
Though the home side will be gutted at having lost the game to a late double blow, I suspect that even the most dyed in the wool stalwart Trinity supporter, watching the game unfold through blue tinted lenses, could dispute that the visitors deserved at least something out of this game, or that they had been the dominant team, particularly after half time, when Margison's team looked well on top against a tiring Holy Blues side.

Trinity had an early chance to open the scoring when Matt Wilson headed over from close range.
Wilson then became the provider, as he flighted a pass over the visitors defence for Nathan Jarman to run onto and the busy striker took the ball down with one foot and unleashed a shot with the other that the Reds keeper Dave Carnall did really well to block.
Matt Templeton launched a teasing cross into the visitors area, which was only half cleared as far as James Reid, whose low shot through the narrowest of gaps saw Carnell dive into action once again, getting down to his right this time, to smother the ball.
Reid was heavily involved again with Trinity's next attack, cutting the ball back from the bi-line into the path of Jarman who planted the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

George Willis, was perhaps a little bit fortunate, when Harry Winter rode a couple of challenges on the edge of the area, before threading the ball through to Jason Gilchrist, who went to ground as the Holy Blues keepers outstretched arms, tangled around the United centre forward's legs after he had slipped the ball past the grounded custodian, George Thomson lashed the loose ball into the side netting, which I would imagine constituted playing the advantage in the eyes of the referee Martin Wood. But the angle was so tight, the half chance barely construed any kind of advantage whatsoever.
However the referee was much closer than me and had a better view of things, but... I'd have to say if that was any team I am currently involved with in an attacking position when that happened, there would be an overriding temptation to inquire if the referee might reconsider his decision after a bit of a think.

Willis was in the thick of it again, tipping a Gilchrist free kick over the bar, while leaning back at full stretch.
Right on the stroke of half time, Thomson nudged the ball past the wrong side of the post.
HT: Holy Blues 1 v Rebel Reds 0
Jerome Wright was exhibiting how a captain should lead from the front to good effect, with the visitors more or less condensing the game into the Trinity half for the duration of the second half, but Wilson almost doubled Gainsborough's lead with a header that flew wide of the left hand upright from Reid's defence splitting left wing free kick.
Willis was well placed to deal with Gilchrist's half volley, but the home side were beginning to look knackered and in the seventy fourth minute, the handball, or ball to hand, whichever team you were backing, led to Wright drilling the resulting spot kick straight down the middle as Willis dived to his right.

Wright dropped a long throw in from out on the right into Trinity's area, deep into stoppage time, Gareth Arnison knocked it forward to Dale Tonge who turned and rolled the ball towards Harry Winter, whose initial shot was palmed away by Willis, but his second bite of the cherry ended up in the back of the net.
Fair play to the visitors for battling with everything they had got, right until the very end of the game, I reckon they had just about shaded the game and it was a just result, but Trinity must've been ruing some of those first half chances that went begging, when they really should have been looking to get hold of the game by the scruff of it's neck and impose themselves early on, while consolidating their lead.
FT: Gainsborough Trinity 1 v FC United of Manchester 2

Sunday 4th December 2016
FA Cup 2nd Round
at Meadow Lane Stadium
Notts County (1) 2
Adam Campbell 42
Louis Laing 90 +3
Peterborough United (2) 2
Leonardo Da Silva Lopes 3
Gwion Edwards 15
Admission £17 Programme £3
Attenance 3,940 inc. 1,690 Peterborough fans

Notts County:
Adam Collin, Matt Tootle, Carl Dickenson, Richard Duffy, Louis Laing, Michael O’Connor, Graham Burke (Jon Stead 72), Rob Millsom. Vadaine Oliver (Aaron Collins 77), Jonathan Forte, Adam Campbell.
Unused Subs - Alan Smith, Scott Loach, Elliott Hewitt, Haydn Hollis, Genaro Snijders.
Peterborough United:
Luke McGee, Michael Smith, Andrew Hughes, Michael Bostwick, Ryan Tafazolli, Chris Forrester, Gwion Edwards, Leo Da Silva Lopes, Marcus Maddison (Shaquile Coulthirst 58), Lee Angol, Paul Taylor (Tom Nichols 58)
Unused Subs - Brad Inman, Nathan Oduwa, Ricardo Santos, Jerome Binnom-Williams, Mark Tyler.

Jesus wept! I only wanted a bleedin' ticket to watch a game of football.

"Do you have a previous booking history with us?"

Yes! Loads.

"What games have you been to at Meadow Lane Stadium?"

First team, FA Youth Cup and Ladies team. The first one was in 1976, it was a FA Cup game against Arsenal, County lost 1-0 and Trevor Ross got the only goal. The last one was youth team game against Romulus a few weeks ago, your Academy team manager left me a ticket on the gate for that one.

"Hmm, I'm not getting anything up with your name, address and postcode, I'll be back in a minute" After an irritating delay, while I considered just walking away and not giving Notts County any of my money, the young man returned, but I couldn't hear a damn thing he was saying.

I pointed to the speaker on the outside of the reinforced glass window and beckoned him to speak into the microphone that was conveniently placed around eight inches away from him at face height.

"Are you sure that you live in Retford!?"

I didn't reply this time, but merely gave him my meanest Paddington Bear stare and shrugged. "Because I have an account with your surname, but it's on Stoke Lane in Gedling"

I was fed up with this stupid game by now, so I humoured him and fibbed, unconvincingly, telling him that he would have to excuse me for being so forgetful about my house move to Gedling three months go..

"Right, there you are you see. This system never fails. I'll just activate an account for you with those details and you can have a ticket then" The condescending clot!

I have never lived in Gedling and thoughit isn't an entirely undesirable neck of the woods, I probably never will do either, but after a mere twenty minutes, the transaction was complete and I now had a ticket that would afford me entrance to this afternoon's game.

Jimmy Sirrel and Jack Wheeler

At this point I feel that I must apologise to Mr Waite of Stoke Lane, Gedling, about the unsolicited junk mail he is going to start receiving from Notts County FC and their associated third party companies any time soon, but I was reaching the end of my tether.

Having already taken a circuitous route around one of my old stomping grounds: the Meadows estate, for old times sake, this lunch time; by way of an advisory note, this is far less risky, though not entirely free of some quite gruesome omnipresent dangers, during daylight hours, then I strolled towards County's ground via the Navigation Canal towpath, breezing past a gathering of shell suit clad teenagers who were seemingly using discarded Lucozade bottles and used rubber johnnies as bait, while they fished this 'picturesque' stretch of water.
Hmm, what sort of a person would frequent a grotty place like this while they got laid?
Nottingham, eh!?

I still had plenty of time, even allowing for my forthcoming unscheduled time consuming episode at the ticket office, so I found a tranquil place to sit and nibble at my wholemeal, green leaf salad and low fat cottage cheese wrap.
Alas, a herd of killer ducks got annoyed that I wasn't chucking a few crumbs their way and climbed out of the canal to surround and harass me.
It was no laughing matter, I was being bullied out of my dinner, but I'm a big coward and wasn't going to put up much of a struggle, so I threw the food as far as I could and made good my escape while they were chasing after it.
Bastards!

I was in need of sustenance, so I went into the Trent Navigation pub, an establishment that is popular with beer tickers because of it's impressive array of real ales and ciders and ordered a coffee before vanishing into a corner to avoid the pitiful stares that partaking in a non-alcoholic beverage were attracting and settled down to watch Curzon Ashton v AFC Wimbledon on the telly.
An Adam Morgan hat trick put the home side 3-0 in front and I figured that would be that and made tracks to my final destination. I was surprised when I was just about to take my seat and the match day announcer read out the final score: Curzon Ashton 3 v AFC Wimbledon 4... 'kinnel!

A sparsely populated ground, apart from a good turn out from Peterborough, in the visitors section of the Jimmy Sirrell Stand, greeted the teams onto the pitch.
Maybe all the missing County fans were still queuing at the ticket office, being denied access to the ground because they didn't know that they had relocated to Gedling.
Hopefully the guy selling the tickets only works on Sunday's and is doing his usual shift at McDonald's if they ever get a big crowd to cater for on a Saturday.
"We've got more fans than you!" Sang the Posh contingent... and their boastful estimation wasn't all that far out.
Following a respectful silence observed in honour of Chapecoense FC, the game got underway and the visitors were straight on the attack.
Inside the second minute, Marcus Maddison shot narrowly wide of the left hand post and the referee Ben Toner incurred the wrath of the home fans who were in line with the incident, because he awarded a corner, despite the fact that no County player had got even a slight touch on the ball.

Nott'm Forest & Notts County, pictures taken from
the same spot next to the Meadow Lane Lock

I was also in line and the agitated fans and protesting County players, had all been wronged by the referee. Maddison delivered the corner into the goalmouth, but the Pies cleared the ball out of their area, where it fell to Leo Da Silva Lopes, who buried an angled shot from twenty yards into the left hand corner of Adam Collin's net, before the Notts keeper had even had a touch of the ball.
The injustice of the opening goal, led to several players surrounding the official as he walked back to the half way line, but it was pointless, because he wasn't going to change his mind now.
The visitors had a lucky escape, when Adam Campbell nudged the ball wide at the back stick after Graham Burke's right wing free kick had been flicked across the face of Luke McGee's goal.
But the visitors movement off the ball was excellent early in the game, they were compact and as tight as a gnat's chuff-piece, for the first thirty minutes or so anyway, as they denied County little space if any to make in roads into their domain.

It would be fair to say that the home defence looked shaky, and while we've already touched on the subject, gossamer thin at times... they collectively backed off as Da Silva Lopes advanced straight through the middle of County's soft centre, but shot just wide of the target.

Michael Bostwick went close to snatching a second goal for 'Boro' before the visitors increased their lead, in the fifteenth minute, with a goal that for County was worryingly similar in it's creation to the Posh opener.

Paul Taylor broke forward and hooked a left wing cross into the mix that the Pies defence struggled to clear beyond the edge of their area again and Gwion Edwards got to the loose ball first and spanked it past Collins.

If this is how Notts defend set pieces and crosses, why don't they employ bodies to collect the ball from short clearances? To either pick up the momentum and create a counter attack, or simply finish the job off and get the ball away from where it can, will and did cause them damage.

My attention was drawn away from the pitch, as Meadow Lane's resident Mr Angry, sat just a few rows away from me, unsupervised, went into an uncontrolled and expletive strew rant, that encompassed the misdemeanors of just about every single player ever, who has pulled on the black and white stripes of County; not the white and black stripes of Brigg Town, you understand, which is why they are called the Zebras, whereas Notts and Newcastle United are nicknamed the Magpies... obviously! I think he is related to the purple guy who plays drums on the Muppets.
If I was from Nottingham and had a season ticket sat near this guy, I would ask for a refund, or swap to the opposite side of the ground, or even the other side of the Trent, to avoid him. Because we have far too much in common and would probably end up scrapping at every game and rolling down the stairs like Johnny Weissmuller and a crocodile, from back in the days when Tarzan was a real man.
Perhaps County could supply tranquilizer darts along with tickets, for those sat near this loon.

The other County fans sat around me were just fine by the way, knowledgeable, good humoured and steeped in the kind of pragmatic realism that comes from watching lower league football in Nottinghamshire for a prolonged period.
If Chesterfield's current plight saw them actually go to the wall any time soon, I wouldn't bat an eyelid.Yet in spite of my Stags leanings, I don't actually regard Notts as a rival side, not in any kind of bitter and hostile kind of way, they're simply that other team of fellow sufferers from just up t'road. Bragging rights over neighboring teams is always fun, but though I probably wouldn't go as far as to say that I have a fondness or soft spot for the Pies, there are a lot of kindred spirits within the ranks of both clubs supporters. And me not having to hide my allegiances while sat among the Notts loyals, demonstrates that point.
Forest have a mutual hatred pact with Derby, Stags and Spireites despise each othe;, but County fans, well at least a small but very vocal minority of them, only seem to have a problem with their own team.
But they're not alone in that respect... are they!?

Another goal for Peterborough now would possibly have seen the bookies paying out on an away win and shutting up shop and going home because the game was looking increasingly like a foregone conclusion.

But something about the visitors psyche was all wrong, possibly they thought that their task was simply proving to be far too easy and stepped off the gas, seeing as they were in complete control of the game, but the Pies picked up on their visitors complacency and as gaps started to appear in the 'Boro' ranks, County began to exploit them.

Michael O'Connor, the Notts captain, was booked for a rash challenge on Andrew Hughes, but moments later, he was channeling his frustration more positively as he tested McGee with a thirty yard drive, that the visitors keeper did well to hold onto by the foot of his post.

Peterborough kept their team travel costs down to a minimum.
This could actually explain a lot about the way this game turned out.

Burke fizzed a shot wide as the home side started to build up a head of steam, while Valdaine Oliver diverted a header over the bar from Jonathan Forte's well aimed delivery into the area.

Da Silva Lopes responding to the way that the tide was turning, but having made a great run to make a chance for himself from a breakaway, he scuffed his shot wide of the goal

Campbell struck the ball well from outside the area, but McGee dived to his right and plucked the ball from the air.

The shouty man a few rows behind me imploded: "Campbell, what the **** was that! Campbell, get off you're a ******* waste of space you clueless ****!Whoever thought that you were ever a footballer is a fu...oh! He did alright there for once!" Right on cue that ******* **** Campbell took the ball down on his chest and rifled an unstoppable shot past McGee.

What a ******* great ******* goal that ******* was, eh!?

I say Jack... I wish that shouty bloke would shut the f*ck up!

Forty two minutes gone, hold the back pages.

Out of what seemed to be an irretrievable situation for John Sheridan's side, with nothing but more inevitable pressure from United beckoning for them, County were back in it.

As half time beckoned, right at the bottom of our staircase, the Posh striker Lee Angol battled his way along the left touchline, with Matt Tootle nipping at him from behind and inexplicably slowed down, turned round and shoved his hand into Tootle's face.
Obviously, if you raise your hand, then you're going to be first in the bath tub and Angol had no excuse for his bout of the red mists. But it was a push, not a punch, or even a hard slap and though I understand that Tootle had to go down to make sure that the referee saw the offence (he was missing plenty of other stuff after all), I did check to see if 'irate of Nottingham' had maybe bumped the Notts number 2 off with a sniper rifle.

HT: Pies 1 v Posh 2

Woo hoo!

It might be worth sticking around for the second half now ;-)

The Mansfield Town legend Ryan Tafazolli, he who was immortalised in the song: "Supercalifragilistic Ryan Tafazolli - Stood upstraight he's six foot eight, he's bigger than your goalie" (you had to be there to appreciate the moment and you probably weren't), plays for the Posh these days. And there were a few Stags fans in attendance to watch their much missed player of the year. Well, that was their excuse, but most of them seemed to have County supporting mates ;-)
'Taffa' put in a great shift, especially in the second half when... and I swear that I am not making this up... a rampant Magpies team, pinned their League One visitors back in their own half and gave them a proper going over for long spells.
They were like an irritating rash, flaring up all the way across the edge of the Peterborough area.
But County were frustrated by Grant McCann's resilient ten men, who were all back on defensive duty barring Paul Taylor who was left in a more advanced position to pick up any stray balls and clearances... a bit like what County should have done when they conceded bot first half goals.

Stags management duo in the Derek Pavis Stand

'Gamesmanship' featured heavily in the visitors game plan now and when McGee went into the book for persistent time wasting, he was on a shortlist of five 'Boro' players who must've been close to receiving a yellow card for a similar transgression.
Tafazolli took a knock on his head and had to go off for treatment.
Shouty man was back! "******* hell! You set of *****, they have only got nine men, nine *******, hit the ******* thing long you ********* *****"
Actually, it was a good point, well made. Particularly as Notts were fannying around spraying wide passes across the halfway line instead of going for the jugular while the numerical advantage was in their favour.
Perhaps with this being the FA Cup, the Pies were indulging in some Corinthian fair play stuff until Tafazolli came back on. Either way, even I, a complete neutral, was demanding to know; "Why don't you just hit the ******* thing!"

The injured party returned and County started peppering the visitors box with crosses again.

But Peterborough countered and had Gwion Edwards not tried to be so clever, when he attempted to place the ball just inside the left hand post, with an unnecessarily extravagant back heel, when he should just have belted the ball hard and on target, when Taylor set him up with a simple tap in from close range, then the visitors would have been in the third round draw on Monday night and the game would've been all but over.

Time was beginning to run out and, when McGee made a strong save at his near post to deny Campbell with 11 minutes to go, it looked like Posh would progress to round three.

John Stead was impeded, ever so slightly, by Tafazolli, who almost succeeded in getting the Notts substitutes shirt off over his header as he grappled with him for several seconds, but Mr Toner saw nothing wrong, with the Posh number 5's foul, blatant infringement and borderline sexual assault (see picture above, taken by Dan Westwell).

But even the ever unreliable referee, who was having a complete stinker of a game, couldn't ruin the spectacle that this game was turning into... in fact, if anything, he added to the entertainment by providing a comedy element.

Collins smashed the ball against the bar, while Bostwick made a last ditch clearance to turn Richard Duffy's header over McGee's crossbar.

The fourth official Anthony Tankard indicated that there would be five minutes of added time and in the third one, Louis Laing couldn't quite get enough power into his shot to trouble McGee, but the bobbling shot wrong footed the visitors keeper and a deflection took the ball beyond his reach.

Laing was involved again in the last few moments of the game, when he showed that he could quite easily have made the cut as a goalkeeper, as he pushed Hughes cross away with his hand. It was blatant, but the guy with the whistle in his hand obviously didn't see it.

To be fair, a mistake by the referee had led to Peterborough's opening goal and he had let Tafazolli off of the hook, but he'd certainly just denied them the drama of a late penalty. However the refereeing errors had balanced out evenly in the end... and both teams go into Monday's draw and will have to settle this tie in a replay.

I might even go to watch it, if there is a different man in the middle.

FT: Notts County 2 v Peterborough United 2

*Footnote, added Monday 5th December 2016 at 7.15pm.

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw: Chelsea v Notts County/Peterborough United.

Replay date - Tuesday 20th December 2016 - 7.45pm

Tuesday 6th December 2016
EvoStik Northern Premier League Division 1 South
at the Sun Hat Villas and Resorts Stadium,
Ashby Avenue, Hartsholme, Lincoln
Lincoln United (0) 1
James Blunden 68
Stamford FC (0) 0
Admission £8. Programme £1, Attendance 138

My last visit to Lincoln United saw them deliver an impressive and attacking display, against Gresley in the FA Trophy, who they beat 4-2,
It was a thoroughly entertaining game and I was suitably encouraged enough by what I saw to return to the Sun Hat Villas and Resorts Stadium at the earliest opportunity.
Alas, tonight's game was nowhere near as open and aesthetically pleasing, but it was still compelling enough, both strategy wise and as a tactical battle.
Graham Drury, who is occupying the Daniels hot seat for a third spell, was putting hisside through their paces prior to kick and was overheard saying (Mr Drury isn't a quiet sort of guy), "If we're high we can affect their game in midfield", which described just perfectly how the visitors set up their stall in an attempt to clog up United's supply lines tonight.

Earlier this season, Stamford had reached the First round of the FA Cup, when they defeated Wrexham in a replay at the Racecourse Ground, before bowing out against Hartlepool United. Tonight they didn't look anything like a team capable of scaling such heights for long spells of this often scrappy, physical and congested contest.
The home side kicked off, twice after a false start and Jordan Hempenstall saw his dipping shot clear the right hand post inside the opening minute.
Matt Cotton dropped a long pass into the Stamford area, but Delroy Gordon stood his ground well and cleared the ball as he and his defensive partner Kern Miller commenced on a night of solid defending, which in no small way put paid to a lot of the Whites atacking options over the course of the night.

Gerry Francis scoffing a burger... surely not!?

Andy Toyne chased after a long pass from Sean Wright and slipped a first time ball to the feet of Cotton, who laid it off to Hempenstall to his left, whose goal bound effort was cleared off of the line by Gordon.
Both sides (and just about everybody else in the ground) seemed surprised when the referee, Ed Cook, awarded the visitors a free kick for a nothing challenge in the centre circle, so being a good sport n' all, Jake Duffy punted a gentle kick straight to the home side's centre half and captain Michael Jacklin to clear, which couldn't have fallen better to him if it had been a precision pass from a team mate.
The two Ollie's, Luto and Brown-Hill made some ground down the left flank for Stamford, with the former winning a free kick, which Luke Hornsey cleared away from Jake Duffy's dead ball into the Whites area, at the expense of a corner.

Rob Norris took a defender with him and released Cotton with a clever back heel, but Gordon was a tower of strength for the Daniels once more and the Lincoln number ten was going nowhere fast via that route.
Hempenstall, who had netted a hat trick on my last visit to Ashby Avenue, was obviously drawing attention to himself as the home sides main threat and he took a hefty knock that required treatment, as a few man sized and industrial strength challenges started flying in.
The home side's centre forward didn't look entirely comfortable as he 'ran it off' in a chase for Sean Wright's knock over the defence for him to run onto, but he still got his shot away and wasn't two wide of the target.

Duffy found himself in possession thirty five yards away from Jake Turner's goal and his audacious snap shot was probably the same kind of distance wide of the post, as the ball crashed into the advertising boards.

After starting off at a cracking pace, the tempo of the game had slowed down considerably as the first half wore on.

I'm not au fait with all of the new fangled rule changes pertaining the game of Association Football these days and I certainly missed the one that said Kieran Shaw should flag Norris for being offside when there are only three opposition defenders between him and the goal as he broke forward twenty yards inside the Stamford half.

Maybe it's a one off special instruction from the FA that must be applied to games that area still considered to be 'derby' matches, even though both teams play at grounds that are fifty miles and a hours drive apart. Just saying.

Brown-Hill intercepted Wright's attempted long ball towards the Stamford goal and sprinted forward, exchanging passes with Eliot Sandy before dragging his shot across the face of goal and just wide of the right hand post.

Both sides appeared to be running in quicksand as they reached the edge of each other's respective goal areas, as the game churned down towards a grinding halt at half time.
"A mediocre game between two mediocre teams" was one comment that I overheard, as I made my way towards the queue for a half time coffee, but that was quickly rebuffed by a slightly less generous onlooker who opined: "No, it's a very poor game between two very poor sides"
It wasn't quite that bad, but it was definitely more of and intriguing game of nip, tuck and containment, that anything even slightly resembling a public demonstration of all out attacking.
But hey! Defending is a very under rated science and their were a few steadfast examples out on the field of play, who were excelling in this noble art.
The last action of the first half, saw Lincoln waste a great opportunity, when Hempenstall got in among Stamford's defensive wall, disrupting their shape (it's no wonder he gets kicked sometimes, is it, eh!?) to create a gap for Norris to exploit from a free kick, some twenty yards out, but he jarred his foot under the ball and sent it into orbit. Cue ironic cheering from the visiting supporters.
HT: Whites 0 v Daniels 0

"Well that was spectacularly unspecfuckingtacular!" moaned a dissatisfied local, using the longest word I have ever heard used to describe a football match, as he made his way to the bar at half time doing a Nellie the Elephant manoeuvre along the way ... and was never seen agaaaaain!
I rushed past the away team dressing room, for fear of being struck by a few flying cups and chairs.
It would be fair to say that Graham Drury's half time team talk cum swearing marathon could probably be heard in North Hykeham.
It was good to catch up with the former: Derby County, Lincoln City, Stockport County, Al Ittihad, Southend United, Shelbourne, Notts County, Cork City, Vietnam and Burma manager during the half time break, who simply rolled his eyes to sky and shook his head when I asked him what he thought of the night's football so far.
Not that I am one to name drop to make it look as though I'm down with the in crowd, as I was only saying to Barry and Paul Chuckle, Jason Donovan's dad, Paul O'Grady's cousin (twice removed) and Clodagh Rodgers, in Russ Abbott's pub last night.
As an aside, Rodgers has never forgiven Dana for stealing her thunder and becoming every household in the UK's favourite singing Irish woman.

Thankfully, the fog that had been threatening to descend on Hartsholme, merely made a brief appearance around the tops of the floodlights for a while, before it cleared off again.

Probably scared away by all the shouting and hot air emanating from one of the dug outs (cough).

Turner launched a long kick the full length of the pitch, that bounced up in the D on the edge of Stamford's area. with Miller and Hempenstall racing after it neck and neck, shoulder to shoulder. Inevitably they collided and both crashed to the floor in an undignified heap, with both players appealing to the referee. But Mr Cook waved play on and beckoned for them both to get up... and while it would be improper for a mtach official to speak in such away, the look on his face said 'not a ****ing chance, either of you!'

Sam Donkin, who had been competent, confident and commanding thus far, marshaling his defence with a constant flow of 'vocaal encouragement' dropped a clanger the size of the Soup Dragon, when he air-kicked at a straight forward clearance from a back pass and the ball deflected off of him for a corner.

Norris took the flag kick to Wright. who nodded the ball forward from next to the penalty spot, to where Hempenstall made contact but flicked it over the bar.

A goalless draw beckoned if the ball wasn't going in from that sort of range.

The Whites delivered a few free kicks into the mix, but Donkin had made his solitary mistake of the night and was looking impressive, while Miller and Gordon were content to head every single ball that came their way back in the direction it had come from.

During the first half, I suspect the the referee had forgot to pick up his yellow card before the game, or he was having an amnesty on cautions, but after the break he was in serious danger of getting repetitive strain injury in his right arm he was dishing out so many bookings.

Stamford made a triple substitution on the hour, which brought a cat call of: "Woo hoo! That must be the most excitement we've had all night!" from a sarcastic octogenarian, who sounded as though he was a visiting supporter because of the 'twaaang' in his accent, rather than a local.

Hempenstall, who's name I have possibly misspelled several times over the course of this match overview, really should have broken the deadlock, when he turned the ball over from virtually under the bar, after James Blunden had headed Jacklin's free kick across the face of the visitors goal.

Blunden claimed the next chance for himself and planted a firm header into the back of Stamford's net from Norris' hefty whack, from a frr kick in front of the home bench.

Donkin did well to keep out another free kick from Norris, after being wrong footed by a deflection.

One of the Whites substitutes, Luke Smithson was involved in two openings for the home side late in the game, picking out Kallum Smith with a right wing cross, who forced a point blank save out of Donkin, before going for goal himself from Chris Salt's delivery, but the Daniels keeper pulled off another stop and tipped the ball over the bar.

In stoppage time, Sean Wright was red carded for a second bookable offence and frustrated at seeing the game slipping away after he'd played so well, Donkin ended up inside the home side's half, but Turner caught his hopeful long punt. What a grand finale that would have been.

FT: Lincoln United 1 v Stamford AFC 0

On the balance of things, a steady, no frills, single goal home win, was just about the right result.

Tonight's scorelin saw Lincoln United leapfrog Stamford in the table, into fifteenth place, but both teams have a whole rack of league games in hand, due to their cup commitments in a variety of competitions thus far this season and should have no problem climbing up the table into a more comfortable position over the coming months.

Wednesday 7th December 2016
Nottinghamshire FA Senior Cup Third Round
at Teversal Grange Sports & Social Centre,
Carnarvon Street, Teversal
Teversal FC (3) 6
David Cockerill 4, 30 pen, 39
James McCann 71
Joshua Radford 74
Craig Mitchell 82
Retford United (1) 2
Niall Sultan 14
Cameron Dear 66
Admission £5. Programme £1. Attendance 54

Dave Cockerill, who I genuinely thought had hung up his boots and retired from playing football, put 'Tevie' on their way to the fourth round of the county cup, with a hat trick inside a spell of 35 first half minutes, to make light of the gag, that Teversal players turn out with their weight in stones printed on the back of their shirts, Cockerll wears the number 18!
Some of the mannequin challenges that I've seen on social media, where groups of people maintain statuesque poses, as life goes on and the world passes them by, have made for some quite fascinating viewing, but somebody should really have told the Retford United players, that adopting rooting to the spot poses, while fixing a stare somewhere into the middle distance, isn't an appropriate way to be behave on a football field, during a football match in a knockout tournament.

They didn't all indulge in this kind of mullarkey to be fair, but the ones who didn't and were busting a gut for the cause, were too few in number to have had any real influence on the outcome of this match.
The Badgers assistant manager,Michael Bohn, resigned with immediate effect, after such a heartless performance saying that he felt he had taken the players as far as he could.
All the coaching in the world won't win football matches if half of the team take to the field of play in a disinterested frame of mind.

Not that I want to take anything away from Dean Short's Teversal side, because you don't score six times against a team from a higher division, purely because far too many of the opposition team put in a sub standard performance.
The supporters who had travelled through Mansfield from Retford deserved better, but there can be no disputing the fact that Teversal thoroughly warranted their margin of victory... and some of their final balls and finishing was pure class.
Cockerill opened the scoring in the fifth minute, with a well struck angled shot.
Old goalscorers never lose their touch, eh!?
Kurtis Bamford almost added a second goal for the home side; before Retford turned defence into attack, with Cameron Dear picking the ball up in midfield before advancing thirty yards and threading a pass through the 'Tevie' defence to Niall Sultan, who levelled the score with an assured finish in the 14th minute.

Chris Bennett was forced to make a good save from Craig Mitchell, before the game switched ends again and Jack Walters went close to giving the visitors the lead from Dear's right wing cross.
Dear certainly looked pleased to be back at Retford United and was one of the few that emerged with any credit from a night that had started well enough for the Badgers, despite the early set backof Cockerill's goal, but soon went rapidly downhill for Darren Giovannetti's side.
A clumsy challenge by Bennett left the referee, Mark Tinsley, with no alternative but to award a penalty... and he applied this season's new ruling that at the referee's discretion, if he feels that a penalty is punishment enough, he can abstaain from showing the offending player either e yellow or red card.Last season Bennett might not have so fortunate. Cockerill notched his second goal of the night from the spot kick and the home side were back in front. Khyle Sergeant was on a few inches away frommaking it 3-1, when his shot across the face of Bennett's goal narrowly cleared the left hand upright.

But United did that daft mannequin thing again shortly before half time, eventhough they should have alreday sussed out for themselves that if you give Cockerill a yard of space in the goalmouth he will get his shot away and on target... and that is exactly what happened and Teversalhad a two goal cushion to take in at the break.
HT: Tevie 3 v Badgers 1
Macauley Short delivered a telling cross into visitors area as Teversal attacked straight from the restart, that Bennett was forced into punching away from danger and the visitors quickly picked up momentum and put together their best move of the whole game,as Will Wright picked out Liam Wood on the right flank, who fed the ball through to Dear, whose first time knock to Josh Raby was in turn laid out back towards the touchline, to where Ben Wyld launched a deep cross toward Sultan at the back stick, which moved all over in the wind as Josh Turton held onto it just inside his right hand post, with Sultan on hand to utilise any slip by the 'Tevie' keeper.

Sultan was penalised for challenging Turton for the ball... it is in his job description as a forward to attack the ball when it is crossed for him... and an ugly stand off ensued as Turton decided to run the clock down by remonstrating, even though he already had the ball in his hands and had been awarded a free kick.

After carefully considering my position of complete neutrality and taking into account the fact that I have got several really good friends connected to both of these teams, I still feel compelled to write what I am about to, in the spirit of reflecting events at this game (and others) as thoroughly and honestly as possible, whilst trawling through any minuate and sub plots that could have any kind of bearing on the main event.

Retford United have been getting a growing bad reputation for indiscipline on the field of play... and the poor image that such hearsay creates, does affect the way that the Badgers players are treated by match officials and those who oversee meetings to meter out further punishments, based on the comments made about Giovannetti's players on subsequent referee's report forms.

Having seen some of the comments made by the Badgers manager after a few recent defeats, that have bordered on conspiracy theories about hidden agendas against his team, I initially thought that must be going crackers to be saying such things.

However, hands up... I stand corrected, because I've witnessed these things with my own eyes now. The disproportionate amount of cautions handed out to Retford United players, compared to their opponents (not just Teversal tonight) for similar transgressions over the course of several recent games bears out the United manager's concerns... and he does actually have a point.

The visitors lost this contest, because Teversal were the better team and scored more goals as a consequence, in a nutshell, they wanted it more.

But there did seem to be spells during the game where the match officials were playing bingo among themselves and using the numbers of the Badgers players they were cautioning to tick off the corresponding boxes on their tickets... and I heard that the referee himself only needed Cameron Dear to step a fraction out of line to claim a full house ;-)

Retford stepped their game up briefly, to good effect.

Wood was a whisker away from releasing Dear through on goal, Walters rode four challenges as he attacked Teversal's gal through the left channel, before a determined last ditch tackle by Gavin Short averted the danger and in the sixty sixth minute, Dear made a darting run through the Tevie defence and crashed the ball past Turton from a tight angle to pull a goal back for the Badgers.

The only sparkling thing that Retford had to offer tonight.
Mercy McFadden's glitter boots.

Was extra time on the cards?

Err... not effing likely!

Sultan broke into the home side's goal area, straight through the middle, but Jason Gregory put in a no nonsense, firm but fair challenge before clearing his lines.

Then, for whatever reason, the wheels came off for United, every time they cleared the ball away, it was merely going straight back to Teversal for them to launch another attack, passes and tackle were going astray and the game was being frequently broken up, in a stop/start manner by the frequent sound of Mr Tinsley's whistle, as a bit too much needle had started to creep into the later stages of the game.

Any hopes of a comeback that the visiting supporters had harbored, were soon put to bed as Short's team marauded against the premier division opponents in the closing twenty minutes and claimed three more goals, just to be on the safe side.

United should've have cleared their lines in their own area, but stood of and abdicated the responsibility of getting rid of the ball to each other, allowing James McCann to add Tevie's fourth goal with a simple tap in.
Three minutes later Josh Radford unleashed a shot from fifteen yards out, which found the back of the net via the right hand post.

Craig Mitchell thumped an absolute pile driver through a crowded defence from the right hand edge of United's six yard box in the eighty second minute and Teversal's rout and United's misery was complete.

FT: Teversal 6 v Retford United 2

With a new interim chairman, Simon Brammer, installed at Cannon Park this week, in response to Wayne Radford resigning at the weekend, and Retford United lurching perilously ever closer towards the bottom three in the table, I am sure that the club have got more to worry about than crashing out of the county cup.
That said, the level of (non) performance tonight must surely have set the alarm bells ringing and the panic button can't be far away.

Well played Teversal... you can only beat what is in front of you, but your side stuck to their task steadfastly and professionally.
Good luck in the next round.

Saturday 10th December 2016
SktBet EFL Championship
at St James' Park
Newcastle United (2) 4
Dwight Gayle 18, 24, 77, Yoan Gouffran 47
Birmingham City (0) 0
Admission £27. Programme £3.
Attendance 52,145 (inc. 3,100 in sold out away section)

Newcastle United:
Karl Darlow, Vurnon Anita, Ciaran Clark, Jamaal Lascelles, Paul Dummett, Jonjo Shelvey, Isaac Hayden (Achraf Lazaar 81), Matt Ritchie, Mohamed Diame, Yoan Gouffran (Christian Atsu 71), Dwight Gayle (Aleksandar Mitrovic 78).
Unused subs - Matz Sels, DeAndre Yedlin, Chancel Mbemba, Cheick Tiote.
Birmingham City:
Tomasz Kuszczak, Ryan Shotton, Josh Dacres-Cogley, Michael Morrison, Jonathan Grounds, Robert Tesche (Maikel Kieftenbeld 46), Stephen Gleeson, David Cotterill (Corey O’Keeffe 74), Greg Stewart (Lukas Jutkiewicz 46), Che Adams, Clayton Donaldson.
Unused subs - Adam Legzdins, Paul Robinson, Viv Solomon-Otabor, Reece Brown

Having driven up to my departure station: Doncaster, I was met by a swarm of people who, despite being old enough to know much better, were swarming around the forecourt, blinded by the compelling urge to overspend, dressed almost to a man in badly fitting Christmas jumpers and Santa hats, while aimlessly crashing and careering around in circles, colliding with anyone and everyone, whilst seemingly bereft of any kind of social etiquette or spatial awareness whatsoever.
Seemingly it was an alien concept to this throng of ill mannered neanderthals, that anybody might actually be heading in the opposite direction, i.e. away from the shops.
There was only one option, if I was to get anywhere near my destination in time for kick off, so I piled in head first, like a salmon swimming against a strong current and fought my way towards the platforms, while the Markham Main Colliery Band tucked into a corner, belted out "God bless ye merry gentlemen".
Tidings of comfort and joy!? Bah, humbug!?
The Grinch, Ebenezer Scrooge and Victor Meldrew make up the effing Glee Club compared to me in the run up to Xmas.
Roll on January, I say!

An octogenarian gentleman stood on Platform Four remarked to his friend: "Of course, it's different to back in our day, when we had steam trains. These modern trains are so much faster and if you stand near to the edge of the platform, you're likely to get sucked off!"
I stood near to the edge of the platform in eager anticipation, but nothing exciting happened.
The trainspotters who must live on 'Donny' station, were out and about in good numbers.
What sort of an existence is theirs? I ask you!
Festooned in rare train badges, taking photos of everything that their hobby encompasses, ticking lists of where they have been, collecting endless railway memorabilia, urgently seeking out timetable brochures and pamphlets, wherever they visit and scribbling fastidiously into their notebooks all of the times, dates, places and train numbers, with meticulous detail.

I put my hand into my anorak pocket and discovered: last night's match programme, a team sheet detailed with the attendance, goal times and scorers names, a new Collingham FC badge to add to my collection, a notebook full of match details, four pens and a spare battery for my camera. Thankfully there were still a few blank pages in my pad, so I began to jot down a few preamble notes about Newcastle United v Birmingham City for use on this very blog, but quickly put the book back, when I became aware of the disdainful stares that I was attracting.
I wouldn't want anybody to think that my full, eventful and incident packed life could be mistaken for the sad lad existence led by these enthusiasts and cheese rangers, who have let their hobby become an all consuming obsession.
I quickly tweeted about attending my one hundred and second game of the season so far and then joined the scrum of bodies fighting to get near the doors of the Newcastle bound train that was pulling in.
Lord help anyone who needed to alight here.

The northbound train was packed to capacity (standing room only) due to a seriously over the top double booking for seat tickets phuck up... and a couple of hundred passengers bound for York being told to "Get on this one and sit anywhere, we've scrapped seat reservations for today!" because their original train had been cancelled.
But, we pragmatic and tolerant English folk, just respond to this kind of thing with a stiff upper lip and some good old gallows humour.
Complaining is for the moaning Myrtles of this world, isn't it!?
But unless people start to register their dissatisfaction with the nations train operating companies (and they are all pretty much the same people with differently liveried rolling stock), then this kind of severely overcrowded potential death trap on wheels type of scenario will continue to happen on trains all over the country at peak travel times.

The vast majority of passengers got out of the train at York, probably to avoid suffering from asphyxiation, as the shopping tills across the city let out a resounding 'kerching!' and I was able to climb out of the cycle rack and sit down in an actual seat for the remainder of my jaunt to Newcastle.
Just outside the station, a group of spotty teenagers, dressed in stretch denim jeans and replica old school Adidas trainers (and the obligatory Xmas jumpers, of course), stood glaring menacingly, in a not entirely convincing way, at everyone who was heading out of the station, until a big lump of a bloke, sauntered forward inviting them to fight him and they scarpered, last to be seen all heading into the Gents toilets, together!
God help us if there is ever another war.

The days when Newcastle was an hostile place for football fans to visit, when only the very brave, stupid or foolhardy ever ventured here. are a thing of the past. And I'd wager that the nouveau wannabe football casuals of the region would be no match for their highly respected and much feared predecessors. Even those Geordie legends known as Jossy's Giants could have knocked the crap out of this particular unconvincing mob.
Passing the city centre pubs, the football songs emanating from within them, belonged to the supporters of both teams.
I smiled as I remembered the relief I had felt a couple of times in the eighties and even late seventies, when it was something of an achievement if I had negotiated my way back to Newcastle Central station, without getting my young head kicked in. Before breathing a sigh of relief as the train doors shut and we headed away unscathed over the Tyne Bridge.

This one isn't actually a statue.

There was one occasion when I did become seriously unstuck after getting separated from my mates and took a few bumps and cuts home with me as a souvenir of getting ragged about on the pavement off of the Leazes Road, by a gang of big blokes, while a big group of onlookers stood by, content to watch, rather than offer me any help or assistance whatsoever, even after I had been left in a crumpled and disheveled heap. But it was all part of the rites of passing of growing up and becoming a bit more streetwise in those days.
It could've been a lot worse I s'pose. Newcastle was a rough old place in those days and getting the odd kicking was par for the course if you were daft enough to attend games in some places.
It makes me laugh when I see some of these hooligan autobiographies, where they claim that rival gangs only fought against other hard men who had turned up on their manor looking for a ruck and that run of the mill football fans were never in any sort of danger. That's bollocks!
Anyone and everyone who ever traveled to away games was fair game for the bootboys in each and every town and city across the nation. Don't believe the hype.

St James' Park, which is around half a mile taller than Mount Everest (approx. guess, needs clarification) is only a short walk from the station, which used to seem a hell of a lot further way after games, back in the day.
Two lost travelers were talking and one said "The guy said just follow the black and white striped shirts and you can't miss it".
I pointed them in right direction and drew their attention to the signs that stand approximately every fifty yards on the way up to the ground.

Everybody in Newcastle, and a big slab of the north east, wears black and white stripes and you could quite easily end up wandering around anywhere within a twenty mile radius of the city centre (barring the bit to the south east of Gateshead where everybody wears red and white stripes) if you were to follow them.
It is said that if you stand still for more than thirty seconds round these parts, the council paints you with black and white stripes. So I didn't hang about, but breezed along towards the stadium, grabbing myself a Gregg's steak bake along the way as my combined breakfast/dinner, because I was in danger of morphing into Starving Marvin and I'd heard about the rip off food prices once I was through the turnstiles.

How much! And yet there are still fat people in Newcastle.

Anyway, amidst all of this long winded and self indulgent 'Dear Diary' dialogue, there was also a game of football happening this afternoon, so without further ado.
One statistic that stood out as I read the statistics from the game on the train home, which struck me as being fairly rare in this day and age, when football is barely any sort of contact sport at all anymore, was that Birmingham City hadn't been shown a single yellow card all afternoon.
You might say good on the visitors for abiding by the rules and promoting fair play, against the intimidating backdrop of a big, noisy and partisan crowd.
But there is also another school of thought that says: you have to get near to the opposition to be able to foul them in the first place. And Gary Rowett's team were chasing shadows for much of the afternoon.

The Magpies face a tricky away trip to Wigan Athletic on Wednesday night, so Rafael Benitez rested the star of this afternoon's 'Dwight Gayle Show' for the closing stages of a game that was already well and truly won by then.
In fact Blues, backed by 3,100 fans who had made the 450 mile round trip to the north east on a weekend when football crowds are traditionally sparse because of Xmas shopping duties (thank goodness for online mail order), had never looked likely to take anything out of this one sided encounter, right from the moment that the match referee, Andy Davies, got things underway.
On the back of three defeats in a row, two in the league and one in the league cup, Newcastle saw Brighton & Hove Albion nick the top spot off of them last night by virtue of a 2-0 home win against Leeds United.
Evidently, they wanted it back.
Following on from a four game unbeaten run, fifth placed Blues had lost, surprisingly some might say, 3-0 against Barnsley at St. Andrews last week.
It seemed to be universally accepted in the visitors camp, that today was a bad time to be facing Benitez's side, on a day that they would be out to re-establish their title credentials in front of a sell out crowd.

This Newcastle side is heading straight back up to the Premier League at the end of the season, most likely as champions... and if that doesn't happen, I will present Match of the Day wearing just Gary Lineker's underpants.
You might want to book a holiday abroad in May just in case then, but if the Magpies can sustain the level and tempo that they played at today, they shouldn't have any problem regaining their top flight status.
They made a good City side look decidedly below average today.
Those who had traveled up from the West Midlands were in good voice, but 'the Mags' had over 49,000 voices behind them and were obviously lifted by the noise levels coming from the stands.
Jonjo Shelvey and Paul Dummett both had the red cards that they had received in the recent defeat at Nottingham Forest overturned on appeal and subsequently escaped suspension and both started today, with Shelvey's in particular having a big influence on the outcome of the game.
Gayle cost Newcastle ten million pounds when they captured him from Crystal Palace. If/when his strike rate helps them to get back into the Premier League, he will have repaid that fee, with significant interest.

Birmingham needed to stay tight on their rampant opponents to prevent them from making good of their vast proportion of possession, while hitting them on the break.

Gary Rowett's team are renowned for their hard work and shutting out opposing sides and it has stood them in good stead thus far this season, but today they seemed content to sit back and let the home side come at them... and they did just that, time and time again.
The visitors were over run and overawed at times and their lack of impact was painful to watch.
Make no bones about it, if four-nil was a flattering result, the only team that it flattered were playing in royal blue.
As Blues boss Rowett said after the final whistle "That's a Premier League Side out there and they gave us a bit of a lesson", while alsoadmitting that he had wanted to make the changes he did at half time after just twenty five minutes.
Dwight Gayle has now netted sixteen goals already this term. United's highest goalscorer in a single season record, is held by Andy Cole, who scored forty one times over the course of the 1993-94 campaign. On the evidence of today's form, where everything Gayle touched turned to gold, he probably won't be too far away from making a good fist of surpassing that total.

Championship table. Derby County play Nottingham Forest tomorrow

Mohamed Diame, who by all accounts hasn't been pulling up any trees since he joined Benitez's side from Hull City, was inspirational this afternoon. He created the first goal, when he beat off challenges from Stephen Gleeson and Jonathan Grounds on tthe right, before delivering an inch perfect cross to Gayle at the back stick, whose downward header gave the Blues keeper Tomasz Kusczak no chance, as two of his defenders allowed to ball to go over them from Diame's delivery on eighteen minutes.
Six minutes later Diame released Isaac Hayden down the right flank and he in turned drilled a low cross into the six yard box, which Gayle met with a stab from his right foot, then switch to his left the finish the job after Kusczak had got the slightest of touches to the ball.
Blues were giving the ball away cheaply in the middle of the park and their distribution became lackadaisical in extremes... I hope they're not delivering my Xmas presents!
The black and white tide was almost relentless, with all of the aforementioned United players, along with Jamaal Lascelles who was virtually unplayable at times, simply had too much class for their visitors.

Birmingham City are a decent first division side, at times they are a very decent one, but today, what they came up against, was a team who will beat anybody in this division when they produce this kind of performance. Maybe City were giving them too much time and space to create, but it is just as likely that they were stood back, looking on in awe.
The home side looked infinitely fitter and stronger than Rowett's charges and the way they closed City down whenever they got possession and didn't give thm a moment to use the ball, was almost tantamount to bullying at times.
Half time came and Blues could probably be grateful that they were only two goals behind and had Kuszack to thank for making three really good first half stops from Yoan Gouffran (once) and Jonjo Shelvey (twice).
Half time: United 2 v City 0

Blues got the second half underway and if the joke was: 'What time do Birmingham City kick off?' Then the cruel punchline would have to be: 'Every two minutes!"

Because in the forty seventh minute they were restarting the game again, after Yoan Gouffran screwed the ball into the net from a tight angle to the right of Kuszack's goal, after Matt Ritchie had played a short free kick to Shelvey, who teed the ball up or the live-wire Frenchman with a cheeky lob that confused the Blues defence. Which with all due respect, wasn't proving to be a difficult task this afternoon.

David Cotterill launched a long free kick into the Magpies area and an impromptu game of head tennis broke out. Newcastle won that as well and were soon marauding forward again... after the referee had to stop the game for a few minutes, while the workmen put some quick drying cement into the holes that they had just put the 'One Way Only' signs up in, pointing towards poor Tomasz Kuszczak.

Foreground: Railway Station. Background: St. James' Park

Once again Cotterill tried to get Blues moving again as he advanced through the right hand side of the midfield, but United had closed the doors tightly shut in front of him and with none of his teammates offering the Welsh international any options at all, he had to turn back and pass the ball to his defence.

The visiting fans cheered "Ole! Ole! Ole!" as their misfiring side completed three passes across the width of the pitch in their own half, before the Gallowgate End couldn't resist one massive collective "OLE!!!" as the fourth pass ended up in row H of the East Stand, without any Newcastle player even having ventured forward to make a challenge.
I guess that passage of play just about summed up the afternoon for the visitors, who actually nearly got a goal back; when Che Adams twenty yard shot was blocked by Karl Darlow and Blues teenage debutant Corey O’Keeffe, who had just come on in place of Cotterill, headed the ball high and wide from the rebound. In case you were wondering who Karl Darlow is, because he hasn't had a mention yet, he was playing in goal for the home side, but didn't see very much of the ball.

Moments later, Birmingham had even more misery heaped on them, when Shelvey raced through the right channel, through to the bi-line and whipped a cross to the feet of Gayle, who completed his text book hat trick, one header, one left footed strike and one right.
Gayle was then withdrawn to a riotous roar and celebration of his performance, that was so raucous and heartfelt, you could actually feel the Gallowgate End shaking.
As Rafael Benitez said later in response to the Newcastle number nine's performance: "He was quite good!"
Newcastle were still moving well off the ball and offering a myriad of options in the visitors half and Birmingham, err... weren't.
In the last few moments of the game Gouffran nearly claimed his second and the Magpies fifth goal, but his shot flew inches wide of the upright.
FT: Newcastle United 4 v Birmingham City 0

If anybody tries telling me that there was another more one sided game than this anywhere in the world this afternoon, I won't believe them.The gulf in quality between the two sides bordered on being scandalous at times.
Newcastle are too good for the league they are in. But at least on days like today, clubs with play off ambitions and aspirations, get a free first hand demonstration of what sort of standards will be required of them, if they go up a division.
Being realistic, Birmingham City aren't ready for that step up; not yet anyway! But investment will hopefully be available soon, in light of their recent takeover (though not on the scale that Newcastle United are enjoying) and with an astute manager in situ in Gary Rowett, they won't be far off for much longer. Maybe this season would be too soon for them if they were to win promotion via the play offs, but next season is looking promising.

The Xmas Market was doing a roaring trade on the way back down to the station and the nightlife was already in full swing, with some really intimidating gangs having laid siege to the city centre by now, mainly consisting of 'larger than life' middle aged women (I am being polite here), liberating all of their wobbly bits, by wearing less than I do to go in bed in. That's an over-sized cotton t-shirt and naked from the waist down if you must know.

Vulgarity and noisy shameless exhibitionism on a grand scale, is harmless enough for those who choose to live such a lifestyle, but I decided not to hang around.

I overheard the best chat up line ever though, as a young Geordie buck stood propositioning a flame coloured haired women of indeterminable age, with what must've sounded like sheer poetry to her: "I wanted to shag your mate, but our Kev got in first and said you'll have to tackle the fat ginger one instead, so if you're up for it like!?"

The train journey back was stress free and as the train pulled into Platform Three there were gangs of drunken people in Santa hats, grappling with policemen all over the place. "Ah, we must be in Doncaster now then!"

I collected my vehicle from the Network Rail compound, circumnavigated another group of drunks who were trying to get into it because they thought I was a taxi driver and was back home twenty five minutes later.

Away days, it's a way of life!

Friday 9th December 2016
Central Midlands League North
at Station Road, Collingham
Collingham FC (0) 1
Luke Clifford 55
Newark Town (0) 2
Jammy Lloyd 69, Dom Swingler 71
Admission £3. Programme £1. Attendance 265

First things first. Collingham FC had put a lot of time and effort into organising this Friday night local derby fixture and worked non-stop on the night to ensure that no comfort was spared for the 265 hardy souls who headed to Station Road for their football fix.
Their endeavours were greatly appreciated by all present, the food was fantastic and the friendly ambiance of the whole night made for a memorable occasion for all present.
Well done to all concerned.

These Friday night CMFL fixtures are proving to be a very popular addition to the calendar for numerous football travelers and the #floodyfriday initiative, to give this venture it's correct hashtag handle, will be helping clubs to raise some much needed funds for a change, something that the grassroots end of the game is desperately in need of.
Mr CMFL Fixtures Secretary, Chris Berezai...well played that man.
A great idea, I'm really glad it is being so well supported.
The next Friday night CMFL game to be played at this ground, will see Newark Town welcoming Bilsthorpe on Friday 6th January 2017; and I bet that you're all already licking your lips in anticipation at the prospect of that one. I know I am!
Bring it on!

The game got underway and Collingham, resplendent in their amber and black hoops, were making most of the early running, with Sidnei Costa and Craig Bridge, both going close but being denied by Nathan Burrows in the 'visitors' goal, Note, I put the word visitors in inverted commas, because for those of you who don't already know, Newark Town also play their home games on Collingham's ground... and have done since 2004.
Burrows was called into action again, punching clear from a Bridge free kick, as the home side looked to make good of their early momentum.

Collingham manager Paul Hyde.
Sadly his assistant isn't called Dr Jekyll.

Luke Clifford lobbed a pass into the path of Drew Allwood, who met it with a thumping header at the back post but diverted the ball across the face of the goal and wide of the right hand upright.
Marlon Grundy whipped a cross into Newark's six yard box from out on the right and Tom Moore raced in to meet the ball at the same sime as Newark's captain, Ricky Brewer. As they came together and tumbled to the ground (see below), both teams appealed for a foul, but the referee Jack Forder had seen nothing amiss and waved play on.

Another free kick delivery from Bridge was punched away by Burrows and Costa couldn't quite latch onto the loose ball to sustain the home side's attack.
Newark had finally started to get to grips with the tempo of the game, and having absorbed a spell of sustained pressure from Paul Hyde's team, almost sneaked a goalagainst the run of play, when Will Nelson was inches away from squeezing Jordan Cummings excellent free kick past Ellis Spencer by the left hand post.
Bridge once again found Burrows to be telepathically linked to his intentions, when the 'visitors' keeper rose above his defence to comfortably collect another dead ball kick from Collingham's number 8.

Right to left: Tony Joynes and Simon Daws.
Newark Town's management duo.

Richard Dent, Jammy Lloyd and George Pearce, passed their way down the right hand flank towards the Collingham area, but the home side snuffed out the move after the Newark trio had shown some impressive footwork to work their way so far up the pitch.
But there was little subtlety involved with the 'away' side's next effort, when Tyler Martin, out on the left wing around thirty five yards from goal, saw a crowded penalty area ahead of him and tride his luck with an optimistic long range shot, that wasn't too far away, but landed on top of the crossbar.
HT: Home Team 0 v Away Team 0

Collingham had enjoyed by far more of the ball for the opening half a hour or so, but Newark had started to pick up their tempo towards the break.
Pearce had the first chance of the second half, but rushed his shot and opted for power over precision after ghosting through the home side's defence, arriving unnoticed from a deep position.
Marcus Grundy looked odds on to open the scoring, but Stuart Rose got across his run and made a timely intervention.

Surely you're not having another hot dog Mr Townsend!?

But one piece on intuitive defending by one Newark player, was followed by a bit of a calamity for another, when Brewer slipped while trying to clear the ball, allowing Clifford a clear run on goal and he drilled a low shot past Burrows to put Collingham ahead.
The home side came close to doubling their lead from the next forward move, when Pearce headed Moore's left wing corner away off the goal line.
Dent directed a long pass into the Collingham goalmouth, that Martin flicked towards the goal, but his header didn't have enough power behind it to trouble Spencer.

Grundy and Clifford attacked the left channel of Newark's area in tandem and Grundy poked his shot just past the wrong side of the post.
That could have been, more or less, game over. But with the game going into it's last twenty minutes, Newark were awarded afree kick just outside their hosts area... and Jammy Lioyd whacked a thunderous drive into the top right hand corner of the net before Burrows could even move.
It was a quality strike... you don't stop those!

Within two minutes the 'Peaceful Warriors', had turned the game on it's head, when Dom Swingler, who had only just been introduced from the bench, added the finishing touch to another Lloyd free kick.
Collingham will have been very, very disappointed not to have put this game to bed during the opening half a hour when they had Newark on the back foot and were pummeling them.
But that wasn't going to bother tonight's visitors one bit, as they had stood firm, depended on a couple of last ditch clearances and the agility on their keeper on occasions, but now they had nudged their way in front, with a smash and grab raid, that any ram raider worth his salt would've been very proud of.

Newark Town FC - Happy clappers!

The home side must have been stunned but brushed themselves down and went looking for a late equaliser ina game that they must ave thought was virtually won just a short while ago.
Grundy beat the last defender and homed in on the Newark goal, but he went to ground as Nelson pushed him in the back. The referee had no option but to show Nelson a second yellow card and invited him to leave the pitch for the last remaining moments.
The question now was, did Nelson foul Grundy inside or outside the area?
Mr Forder indicated that Collingham had a free kick just inches outside.
Clifford struck the ball low and hard and Burrows was beaten, but the free kick went wide of the upright... and Newark held on for all three points.
FT: Collingham 1 v Newark Town 2

I like new stuff!
Both team's badges, festoon my Maltby Main hat.

In a nutshell, Collingham should have won and they would've done, if they had found the net more often from the numerous chances that they had created.
Was the late foul inside the area... which would've seen the home side being awarded with a penalty? Possibly it was! I thought so. But it was a hard one to call and the referee was nearer to the incident than me. Nelson's red card was definitely a case of taking one for the team and the timing of his foul couldn't have been any better for them.
I will be back at Collingham again on Wednesday night, when theey will be looking to bounce straight back against my pals from Retford FC.
If you're the Newark fan who said: "Bloody hell, what's he going to do?" when Dom Swingler came on... there's your answer pal!

"So where is Chase then!?", asked Mrs Waite as we ventured (very slowly) towards Ashby Avenue along Skellingthorpe Road, with a long row of stationary traffic and brake lights ahead of us, which caused the Chasetown players to arrive late and a subsequent slightly delayed kick off.

"I don't think you've ever taken me to a Chase Town game before"
I ignored her.
"How long have this Chase Town team been a Conference club then? Or are they playing the Imps in a cup game tonight?"
I was still trying to ignore her.
We pulled into United's car park and she spotted a blue and white scarf draped across the rear window of a Honda Civic.

"Oh! That Chasetown! We've been there, haven't we? And this is Lincoln United. I thought it would be a bit odd if you were taking me to watch City!"
Indeed it would be my dear, now shurrup!
She wasn't being quite as gormless tonight, as the time that we went to see Scotland play New Zealand at Tynecastle, the home of the Heart of Midlothian FC and she'd inquired if it was a European qualifier. But before I picked her up from Lincoln High Street, mien spouse had had a looong day blowing our offspring's inheritance in a forbidden zone of the city called 'the shops' (because the four hours we spent in Meadowhall AKA Meadowhell last night, is never enough!) and the potential for more blonde moments is never too far away on nights like this.

Tuesday 13th December 2016

EvoStik Northern Premier League, Division 1 South

at the Sun Hat Villas & Resorts Stadium,
Ashby Avenue, Hartsholme, Lincoln
Lincoln United (0) 2
Matt Cotton 74
Jordan Hempenstall 86
Chasetown FC (0) 0
Admission £8. Programme £1. Attendance 135

Around twenty minutes before kick off, we maneuvered our automobile into a space close to and facing the exit gates, for a quick escape after the game had ended. The other cars that arrived just after us, contained around half a dozen players from the visiting team, who had obviously come the same 'quick way' as us and got stuck in the traffic as well.

A two hour drive and a quick warm up were less than ideal preparation for an EvoStik League game on a pitch that was likely to cut up on a mild, but very damp night in Hartsholme.

As always at Ashby Avenue, we received a warm and friendly greeting upon entering the turnstiles, for the fourth time this season... and the Whites have won every time that I have seen them in action this term, albeit by the skin of their teeth the last time I was here.

The Chasetown secretary was hanging around outside the visitors dressing room, clutching his team sheet book and looking perplexed, as he waited to see who had turned up in time for the scheduled kick off, so that he could complete his paperwork.

I really miss undertaking such paperwork chores (that generally encompass hour upon hour, day after day... and not just the half a hour that everybody sees you on duty, prior to games), where you are expected to take charge of circumstances and events that are seriously beyond anybody's control and instill a modicum of organisation and calm to any given situation at a moments notice, when seemingly everybody else in the ground (and beyond) is pointing straight at you and demanding answers, that you are apparently supposed to magic up like a rabbit out of a bag.

No, I don't actually, I am being sarcastic, it's thankless task and should only ever be undertaken by those with extreme masochistic tendencies.

I for one will never, ever take on that sort of role or ball ache of a position again, not ever!

Watch this space ;-)

Subsequently the game kicked late, but only by around five minutes.

Lincoln made a lively start and inside the first two minutes Jordan Hempenstall fizzed a long range shot just past the right hand post.
But two fairly evenly matched and hard working sides were cancelling each other out across the width of the pitch as the game became a bit of a battle for the midfield, with neither team really creating anything of note in the way of goal scoring chances for a while until Andy Toyne unleashed a twenty yard free kick just past the right hand post around the twenty minute mark.
Toyne threatened the Scholars goal once again, when he skipped over two challenges before shooting over the bar from inside the visitors area.
Michael Jacklin launched a long probing ball towards the visitors penalty spot, that Leon Miles headed away, but the ball fell to Hempenstall who had taken up a position just outside the area and he crashed a first time shot inches over the bar.
I told my spouse all about my recently acquired knowledge on 'Hempy': He's impressed me a lot this season, both on and off the ball. His movement off the ball and positioning is almost instinctive. He knows when to make all of the right runs and when to stand off and conserve his energy, while picking up the scraps; like from that sort of clearance there.

He's playing quite deep for a number nine, but he's more than just a target man centre forward and contributes a lot to the actual shape of Lincoln's game from playing that bit deeper. His finishing has let him down tonight, but he doesn't let that get to him and he'll keep plugging away.
She shot me a look that suggested I may as well have been translating a lengthy Renaissance period algorithm into Sanskrit for her, nodded politely and returned to her vital quest of catching Pokemon on her Sony Experia, while humming along to the Michael Buble' Xmas songs dirge she was listening to on her earplugs.
Philistine! Here I am generously bestowing some really interesting knowledge on my good lady and it's going straight over her head.

This will be the very last time that I'll ever take her out "somewhere nice" on our anniversary again.

The visitors were finally building up a head of steam, following their slow start and Mitchell Piggon did well to win a shoulder to shoulder race for the ball with James Blundeon, before forcing Jake Turner to parry the ball out of play for a corner with a thumping angled shot.
Turner proved his worth again, by punching Josh Ruff's cross away and United cleared their lines and broke forward on the counter attack.
Jermaine Johnson struggled to clear the ball on the edge of the Chasetown area as it sat up awkwardly and could only knock it straight into the path of Rob Norris, who was also impeded by the sticky underfoot conditions and his attempted shot rolled harmlessly to Curtis Pond off of the White's number seven's shin pad.
Hempenstall broke through the left channel deep into the Scholars area but the visitors full back Matthias Curley was tracking his run and as he blocked any chance of the Lincoln striker making a cross, Hempenstall grabbed his opponent and spun him around a full 360 degrees and inevitably the referee blew up for a foul.
"Bloody hell! What was that for now!?" moaned a local without a trace of irony in his voice, as all those say around him stifled a chuckle.

Pond, in the Chasetown goal seemed happy to settle for a point now as he took an eternity over playing the ball forward at every single opportunity. But his 'gamesmanship' almost proved to be his undoing as he slipped thirty five yards from his goal as he tried to kick long and feebly toe poked the ball towards Hempenstall in the centre circle, who tried to catch pond out with a long punt, that dropped onto the roof of the net.

"Ooh! That was him wasn't it!? The positional awareness man?" chuckled a female voice from inside a pile of warm clothing occupying the seat next to me.

Meanwhile Pond still wasn't looking comfortable with his kicking as Norris and Cotton chased down a back pass from Johnson that held up in the mud, but he just about launched it to safety.

Cotton was fouled by Rhys Thompson, five yards outside the Chasetown area. And Ryan Brooks put a dent in the advertising hoardings with a full bore strike from the free kick.

It was the first time that Thompson had put a foot out of place and he had looked like one of the better players on the pitch so far tonight, covering his own berth while getting forward in support when required. He was dealing with the conditions better than most and was very comfortable on the ball.

Both sides came close to snatching the lead just before the interval: Norris saw off two challenges and crossed to Hempenstall, who left the ball for Luke Smithson, arriving behind him at speed, but the Whites number eleven shot wide.

And right on the stroke of half time, Turner saved at full stretch from Jack Langston's long range shot and held onto the ball with Piggon moving in to take advantage if the ball had run loose.

HT: Whites 0 v Scholars 0

The first chance of the second half fell to Norris who shot on the turn but Pond was well placed to make a save.
Piggon was causing the home defence all manner of problems now and demonstrating that he didn't suffer from bashfulness in and around the final third when the going got tough, while Curley's cross into the Whites area appeared to hit a defenders arm, but not according to the match officials.
Matt Cotton saw two shots from outside the area charged down, but Chasetown were making a real go of things now.
That man Piggon was in the thick of it again, delivering the ball across the face of United's goal, but Sam Belcher's flick was deflected past the post as one or two Chasetown followers appealed for handball again.
Michael Williams and Jack Langston were making good use of the width of the pitch for the visitors, who were enjoying their best spell of the match.
Smithson and Thompson were having their own personal battle at the other end.

Although Lincoln had looked like the better side for the opening half a hour or so, it possibly went against the run of play, when Brooks left wing corner was hooked back across the face of goal and then scrambled away towards Cotton, who turned on the spot and caught the ball sweetly, to bulge the net and leave Pond grasping at fresh air.
Luke Hornsey, Lincoln's right back was running himself to a standstill as Chasetown looked to take the game to their hosts down the right flank.
The referee was blowing up for all manner of sall indiscretions but missed one or two really naughty off the ball transgressions. I am not going to grass anybody up, it isn't in my nature, but if Lincoln Rugby Club are ever in need of a sturday fly half, then I know just the man.
Smithson raced past Thompson and dropped an arcing ball towards the back stick, to where Hempenstall nodded the ball narrowly wide.

"Ooh good run, well anticipated number nine!"
I'm ignoring her again... sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
We might only be twenty five minutes drive away from home, but it is still a bloody long way to walk woman!
Norris dropped a shoulder, got past Curley on the left hand side of the area, but skied his shot.
One nil was not going to be enough to see off this resilient and battling Chasetown side and it was going to take a moment of genius magic to put this game to bed.
Cometh the hour, well it was the eighty sixth minute but let's not split hairs, Mr Hempenstall, laying deep to good effect, picked up the ball out on the left wing near the dug outs, motored forward a few yards and, spotting that Pond was off of his line, sent a dipping angled thirty five yard over stranded keeper's head to score the home side's second goal with an awesome strike.
A female face peered from inside the faux fur around her hood: "Was that who I think it was!?"
The very same! 'Aye! But I'll let you off, some people know their football, while others should stick to collecting Pokemon'
Was I going to gloat all the way home? You bet I was... and we were going to go the longer way back via Gainsborough too!

Chasetown were deflated, possibly even devastated to go two behind late in the game, after having put so much hard graft.
As the clocked ticked down, Ruff shot wide and Langston hit Blunden with an attempted shot, but the three points were all Lincoln's and they weren't about to surrender them now.
The Whites saw out the four added minutes safely and took a big step up to thirteenth in the table, where they have games in hand over most of the clubs above them. Chasetown are still in seventh, some five points head of the Whites.
FT: Lincoln United 2 v Chasetown 0
In the final analysis, two quality strikes from Cotton and Hempenstall were all that separated these two sides on a strength sapping surface, over the course of ninety plus minutes.
'Our lass' thought it had been a more even game than the two goal margin of victory and suggested suggested that she would have to see more of United's number nine in action before conceding that I was right about him all along.
But hey! What makes her think she is going to any more games with me this season after tonight!?
'Twas a proper upat at 'em game on a pitch that will look quite poorly in the morning and thoughm moreover, it was a case of guts over guile tonight, as dictated by the horses for courses conditions, this encounter was absorbing and compelling enough and even entertaining in it's own way.
You couldn't fault either side for their effort.

Wednesday 14th December 2016
Central Midlands League North
at Station Road, Collingham
Collingham FC (2) 2
Marlon Grundy 42
Luke Clifford 44
Retford FC(2) 3
Leigh Hutchison 13, 33, 46
Admission £3. Programme £1

This was one of those games that is great to watch, especially for a neutral, with plenty of thrills, spills and near misses along the way, which by the same token must be bad for any manager's blood pressure, as they tear out handfuls of hair in frustration when things keep going go awry and shout themselves hoarse from the touchline, to the point of contracting a severe bout of laryngitis by tomorrow morning.
It was fast paced, end to end, all action stuff, with the match referee Scott Mason and his assistants, Lewis Morgan and Rob Pealing, allowing the game to flow, whenever possible and contributing to the tempo of the night's entertainment with a common sense "Get on with!" approach.
Mason did however step in authoritatively when he needed to and handled the game very well in my humble and wholly neutral opinion.
To be fair to Collingham; I thought that they were the better side tonight, just as they were on Friday against Newark Town, but they failed to ram home the territorial advantage that they had once again. And Retford had the considerable added advantage of having Leigh Hutchinson operating up front as a part of their attacking arsenal.

The home side settling quickly into their rhythm and were looking good early doors, pegging Retford back and probing forward in search of an early goal, which nearly came when the visitors captain Lee Smith miscued an attempted clearance straight into the path of Sidnei Costa, who ought to have done better with his gifted shot, but drilled the ball wide of the upright.
The away side were having to absorb a lot of pressure all ready as Paul Hyde side's quick pass and move game was making some serious headway into Retford's last third.
Retford's first venture forward almost gave them the lead against the run of play, but Paul Middleton touched the ball just beyond the back post after Leigh Hutchinson had released Aaron Hutchinson down the right flank and he had delivered a great cross, that had evaded the Collingham keeper Kane Hutchison-Wilkes.
For purposes of clarification, I was reliably informed that there were approximately twelve people in the ground tonight who weren't called Hutchison, one way or another.
Retford had a bit of a let off when Ben Sharp got around the back of their defence, with a strong run, and Jamie Housley did well to save the ensuing close range angled shot.

Costa tried unlocking the visitors defence with an angled through ball for Marlon Grundy to run on to, but Ben Marro was across quickly to make a timely interception and Retford cleared their lines.

In actual fact, they cleared the ball all the way out to the left flank, halfway inside their hosts half, where (L) Hutchinson took over, bringing the ball under control with his first touch, before ghosting past two defensive challenges and fair spanking the ball into the top right corner of the goal from fifteen yards, to give the visitors an unlikely lead in the thirteenth minute.

Collingham had been hogging the ball as if it was their own, for around seventy five percent of the game thus far. But statistics don't win games, goals do... and Retford were in front by virtue of a peach of a strike.

Housley had to run to edge of his area to challenge Luke Clifford and had the ball was 'dinked' over him into the path of Grundy whose first time shot was blocked by Marro's improvised save, as he got down behind the ball to block it without using his hands.

It was neither textbook defending or goalkeeping by any stretch of the imagination and it was worth remembering at the end of the game as Retford won by the odd goal in three, that Marro's unorthodox stop was as vital as any of his sides goals. Just saying ;-)

But having just filled the role of the hero of the piece, Marro allowed Costa to steal the ball from him, before slipping the ball to Clifford, who set up a chance for Grundy that Housley parried but claimed at the second attempt.

Housely was in the thick of it again, when he parried Grundy's close range effort and was glad to see Luke Edwards on hand to hook the ball clear before Clifford could reach it.

Just before the half hour mark, the ball rolled off of the pitch towards us and the Retford FC secretary Kevin Swannack 'inadvertently' sliced his kick as he (pretended to) knock it back to a Collingham player and it spun away towards the houses on Station Road.

"Whoops! That is accidental time wasting Swanny!"

Now as I recall, when I was at infant and junior school with Kev, he was a devotee of Don Revie's Leeds United team of the time. It seems that the ethos of gaining any kind of advantage through the black art of gamesmanship, still lives on in his heart and his outlook on the game as been poisoned by the actions of Paul Reaney, Norman Hunter, Jackie Charlton and Terry Cooper in their heyday.

'Leeds! Leeds! Leeds!' haven't won anything for a very long time, so maybe there is some mileage to be had from indulging in such skulduggery.

You're okay Swanny... I won't tell anyone what you did pal!

Collingham FC

(L) Hutchinson and Nathan Fenn combined on the right to force a corner for the visitors and Jack Johnson's in-swinging ball from the flag kick caused panic in the home sides six yard box before Collingham scrambled it away.
Jason Swannack, pushing forward from his left back berth, as he is wont to do, floated a long dipping pass from out on the wing towards (L) Hutchinson, who was 'goal hanging' around the penalty spot and made it look easy as he diverted the ball past Hutchinson-Wilkes to double his side's lead.
How on earth Collingham didn't win this game, or the one on Friday, will probably be declared as the 'Eighth Wonder of the World' any time soon, but neither Retford or Newark Town, two deft exponents of the 'smash n' grab' discipline, will be unduly concerned about that.
(L) Hutchinson threaded a pass out wide to (A) Hutchinson, who got past Jayden Driver and smashed a low and hard cross. across the face of the home side's goal, but nobody could provide the slightest of touches, which was all that the ball needed.
Swannack found himself in space some thirty yards from goal and decided that it worth going it alone as he unleashed a thumping shot... and if that had been thirty feet lower as it vanished into the back gardens of the pensioners bungalows, it would have been quite spectacular.
Maybe Jason meant to do that and was merely looking to run the clock down like his dad had done earlier in the first half, it's in his genes innit?

Retford FC

Tom Gilmore was covering every blade of grass for Retford and excelling in his role as a link up man between the visitors attack and defence. But he got caught in two minds whether to crash full pelt into a firm but fair tackle on Grundy, in front of his team's dugout, to stop the lively Collingham number nine starting a forward sweep down the left flank, or tracking him back and trying to force him wide. In the event both options were taken from him when Grundy changed tack and cut inside, leaving Gilmore with just the one option as he grabbed hold of his opponent and tugged him, straight in front of the referee. A booking and the resulting fine will no doubt help Gilmore the next time he has to work out such a conundrum and whoever is next in line had better be prepared for being on the receiving end of a full blooded challenge.
Driver took the resulting free kick but Housley dealt with it.
And Housley was in demand again soon afterwards, saving from Grundy after Clifford had created yet another chance for him.
The Grundy v Housley duel had been a compelling contest, but sadly the Retford keeper had to go off at half time with a suspected broken finger after one of his own teammates had stood on his hand.
You don't need enemies with mates like that!

The Collingham left back got forward once more and threaded the ball through to Grundy, who had all the time in the world to pick his spot, but rushed his chance and the ball ended up coming to a halt by the guys who had been manning the entry gate. Whoops!
(A) Hutchinson cut in from the right flank and with the defence backing off in anticipation of a cross, drilled a low shot past the wrong side of the left hand post.
Collingham's keeper launched a long clearance down the field and as the Retford defence had stepped up to play Grundy offside, Marro who was struggling with his pace due to a severe shortage of recent match minutes, didn't move out quickly enough, but the home side's number nine cracked off another shot wide of the target. Any other time with the same kind of service, he could easily have netted five times by half time, but the fates were against him tonight.
Collingham weren't looking forward to their imminent half time bollocking and they upped in ante in the closing minutes of the first half,
In the forty second minute, just after Retford had nearly gone three-nil up, when (A) Hutchinson's close range header from Luke Edwards pinpoint cross, had been plucked from under the bar by Hutchinson-Wilkes, the home side countered... and though Housley got his outstretched fingers to Clifford's twelve yard half volley, as the loose ball spun towards the goal, Grundy got a touch to nudge it over the line as he wrestled with Marro who was a whisker away from making a last ditch clearance.

Now that Collingham had finally found the goal that their unstinting efforts had deserved, it set things up nicely for the second half, but they weren't done yet.

In the very last minute of the half, Grundy returned the favour for his striking partner when he sent a right wing cross over to Clifford who equalised from close range.

Hmm... that really made things interesting after the break now.

The two goal fightback was probably warranted given how much time Collingham had spent onthe ball and how many clear cut chances they had created. But what a sickener for Retford. two-nil up with three minutes to go and now going in for the interval on level terms.

HT: Collingham 2 v Retford 2

Luckily for Chris Woodhead's side, they had another keeper on the bench and Ryan Elkington took his place between the sticks for the second half, while 'Big Will', AKA Will Tomlinson came on in place of Marro, who isn't quite back to full fitness yet, but who'd played his part with a couple of decent blocks and last ditch clearances during the opening forty five minutes.

If conceding just before the break is supposed to be psychologically bad for the defending team, Retford certainly hadn't come out for the second half looking down... and having forced a corner less than a minute after the restart, (L) Hutchinson completed his hat trick when he netted from inside the home side's six yard box from Edwards right wing flag kick.

If only Ali Bin Nasser (Diego Maradona's Tunisian mate) had been refereeing tonight, instead of the ultra efficient and well presented Scott Mason, then Will Tomlinson would've put Retford further ahead in the fifty third minute, with his 'headed' goal from Jack Johnson's free kick.
But the referee had spotted that the ball had actually looped over Hutchinson-Wilkes, quite accidentally off of Tomlinson's elbow and that his hand had cuffed the home side's goalie on top of his head, as the graceful Retford front man returned to earth from his salmon like leap.
Accidents happen, eh!?
But that young Mr Mason doesn't miss a trick.
The home side were still battering away at the visitors defence, who were putting in a real backs to the wall shift. Jonny Drabble drilled a low corner kick across the six yard box, but with a scrum of Collingham players on hand, waiting to add the finishing touch, Elkington dropped down to his knees and managed to push the ball out of harms way.
Gilmore pushed forward and released Tomlinson, who kept his shot low and hard, but Hutchinson-Wilkes managed to make a block.
You couldn't take your eyes off of this one for a moment... and though the managers and coaches might have been heard to use the word 'scrappy'; as a spectacle it was an end to end, action packed treat, with every man out on the pitch giving it all he had.

Grundy attacked the Retford goal through the left channel, but Elkington was quickly off his line, narrowing the angle and limiting the strikers options, ultimately forcing him into shooting wide.
Clifford sprinted down the left flank, catching Edwards out for pace and put in the kind of cross that forwards dream of towards Grundy, but Swannack swept things up for Retford and calmed the situation down with an assured clearance.
The visitors then enjoyed a spell of pressure, with Johnson and Gilmore playing quality balls into the Collingham area, from which (A) Hutchinson steered the ball past the post, while Tomlinson's delicate and precise chip, caressed the crossbar and went for a goal kick.
Within a minute, 'Big Will' showed good feet and rolled the ball towards (A) Hutchinson's feet, but Hutchinson-Wilkes pounced and smothered the ball.
Paul Middleton had been operating box to box for Retford tonight, when he wasn't standing on his goalkeeper's hands, in a position that could best be described as 'getting stuck in all over the park and working his spherical bits off'... and he was on hand to dispatch a long pass towards Clifford back the way it had come as the hosts number ten looked odds on to snatch an equaliser.
With Collingham having to commit men forward as they chased the game, Swannack was enjoying having a free run down the left wing, he picked out Tomlinson with a decent cross but as the big boned striker bought the ball down, that ever vigilant referee ruled that it had been 'chested' down with a shoulder.

Tomlinson had scored the only goal of the game the last time these two sides met, in a Floodlit Cup tie back in October 2015, so the hosts were well aware of the threat he posed. A retro report from the game appeared in tonight's programme, which can also be viewed HERE

Johnson and Gilmore linked up and got the ball through to Tomlinson who deftly flicked it up in the air to set upa shot for (L) Hutchison, whose first time rasping shot was well saved by Hutchinson-Wilkes, who had more than proved his worth to his team tonight.

Paul Hyde sent on Jack Wilkinson and if the battling and lively red head's mandate had been to 'freshen things up, up front', then he certainly followed that instruction to the nth degree and the home side suddenly had another attacking option in their midst.

Elkington and Swannack were both called into action by the live-wire Collingham substitute within the first few minutes of him being on the pitch.
The game continued to ebb and flow, then turned the other way again with Retford bearing down on Hutchinson-Wilkes goal, as Tomlinson held up the ball and fed Middleton on the overlap, who took a defender with him before squaring a pass to (L) Hutchinson who was unlucky to see his shot take a deflection.

The tide turned once more and Clifford latched onto the loose ball after Swannack had headed his angled pass into the Retford area away and unleashed a shot from eighteen yards, but was denied by Elkington.
Wilkinson danced through a crowded penalty area and went to ground and it appeared that he had been helped on his way by Lee Smith's outstretched leg, but the referee had a good view and said 'nothing doing', much to the consternation of the Collingham bench and the relief of the Retfordian contingent.
Drabble's corner was headed wide by Clifford, as the home side continued to strive for the elusive third goal.
Wilkinson chased down a long ball, just outside the Retford area but Elkington charged forward to reach it first and another opening went begging for the home side.
Matt Ward, the Collingham skipper, crossed towards Drabble, but Johnson took the ball down on his chest and cleared it away, as the hosts management optimistically called out for a 'handball!'
Grundy picked up a through ball just in front of Elkington, took it round the Retford keeper and side footed the ball from six yards out, that Swannack managed to clear away off the line.

Both keepers were still seeing plenty of the ball as the clock ticked down and the Retford defence were being stretched to breaking point, but were somehow keeping Paul Hyde's team at bay, with a rugged display that was redefining the word stubbornness.

In the final minute of added time (L) Hutchison played the ball across the edge of Collingham's area to (A) Hutchinson, whose shot came back off the post and into the arms of the home sides keeper.

The full time whistle sounded and Retford, who hadn't exactly been shy about piling on the pressure themselves, had withstood a great effort from the Collingham side, who couldn't have done any more to make good of all the graft and application they had put in, in and around the visitors area.

All three points went to the home side who climbed up to fifth in the table as a consequence, but their hosts will have been gutted not to get anything out of a second home game in a row, after having played such a big part in both games.

FT: Collingham 2 v Retford 3

Image result for Collingham FC Station Road sign

Retford face an away trip to Phoenix FC (of Brinsworth) on Saturday, in a game that kicks off at 2pm. And Collingham don't have another game scheduled until January 7th when they visit Dinnington Town.
The next CMFL game at Station Road, id the next chapter in the #FloodyFriday saga, when Bilsthorpe visit Newark Town on Friday January 6th.

Sat 17th November 2016
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division,
at Muglet Lane, Maltby
Maltby Main (1) 2
Keegan Burton 3
Josh Schofield 89
Parkgate FC (0) 0
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 85

Maltby Main:

Danny Rusling, Callum Cheetham, Craig Mitchell (Conner White 55), Reece Wesley, Jack Greeves, Shawn Mitchell (Ollie Lawrence 67), Brandon Potts Josh Schofield 67), Nicky Darker (C), Keegan Burton, Ryan Carroll. Jordna Snodin

Unused subs - Cory Goodwin, Liam Flint
Parkgate:
Ben Hunter, Jed McGowan (Mick Cuckson), Dan Harris, JoshDacre (C), Nick Senior, Ryan Hall (Chris Simpkins 67), Craig Fletcher, Ash Emmett, Jsh Moore, Alex Lill, Kieran Hirst (Sam Thornton 67)
Unused subs - Chris Howard, Josh Lill (GK)

Less than eight miles and just three places in the NCEL Premier Division table, divide these two South Yorkshire sides.
Although the Miners did kick off the afternoon a considerable eleven points ahead of their visitors from Rawmarsh, who are embroiled in a tooth and nail battle to get out of the bottom three places in the league table.
The rivalry between these two sides is a very friendly, yet still competitive one; because although local bragging rights are always desirable spoils to wallow in for the victors, you could probably fill a whole book with the names of the players who have represented both of these teams... and if truth be told, quite a lot of the supporters who were present this afternoon, turn out and watch them the two of them at Muglet Lane and the Roundwood Sports Complex on a fairly regular basis anyway... and Armthorpe when they are feeling really adventurous.

Elsewhere Retford United have slid into the relegation scrap at the foot of the table and though they have games in hand over Armthorpe Welfare (as do Parkgate), they're currently carrying the heavy baggage of having accumulated the worse goal difference in the table, by virtue of suffering a few really heavy defeats of late.
The Badgers plight became even more desperate this afternoon, when they traveled to Forest Town and suffered a 13-0 (2-0 at half time) reversal at the hands of AFC Mansfield, that pre-empted the departure of their manager Darren Giovannetti (by mutual consent) and the vast majority of their players.
There is a plan B in place at Cannon Park, but the official Retford United website is probably the best place to look for official announcements about that particular team and news about the imminent 'adjustment' to points total they are getting clobbered with.

Besides Armthorpe and Retford, the other two clubs caught up in the four way scrap to avoid the dreaded drop: Barton Town Old Boys and today's visitors Parkgate, have picked up a few half decent results of late, especially since Graham Nicholas and Ross Shelton took over the Steelmen's managerial reigns, turning the four way skirmish to beat the drop into a really compelling one as a consequence, after the Rawmarsh based club, had looked as if they were doomed and bouncing on the trapdoor to oblivion, with reckless abandon, earlier in the season.

"Surely they don't expect me to go out there unescorted!?"

Maltby Main and Harrogate Railway Athletic, who by way of a massive coincidence play against each other at Muglet Lane on December 27th, should be mathematically safe from the drop into Division One now, with a big enough points gap to keep them (just) out of harms way... and you can include Rainworth Miners Welfare in that equation too.
But they could all do with getting a few more wins under their collective belts any time soon, just to make sure.
For a full breakdown of today's NCEL results and the current league standings, click HERE

"You'll be okay ref!
There is an emergency exit for unpopular match officials over there!"

"It's the most wonderful time of the year" apparently, which will have impacted somewhat on non league crowds across the country today (well, at the clubs where they don't make their attendances up least-ways) and with the two football local Football League sides round these parts, both having tempting looking fixtures today (but not tempting enough to sway us); with Rotherham United making the short trip across the M1 to Hilllsborough, while Doncaster Rovers were entertaining Grimsby Town in a 12.30pm kick off at the Keepmoat Stadium.

But the officially recorded attendance of 85 hardy souls, who turned out for this game (plus the younger members of the local community, who had bunked in over the wall), were treated to an action packed tussle, that both sides emerged from with a lot of credit for their hard work, commitment, dedication to playing attacking football and unselfconsciousness about getting stuck in with some proper full blooded challenges. Incidentally: unselfconsciousness is the second longest word to ever appear on this here blog.
Sometimes, when I am watching football at international level and the higher echelons of the Football League, I have to wonder to myself, if physicality and actual tackling have been outlawed by the powers that be.
But a quick drive across to Muglet Lane always restores my faith in the fact the football still has a pulse, a beating heart and an occasional need to kick some ass.
Maltby Main also have a thriving club shop these days too.
I can't wait to see my my better half's beaming happy smiling face when she opens her Christmas box this year.
But hey! She's worth it!

This was the ideal sort of game for Maltby to give two youngsters: Keegan Burton and Brandon Potts, their NCEL debut's in.

By the time that they had left the battlefield, whoops! I meant the field of play, they had been kicked an untold amount of times, but will be far wiser from the experience, if perhaps a little bruised and grazed by way of their introduction to a properly competitive non league game.

Potts made a great contribution today, but I never expected anything else following the glowing report I had passed on to a scout from a Football League club, the last time I had seen him in action, which you can read about HERE if you are so inclined.

Burton made light of his diminutive stature and though he is only at Muglet Lane on a short term arrangement from Sheffield United, where he is currently on work experience, it looks as though he will be making a big impact on the few Miners games that he will be playing in, if today is anything to go by.

Both players will have been used to playing 'pass and move' football and were probably advised that in this league, the secret to survival is to 'pass and jump'.

But personally lads, if you still want to be walking by the time that the new year arrives, I would dispense with the passing altogether and just 'jump' as high as you can every time anybody comes near you.

And never try 'nut-megging' any journeyman centre half who looks like he bangs rivets into sheet metal with his forehead for a living and eats raw liver for sustenance... because he probably does!

Another good way of earning yourself a whole load of close attention all afternoon is to net the opening goal after just a few minutes.

It is in the league handbook that you won't get any protection whatsoever from the match officials until you have been duffed up at least a dozen times, if you've had the cheek and temerity to do such a thing.

If only somebody could've warned young Burton before the game kicked off, eh!?

Welcome to the NCEL lads.

Things will never be the same again!

Left: Brandon Potts. Right: Keegan Burton. Centre: Ash Emmett (8)

Despite the universally shared school of thought, that this would be a robust encounter; the game actually commenced amidst an air of peaceful tranquility... and it was a whole thirty eight seconds, before David Jones, the match referee, had to reach for his whistle, when Reece Wesley stopped Alex Lill in his tracks, just inside the Maltby half.

Ash Emmett delivered a telling free kick into the Miners penalty area to Josh Moore who glanced the ball towards the goal, but Danny Rusling was on hand to make a save under his bar.

Potts dug the ball out of a congested midfield and used it well spraying a pass wide to Callum Cheetham, the Maltby number two motored forward and drilled a cross into the Parkgate six yard box, where Keegan Burton squeezed it over the line to open the scoring, despite being wrestled (literally) for possession of the ball by Ben Turner, who was quite possibly twice the Maltby number nines size in height.

Ben Hunter: Kinnel! He's a big lad!

Moments later, Nick Senior lost his footing on the edge of his own area while attempting to make a routine clearance, allowing Burton to advance forward, Turner ran out and forced the youngster wide, but he whipped an angled shot past the visitors keeper and would have scored again if Ryan Hall hadn't raced back to cover and clear the ball away, next the foot of the right hand post.

Ryan Carroll, playing up front alongside Burton, was keeping the Parkgate defence busy with a full on, backs to the wall shift, whereby he was fighting for every ball, working as a foil for his strike partner, proving to be an omnipresent threat and pain in the backside for his markers and jumping into people a lot.

Potts broke free on the right flank and his delivery moved about in the air, forcing Turner to tip it over to be on the safe side as the ball almost dipped under the crossbar.

Shawn Mitchell,who had only returned from injury today, manned the barricades alongside Darker for the best part of seventy minutes today, before being rested. He is the sort of player you need in the the thick of it on days like today and his input can't be under estimated.

Maltby broke forward again with centre half Jack Greeves finding himself out on the left flank, he found his defensive sidekick Wesley with a cross, whose downward header was blocked by Josh Dacre and Parkgate cleared their lines.

Maltby were having the better of the first half so far, but the Steelmen found their rhythm and made it clear that they meant business too, with Rusling having to run from his area to beat Lill to the ball, while Moore almost stunned Maltby with an equaliser, when his twenty yard free kick failed to find a team mate in the Miners area, but hit the right hand upright.

Nicky Darker, the engine room of the Maltby side, intercepted Craig Fletcher's corner kick and shepherded the ball away and the home side moved up through the gears again as Potts turned Danny Harris one way then the other, before forcing a save from Turner.

Jordan skipped past two challenges and poked the ball sideways to Carroll who took a stride forward, squared up to shoot and was fouled as Hall clipped the back of his heels. But Carroll took the responsibility of pointing to the spot away from the referee, by playing on and forcing a save from Turner who gratefully tipped the ball over the bar.

It was a foul and it should have been a penalty, but Carroll fancied his chances and there was no guarantee that Turner would've been beaten from twelve yards anyway, so that was that... and Mr Jones could hardly pull the game back once the Maltby striker had played the advantage.

I heard a few cat calls from a couple of spectators, but I reckon they would've done exactly the same as Carroll with such a great opportunity unfolding before him in the heat of the moment.

I can't fault him for his actions at all.

Jordan was obviously getting under Hall's skin by now and found himself being exposed to some of the oldest tricks in the book over the course of the next ten minutes or so; as the Parkgate centre half put him in a head lock, a half nelson and a vertical press, while ragging him about by means of a testicular claw, tiger feint kick and a time honoured leg sweep down the back of his calf.

All perfectly legitimate in WWF bouts, but obviously also acceptable on a football pitch if the referee thinks that such antics are beneficial to 'toughening up' a young footballer.

Or was genuinely looking the other way every time Hall got to grips with the cheeky upstart.

Don't worry Keegan, there are some big lads in the Maltby ranks and somebody will get him back for you when the ref's back is turned.

Darker picked out Ryan Carroll, twenty five yards from goal, who chested the ball down and unleashed a shot just wide of the post on the turn.

The last action of the first half, saw Potts thwarted by Senior's tackle, but the other new kid on the block had been watching closely as Jordan found out the hard way about poking at the nest of bees that is a NCEL centre half and his psyche and was possibly already four feet in the air before Senior's man sized challenge arrived.

HT: Maltby Main 1 v Parkgate 0

Maltby had enjoyed the better of the opening forty five minutes, but Parkgate came out refreshed from their half time feng shui, herbal tea and transcendental meditation session... I think that is what all the shouting and expletives was about... and were evidently going to up the ante from the word go and as they restarted the game and went straight on the offensive, forcing a corner out on the left flank.

Maltby cleared and Darker chipped the ball into the path of Potts for him to run onto, but Harris was wise to the ways of the newcomer by now and headed the ball back to Hunter before the Miners debutant had even had a sniff of a chance.

Josh Dacre almost unlocked the Maltby back line with a well intended free kick but Craig Mitchell did what the Maltby defence had been doing just about every time Parkgate threatened to break through their ranks and got the ball away in a no nonsense fashion.

Let the creative midfielders and young forwards do all of the fancy stuff, a defenders job is to get the ball out of the final third, with the minimum of fuss possible. Ave it!

Darker rode two fouls in the centre circle, but the referee finally blew for the third one when Ash Emmett caught him with a kick that must have smarted.

But the Miners captain got to his feet without uttering a word of complaint, accepting that a bit of rough and tumble is part and parcel of the game.

It simply isn't in Darker's nature to nag away at referees all afternoon; now is it!?,

He had done his bit and more besides, while the fresh legged White slipped seamlessly into the left back/left half berth that Mitchell had been operating from to good effect.

Jordan Snodin took a free kick out on the right wing to meet the late run of Wesley, who blind sided the visitors defence but saw his header saved by Hunter.

The home side had absorbed a fair bit of pressure from Parkgate since half time, but were finding their second wind now and went close when Carroll got his shot in, in spite of being forced away from the visitors goal by Dacre, but the ball deflected wide off of Senior.

Having upped their application and work rate, the Steelmen were determined to force the issue now and Rusling was called into action three times: running from his line to dispossess Moore, dealing wiith Fletcher's corner as Moore and Lill both moved in to challenge and punching Dacre's free kick away after Darker had 'accidentally' collided with Kieran Hirst but had been penalised anyway.

Hirst himself was getting more and more involved in the game and was unlucky to see his shot across the face of Rusling's goal go wide of the right hand upright.

Maltby were a bit unhappy about the frequency of the linesman on the cricket field side touchline, flagging their players offside.

But we were sat perfectly in line with three decisions that were made in quick succession and can confirm that referee's assistant had called all of them correctly, even though they were close calls.

One of the young lads in the ground had just fetched a stray ball back from the adjacent field, when Wesley dashed across to intercept Lill's run from Emmett's knock down the left flank... and dispatched it over the wall.

The 'well mannered' kid merely sighed and said most eloquently in his bestest Queen's English: "F**king hell! I'll have to fetch that c*** again now you clown... but not 'til I've had a smoke!"

You might think that is fairly uncouth talk for an eleven year old, but this is Maltby and he's probably old enough to have two kids of his own by now, probably to different mums out of the same class at school and he possibly drove here in one of the cars that was parked haphazardly/abandoned on Outgang Lane, across from the allotments.

It would certainly explain a lot when the rest of us tried getting out of the car park at full time.

Both teams were using their subs as limbs began to tire, out on the ever so slightly uneven playing surface.

One of them, Parkgate's Chris Simpkins was straight on the case like a man possessed.

Jack Greeves immediately spotted the potential threat he carried and clattered into him out on the wing, by way of a greeting, earning himself a booking along the way.

Greeves had slogged his guts out all afternoon and probably didn't fancy chasing after the energetic substitute as full time came into sight over the horizon.

The next goal, if indeed there was going to be one, was vital to outcome of this game and Maltby thought that they had a chance to put the game to bed from the penalty spot, when an exchange of passes between Carroll and Burton in the Parkgate area, was blatantly thwarted, when a Parkgate player pushed the ball away with his hand.

Hmm... this referee didn't half like to let the game flow, especially inside the penalty areas.

***** of Parkgate got away with that one, but seeing as it's Xmas I will protect his identity.

Just this once!

Ollie Lawrence, freshly on from the bench, had a bit of a 'Bambi on ice' moment as he slithered forward to link up with the Maltby attack, but after his initial embarrassment and the chorus of ironic cheers that greeted his clumsy entrance, Lawrence imposed himself well and was instrumental in providing a link up out on the left while offering another stubborn obstacle for Parkgate to surmount.

Hi Martin ;-)

I often think that Lawrence would be better suited to a more central role, but Maltby already have the players who made that berth their own, so his versatility probably stands him in good stead, even though he'd probably prefer to do a full ninety minutes more often. Just anobservation on mypart, mind you.

Snodin's right wing corner was flicked on but Hunter punched clear, but the ball was instantly returned from the left hand side of the area and Burton placed a shot right into the bottom left hand corner of the goal, beyond the reach of any average human's outstretched arm, Hunter, who is possibly the offspring of Stretch Armstrong himself, somehow managed to get his hand to the ball and kept it out though.

Simpkins and Fletcher, buoyed on by their keeper's worldly save, tore forward down the right flank in tandem, but White dealt comfortably with his two against one head to head and quickly played the ball forward, having nipped the Parkgate duo's attacking intentions in the bud.

Cheetham was offering a good supply line down the right for Maltby, while the Miners central defensive pairing were closing Parkgate out and forcing them into shooting from long range.

Just as the board was held aloft for four extra minutes, Simpkins burst into the Maltby box and crashed an unstoppable shot against the crossbar.

Parkgate were still giving it their all and that one was a real let off for Spencer Fearn's side.

Ryan Carroll saw his side footed effort bobble wide of the upright at the other end.

He had deserved a goal for all of his hard work and perseverance this afternoon, but he will have been happy to have done his bit for the team, especially deep into stoppage time when Snodin fed the ball into the Parkgate area and as Hunter blocked Burton's close range knock, Josh Schofield pounced to ram the ball into the back of the net from the rebound.

Two-nil, game over and hard lines Parkgate.

In terms of getting points on the board after some indifferent results of late, this was a B.I.G. win for Maltby as they took a large stride away from the messy end of the Premier Division.

But one can't help but feel a bit sorry for Parkgate, who ran themselves into the ground today and probably deserved a point out of this enthralling contest, particularly in the second half.

FT: Maltby Main 2 v Parkgate 0

Neither of these two sides have another game until after Xmas now.

For a list of Bank Holiday fixtures, click HERE

Tuesday 20th December 2016

FA Cup 2nd Round Replay

Peterborough United (2) 2
Gwion Edwards 2, Paul Taylor 8

Notts County (0) 0
Admission £12. Programme £2
Attendance 7,796 (inc. 475 from Notts)

Peterborough United:
McGee, Smith, Hughes, Bostwick, Tafazolli, Edwards (sub Binnom-Williams 87min), Forrester, Taylor, (Inman 34) Coulthirst (Oduwa 73), Da Silva Lopes, Nichols.
Unused subs - Tyler, Almeida Santos, Nabi, Chettle.
Notts County:
Loach, Tootle, Smith (Collins 72), Duffy, Hollis, Forte, Milsom, Thompson, Richards (Campbell 57), Stead (Oliver 67), Audel.
Unused subs - Collin, Dickinson, Laing, Hewitt.

Premier League leaders Chelsea will now face Peterborough United in the Third Round of the FA Cup, after the original drawn game at Meadow Lane (click HERE for details), was settled in tonight's replay at London Road, or the ABAX Stadium, as it is now called.
Posh should already have been home and dry by the time that they dropped their guard, the last time these two sides met... and allowed the Magpies to claw back a two goal deficit.
Which is why we all ended up here tonight.

The A1, as per feckin' usual, provided us with a most unpleasant journey to Peterborough.
The return leg took us around 55 minutes; but we could have pushed the car from East Retford to London Road in the two hours and twenty five minutes it took us to get there.
At one point, somewhere in between Newark and Grantham, where we had edged forward approximately three miles in just over 40 minutes, I could quite happily have used my automobile as a battering ram to demolish the central reservation, in order to affect a U turn and abandon my trip, but it appeared to be heavily reinforced to prevent collapse. Lord help anybody who ever crashes into this particular 'safety feature' accidentally at any kind of speed.
We got to the ground about 7.15pm and though there was still plenty of room in an over-spill car park virtually across the road from the ground, we were too late to claim an optimum fast escape place right next to the exit, or to visit the nearby Cherry Tree public house for liquid refreshment and a bite to eat.
It's got personal between me and that 410 mile stretch of road, that runs from Edinburgh to London... and when I become Prime Minister (remember where you read this first), I will make it my number one priority to have it dynamited and bulldozed out of existence.

The game was barely ninety seconds old, when Michael Smith broke free down the right flank and delivered a pinpoint cross that Gwion Edwards met with his head and directed the ball into the bottom left hand corner of Scott Loach's net, to give Posh the lead from six yards out.

It looked as if a rout was on the cards after eight minutes, as Paul Taylor ran from just inside his own half, before unleashing a dipping shot over Loach from just over twenty yards, to double his sides lead, while several County players stood idly by.
United nearly scored again, when Richard Duffy made a mess of clearing the ball and miss kicked it to Taylor who forced Roach to sane.
Shaq Coulthirst fizzed a long range shot just wide after Tom Nichols had played the ball in front of him.

Yet, as we had seen in the game at Meadow Lane, once 'Boro' have imposed themselves on a game and deservedly set themselves on the way to victory, with a two goal cushion, they seen reluctant to cease the moment and kill the opposition off.
County were there for the taking now, but Peterborough, for whatever reason, had taken their foot off the gas, again.
Curtis Thompson, Jonathan Forte and Rob Milsom were making some headway down the right hand side of midfield for 'the Pies', with a calmed assurance of a team who were in no rush, nor unduly perturbed to be chasing the game already... after all, there was still plenty of time left yet.
Notts pushed forward again and Forte made himself a clear run on goal and let fly with a thumping shot from the edge of the area, that Luke McGee saved with his feet at the expense of a corner, which Milsom swung into the Posh six yard box, but Nichol was on hand to head the ball clear as Duffy looked odds on to have scored with as he nodded it towards the top left hand corner.

The home side lost Taylor in the thirty forth minute as he limped out of the action and was replaced by Brad Inman.
Jon Stead raced into the Posh area through the right channel, but was forced wide by McGee running from his line and over ran the ball before going to ground as the 'Boro' keep reached him. There wasn't any contact, it wasn't a foul, but the referee Mr England was hoodwinked into awarding a spot kick by Stead.
The vastly experienced, former England U21 striker knew exactly how to go down convincingly and Notts had the opportunity to half their deficit, but one must wonder how many of Stead's total of 121 career goals came from the penalty spot, because he didn't take this kick particularly well and McGee dropped to his right to meet the ball and make a save and Michael Bostwick was in quickly to block Stead's second bite of the cherry as the rebound fell nicely for him.
Karma's gonna getcha!
As the first half wound down, Ryan Tafazolli rose above everyone else in a crowded 'Pies' area from a right wing corner, but headed the ball wide... obviously he's lost his touch since he left the mighty Stags ;-)
HT: Posh 2 v Pies 0

It wasn't all that cold Missus W... you wimp!

Posh looked to start the second half as they had done the first and they very nearly did when Leo Da Silva Lopes created a great chance for Coulthirst, whose shot was blocked by Matt Tootle.
Alan Smith, the former England, Leeds United, Manchester United, Newcastle United and err.. MK Dons player, dropped a free kick to Stead's feet and as the Posh defence went AWOL, McGee was on hand to pull off a save.
The home side still looked intent to repeat the script from the last time these two sides met and allowed Forte far too much time on the ball as he lobbed McGee but saw his effort crash back off the crossbar.
Haydn Hollis didn't get enough power into his header back to Loach and almost allowed Nichols in to snatch what would have been a match clinching third goal for United.
The home side's captain Chris Forrester. picked out Tafazolli with his corner from out on the right, but the Magpies keeper turned the giant centre halves header round the post.
Forrester took the resulting flag kick and once more aimed for Tafazolli, but the ball ricocheted over the bar off of his chest.
Inman ghosted past Hollis as if he wasn't there and squared the ball to Coulthirst, whose half volley on the turn was held by Loach.
Tafazolli headed the ball wide again, from the edge of the area, from another Forrester corner.

Posh were finishing the game in the ascendancy, as the London Road choir sang them home with a few verses of "If you're all going to Chelsea clap your hands!"
Inman called out "I'm free!" on the right wing, picked up the ball and dashed past: Perfumery, stationary, and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery, kitchenware and food, before playing the ball to Bostwick, who hooked it to Nichols, but the Posh number twenty one couldn't quite keep his header on target.
Milsom was denied with just minutes remaining as McGee tipped the ball over the crossbar for a corner kick, which Milsom took himself and sent in an inviting ball to Tootle who headed wide.
And that was that!
FT: Peterborough United 2 v Notts County 0

You couldn't deny that Peterborough had just about shaded things over the duration of the match and deserved the result, with Taylor's goal alone being worthy of wining any game, but the fact that Luke McGee was so involved, with several great stops, tells the story of how County had made a game of it.

We were back on the A1 for 10PM, result! and for once it was clear all the way home, the only downside of the return leg of our sortie to the ABAX Stadium, was Bradley Walsh on the radio, playing a 'breathtaking' selection of his favourite Jazz and Swing records. Wowsers! What a load of rubbish. Remind me never to break into his house and steal his record collection.

A good night was had by all. Hi to Gaz, Simon and Mrs Patricia Butcher, who I watched the game in the company of on the London Road End.

Good luck to Posh at Stamford Bridge.

"We don't need no education"

Friday 23rd December 2016
United Counties League - Premier Division
at Hamilton Park, Sandhills Avenue, Leicester
Leicester Nirvana (0) 2
Jordan Nelson 52, 82
Oadby Town (1) 3
Harry Allcock 22, 70
Carlton Beardmore 49
Admission £5 Programme £1 Attendance 183

Leicester Nirvana:

Aaron Harris, Melanius Mullarkey, Mandeep Bains, Elliott Phillips, Chris Hollist (C), Jahdan Harper, Nkosi Mzungwama, Will Gonga, Jordan Nelson, James Bessey-Saldanha, Jurelle Phillips

Subs - Connor Brown-Wingfield, Shaquille Nassor, Gurdeer Mudhar, Celson Patricinio, Karol Ziniewicz (GK)

Oadby Town:

Alpha Kallon, Kieron Hefford, Lewis McLean, Callum Steer (C), Joel Wolfe, Lynus King, Joe French, Tom Gamble, Harry Allcock, Callum Armsden, Carlton Beardmore

Subs - Mason Lopas, Aniyah King

Nirvana:
An ideal, or idyllic state or place.
A transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth.
It represents the final goal of Buddhism.
Alas, Nirvana the football team, they were denied a final goal tonight, by a string of decent saves in the closing stages of the game by Oadby's Alpha Kallon, that helped the visitors claim all three points.
Leicester Nirvana:
Leicester Nirvana were formed in 1982, having originally been of the Red Star youth group, which is still represented on their club badge.
Thurnby Nirvana came into existence in 2008, when Thurnby Rangers and Leicester Nirvana merged, but at the outset of the 2015/16 season they reverted to the original name of Leicester Nirvana FC, although the junior and youth teams that come under the clubs wing had retained that name beyond the merger and played their games at Hamilton Park, which following a series of changes and a programme of redevelopment, got the green light (just yesterday, by all accounts), to stage first team football in the United Counties League, Premier Division.

Most recently Nirvana had been ground sharing at Gleneagles Avenue, the home of Highfield Rangers Football Club.
In 1989, the prototype Leicester Nirvana, moved on from the Mutual League to Division 1 of the Central Midlands League, but they resigned mid season during their second year in that competition and in 1994 made the decision to solely become a junior and youth devlelopment club.
Once the merger had taken place 2008 the amalgamated club took over Thurnby Rangers place in the Premier Division of the Leicestershire Senior League.
At the end of the 2009–10 term, they went up to the East Midlands Counties League, winning the title in their fourth year at that level, when they were promoted to the United Counties League.
Though Hamilton Park has remained the home of the club's youngsters, tonight marked the occasion of Leicester Nirvana's first ever senior home league match at this ground.
Which is why so many sad anoraks (and people like me) traveled from far and wide, who were stoic enough to risk braving the imminent arrival of 'Hurricane Barbara' (a storm that didn't live up to it's 'yellow weather warning' forecast expectations, as it happens) to be here.

Oadby Town:
Oadby Town, AKA The Poachers, play at Wigston Road, which is less than six miles away from Hamilton Park
Tonight's visitors were formed in 1937 (or 1939, there are two conflicting versions of events) as Oadby Imperial FC.
In 1943 Imperial merged with a local junior side and became Oadby United, but reverted to Imperial again in 1949, before settling on Oadby Town in 1951, much to the relief of their uber fan Clarence Dunnicliffe, who was running out of room on his forearm to fit any more of his ever growing collection of club crest tattoos on.
If you ask him nicely enough, Clarence will show you his impressive collection of ink, though he doesn't attend midweek games in the middle of winter any more, now that he is getting on a bit

Most of Oadby Town's early existence under their various names was spent in the Leicestershire Senior League, in fact they competed at that same level, winning a vast array of titles and local cup tournaments, until 1999, when they were promoted to the Midland Football Alliance, where they won the league championship at the first attempt.
In the 2002–03 season Oadby Town reached the semi final FA Vase , before losing 3-1 (on aggregate) to Brigg Town, who went on to beat Sudbury Town 2-1 at Upton Park in the final

Having finished 22nd in the MFA in 2010-11, the Poachers were demoted to the East Midland Counties League and the following year they reached the fifth round of the FA Vase, where they were beaten 2-0 by virtue of a brace of goals from Staveley Miners Welfare's Joe Thornton.

Oadby Town made a sideways move to the United Counties League Division One for the 2012–13 season and finished fourth at the end of their first season in the step 6 competition, before going up as champions the following year.

I am very grateful to Martyn and Colin, of Winterton and Scotter respectively, for detouring through East Retford upon Idle to pick me up en route to the game and to the population of the East Midlands for staying off the roads tonight and affording us swift passage in and out of the outer regions of the city of Leicester.

The demographic make up of the host club, both on and off the pitch, is representative of the cosmopolitanism make up of the locality, which in essence is something along the lines of what all football clubs who like to use the handle 'a community club' should be set up like.
Far too many teams who claim to be at the epicentre and hub of their locality are completely missing the point and are, in truth, pretty much the same as any number of run of the mill non league clubs, who employ managers from outside their immediate geographical radius, who come (and eventually go elsewhere) with their own entourage of journeymen players, who follow them from team to tea.
There is nothing wrong with that sort of thing of course and it is fairly commonplace, in a game that is full of favoritism and even nepotism, but it is what it is... and it isn't true to the meaning of what a genuine community club encompasses. Just saying.

The first twenty minutes or so were played out in the middle third of the pitch for the most part, with very little of much note happening infront of either goal as the teams weighed each other up.
Melanius Mullarkey, the home sides right back impressed as he tried getting Nirvana going down the right flank, floating a cross towards Jordan Nelson that Alpha Kallon plucked out of the air and then won a free kick when the Poachers defence decided that he wasn't going to dictate things out on the right and brought him down to earth, quite literally, with some close attention.
But Jurelle Phillips' free kick was headed clear by Jahdan Harper.
After the tentative opening spell a half decent game of football broke out, that ticked all of the boxes for the majority of those present.
Will Gonga took aim with a speculative shot from almost forty yards out, but his shot cleared the wrong side of the right hand upright by a couple of feet.

Meanwhile, Tom Gamble, playing mainly on the left hand side of Oadby's midfield, was instrumental in digging the ball out of a crowded midfield and getting the visitors cogs in gear and it was he who created the opening goal, when he cut into the right hand side of the Leicester area and drilled a low cross on the slippery pitch, into the six yard box, that Aaron Harris struggled to deal with as he went down to make a save and inadvertently pushed the ball to Harry Allcock who probably won't ever score an easier goal for the remainder of his playing days.
A 'Poachers' goal you might say, if you were being a 'punny bugger'.
Gamble threaded a pass through Nirvana's back line to Allcock, whose first time shot was blocked by Chris Hollist.
(J) Phillips advanced towards the Oadby area and Joe French was alleged to have tripped him twenty yards from goal, although it looked like a harsh call from my vantage point and a gentlemen stood nearby wearing a Oadby Town hat obviously felt so to as he shouted: "Ref! It's a ground opening for them, not a charity match!"
But the free kick came to nothing.

Right on the stroke of half time Elliott Phillips nudged the ball forward for (J) Phillips to run on to, but his angled shot was turned away by Kallon.
HT: Nirvana 0 v Poachers 1
I made my way towards the well appointed club house, that stands on a raised concreted area, offering great panoramic views of the game, took one look at the lengthy queue for hot drinks and gave it a miss.
The great and the good of the ground hopping fraternity (and our motley crew) were out in force, speaking a jargon that I can barely decipher (WTF is a 'bracketed tick' for example) and arranging a car pool for the Annan Athletic v Berwick Rangers game tomorrow.
They are a likeable lot, definitely knowledgeable too... and though their isn't any kind of official dress code for this ever expanding troop of football enthusiasts, I'd wager that the takings at Jacamo have been fairly substantial of late.

The second half was only four minutes old when the visitors extended their lead, when Carlton Beardmore blind sided the Leicester defence through the right channel, raced towards the goal and struck the ball past Harris, who hadn't spotted the danger until late and was left grasping at fresh air as the ball zipped into the back of his net.
Leicester had to respond quickly to stop the game slipping away from them and just moments after the restart Jordan Nelson pulled a goal back. His drilled shot was well saved by Kallon, but the ball cannoned off the Poachers keeper towards Gonga who rolled it forward to Nelson who wasn't going to be denied twice as he placed his firmly struck shot past the luckless Oadby keeper.
Game on!
The goal invigorated the home side, who were up to the challenge now, but a combination of Kallom, Joel Wolfe and Lynus King were just about holding the fort for the visitors.
Leicester had a great opportunity to draw level when Mullarkey made a powering thirty yard run forward but was fouled just outsside the Oadby box. (J) Phillips dipping free kick didn't dip enough and narrowly cleared the bar.

Mandeep Bains was making good use of the ball out on the left for the home side, but Oadby were defending well whenever he tried to find (J) Phillips and Nelson.
Lewis McClean, the visitors left back launched a long clearance for Allcock to chase after, but as the Oadby striker left two defenders in his wake Harris sprinted from his goal area and headed the ball away.
"He's not a bad centre half, but he's having a nightmare in goal!" commented a 'benevolent' visitor, completely untouched by the spirit of the occasion and probably oblivious that this was supposed to be the season of goodwill to all men.
Allcock, who had been making run after run all night, popped up on the left wing and sped forward before trying to catch Harris out with an awkward long distance low shot, that deflected wide off of a Leicester defender.
Callum Armsden's right wing corner was fumbled in the air by Harris, whose misery was complete when the ball slipped from his hands into the path of Allcock who restored Oadby's two goal cushion from close range.

Stands from Gleneagles Avenue relocated to Sandhills Aenue

It looked now as if Leicester Nirvana's opening ceremony was going to have it's shine diminished somewhat, with Oadby looking like the side most likely to take all three points on offer now.

Gonga sprinted forward but his solo run was met by Kallon who raced out to smother the ball.

As the game went into it's final five minutes and the travelling football enthusiasts began jockeying for position near the exit, for the traditional quick getaway on the final whistle and surge towards the car park, to whence an ex-rated version of Wacky Races was about to break out on the nearby A46... but let's face it, nobody wants to drive past Thurmaston and Syston at anything less than 30 MPH for fear of having their wheels nicked... when all of a sudden, the game was far from over, when Nelson benefited from a complete misunderstanding between Kallon and Wolfe and scored his second of the night to set up a frantic finale.

This is what they want!

Kallon redeemed himself with three saves inside the final five minutes, plus the four extra ones that the referee, Lee Hartley had added on.
His stop from Nkosi Mzungwana's swerving free kick, was pivotal to the Poachers preserving their lead, but Nelson almost leveled things up right at the death, when he saw his thumping shot skim narrowly over the crossbar.
It would have been nice for the home side to have taken something out of this game, which they had been waiting to stage on home turf for almost thirty six years, but I suspect that nobody from Oadby would agree with that sentiment.
Football is results based industry and old romantics like me still have to learn, that the narrative surrounding games of association football, never leads towards a happy ending for everyone involved.
FT: Leicester Nirvana 2 v Oadby Town 3

Both sides contributed to an entertaining game and will feel that they ought to have had something out of this compelling contest.

Leicester Nirvana FC pulled out all of the stops to make sure that the night went off efficiently without any sort of hitch whatsoever and should be proud of their efforts, which many people appreciated, recognised, commended and wholeheartedly applauded.

Monday 26th December 2016
SkyBet EFL League 2
at the One Call Stadium (Field Mill)
Mansfield Town (0) 0
Morecambe (1) 1
Andy Fleming 13
Admission by Season Ticket
Programme £3 Attendance 3237 (inc. 79 away fans)

Mansfield Town:

Shearer, Bennett, Pearce, Howkins, Collins, Clements, Hemmings, McGuire (Thomas 76), Henderson (Hamilton 45), Green, Hoban (D. Rose 61)
Unused subs - Jensen, M. Rose, Baxendale, Hurst
Morecambe:
Roche, Conlan, Winnard, Edwards, Jennings, McGowan, Murphy, Fleming, Rose, Ellison (Wildig 83), Turner (Mullin 76)
Unused subs - Nizie, Molyneux, Massanka, Jordan

Revenue wise, I do feel that the Football League... and particularly the non league fraternity, missed a trick this weekend; with hardly any games being played on either Friday 23rd or Saturday 24th December, when the full quota of public transport options would've been available to all, unlike today.
The non league clubs who did (re)schedule fixtures on these dates, had a marked increase in their attendance figures.
The only decent thing on TV over this extended weekend, was that 'An audience with Dame Shirley Bassey', which even the narration and presentation of David Walliams couldn't put a damper on.
So other than that there was no reason for the public at large to get outdoors and seek some live entertainment.
Just one or two games staggered across the leagues, would have made a killing, but while plenty of other innovative industries used the festive season as an opportunity to make a financial killing, football merely stood back, watched and listened the to the 'kerching' of the tills of those who had used a bit of nous and some forward planning to give people something to shell their money on at this frivolous and free spending time of year.
But that opportunity has been and gone now, so hey ho!
Just a thought innit?

The ladies in my life had decided that it was a slobbing out 'chick flicks' in pyjamas day at my des res on the scenic borders of rural north Nottinghamshire... and after learning, much to my horror, that they wouldn't be viewing any of the Hunger Games films, I decided to leave them to it and headed to Field Mill instead..
Tomorrow, they'll be hitting the sales in Meadowhall, so, not wanting to add to the overcrowding at that monstrosity of a place, I've unselfishly offered to head to Derby to watch Birmingham City in action instead.
Incidentally, the US of A version of spellcheck on this laptop offered pajamas as an alternative to pyjamas just then.
Tsk! They can't even put an X in the correct box over there, so they can 'bogger' off trying to advise me how to write in my native tongue, I'll tell thee!
And while we're at it, it's colour not color, civilised (but never civilized) nations drive on the left hand side of the road and your national sports are all crap.

But I am meandering away on a tangent here, aren't I? Now where were we?
Oh yes! Mansfield Town, the home of the mighty Stags, who were playing against Morecambe.
So without further ado; bring it on!
Hmm, truth is, I was stalling for time and trying to use up my word count limit, because I didn't really want to say too much about this game, because, truth be told I have just wasted 90(+4) minutes of my life that I won't ever be able to get back... it was piss poor!
Morecambe weren't very good at all, but they had more than enough about them to see off and embarrass the Stags, in whatwas a truly awful excuse of a game.
These two sides have only ever played against each other eight times before today... and they had both recorded four wins apiece against each other thus far.
In the run up to this game their current form was identical too, with the Stags and Shrimps last four consecutive games throwing up the same sequence of results: lost - won - drawn - lost.
Steve Evans side went into today's in 17th place, just two places and three points ahead of their visitors.

Given those statistics, today's odds of 11/4 on a draw seemed pretty generous.
But alas, by half time, I would have torn off my right arm (possibly even my left one too) for such a result; because any kind of all square outcome was already never likely to be on the cards, given that this was, by far, the worst performance from a Stags side that I have witnessed for a very long time.
The last time that Morecambe visited Mansfield, the game was a very niggly and bad tempered affair.
Mansfield won that one 2-1, thanks to goals from Matty Blair and Krystian Pearce... and two penalty saves from Scott Shearer, after Kevin Ellison had given the visitors a first minute lead.
Starting the day five points behind the play off places, but just five above the drop zone too, it would be fair to say that since Steve Evans became the new Stags manager recently, the club hierarchy and fan base have fairly high expectations for an improvement in results and upturn in form as they end 2016 with a brace of home games against Morecambe this afternoon and Doncaster Rovers on Saturday (at 12.15pm).

I like Adam Murray, he's always been pleasant enough whenever I've had dealings with him and he has served the club well. But it was becoming increasingly evident that 'Muzza' and the club had both gone about as far as they were going to together and it was probably best for all concerned that the two parties went their separate ways, sooner rather than later.
Once the flesh wounds are open and that infamously hard to please core of fans at Field Mill have shown their teeth and started to gnaw away at anyone; be they players, managers, fellow supporters or even boardroom personnel, their victims continued tenure around these parts, seldom lasts very long... they aren't the kind of wounds that will ever heal.
Today I heard a growing trend of animosity and teeth grinding being directed towards another club legend: Matt Green.
Nothing (and nobody) is sacred, once the critical element of the Stags faithful decide that your number is up. And they have very short memories to. That said, Green wasn't especially pulling upany trees in an attempt to win people over this afternoon and show the new incumbent(s) of the hot seat(s), that he still has a vital role to play in the Stags first team. Not that I'm singling Green out, you understand, because there were worse players than him out on the park today.

That same element of supporters will soon be demanding virtually instant success from the Steve Evans/Paul Raynor partnership any time soon. but I personally see the remainder of this season as an opportunity to underpin next term's promotion push and putting some solid foundations in place to build on. I rate Steve Evans as a football man, through and through. He's got a proven track record and getting him to come to Mansfield Town, is a massive coup for John Radford and the club, regardless of what the anybody might think of the man.
Take the time to meet him, talk to him and give him a chance I say.
Good luck to the guy... Mansfield Town need Steve Evans more than he needs them. And that is certainly true on today's showing.
However, any more shambolic no shows like this afternoon and his could be the shortest ever manager's honeymoon period on record. I'm pretty sure that I saw a divorce law specialist lurking in the shadows at the reception.

Seventy nine Morecambe fans

Maybe I have become a balding, rapidly ageing realist of late, but I would prefer too see a period of sustained, long term progress, over any kind of quick fix 'charge of the light brigade' gallop towards the play offs.
Don't get me wrong, I will be rooting for the team every inch of the way if the Stags do manage a surge towards the business end of the table in the new year, but numerous 'if only' scenarios and cunningly disguised 'false dawns' since the beginning of time itself, have instilled a wholly pragmatic mindset into my psyche as regards all things Mansfield Town FC.
And it must be said, that in all seriousness, it wouldn't take many more performances as bad as this one, for the Stags to slump into such a position, that it wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility that they could get out of this division in the opposite direction at the end of this season and take the plunge back towards being a non league team again.

An overly pessimistic analogy you might think, but the fact of the matter is, that worse case scenario is far more of a mathematical possibility than a lot of us would care to contemplate... and all of a sudden each and every game is taking on the mantle of a 'must win' one.
In truth the Stags only created two decent opportunities in the first half today, with Matt Green seeing his looping header tipped over the bar just before the half hour mark when Ashley Hemmings had crossed the ball after being released on left flank by Chris Clements... and Pat Hoban turned the ball just the wrong side of the upright from Green's knock down a couple of minutes before the break.
There were a few other flickers of hope and crumbs of comfort along the way for the home faithful,
but nothing that was clear cut enough to warranted relating at this juncture.
Morecambe however, did find the back of the net after thirteen minutes, when Rhys Turner skinned Kyle Howkins with a burst of pace through the left channel, before knocking a sideways pass to Pete Murphy, whose shot from twelve yards was well blocked by Scott Shearer, but Andy Fleming gratefully rammed the ball past the stranded Stags keeper as the rebound fell kindly for him.

Barry Roche in the Morecambe goal, was seldom troubled, but on the few occasions that they did puncture the Shrimps rearguard, the visitors custodian was just about equal to the (very limited) threat that the Stags posed.
Danny Rose came on in place of Hoban and livened things up a bit, hitting the crossbar just moments after his introduction and then pouncing onto a rebound off of Roche from Howkins shot, but striking the ball against the upright.
CJ Hamilton, who had replaced Darius Henderson at half time, raced forward thirty yards through a static Morecambe midfield, but gave the ball to the Morecambe fans in the North Stand as a late Christmas present with a shot that would best be described as wayward.

It was of great concern that although the Stags had plenty of the ball, it was seldom in critical areas of the pitch... and the fact that they had at least thirteen corner kicks this afternoon, possibly more, but created nothing of note from any of them, while repeating the same tactical set piece maneuver time and time again, must surely have set some fairly loud alarm bells ringing somewhere.
If Evans is looking to bring in players in the forthcoming transfer window, who he is familiar with and knows can slot into his proven, tried and tested methods, then in the interim a plan B (at the very least) geared to suit the 'talents' that he has at his disposal, must be implemented forthwith before league leaders Doncaster Rovers roll into town on Saturday lunchtime.

This Stags team are entering a period on transition and seismic change and though one must always look forward and never back, I think that if Mansfield had played as completely atrociously as they did today towards the end of Adam Murray's reign in charge, then some sections of the crowd wouldn't have stopped at any less than a public beheading tonight.
Steve Evans and Paul Raynor have never flinched from a challenge and they now know the enormity of the task they have taken on. Hold ontothe edge of your seats this ride is just about to get bumpy.
I guess I should say a bit more about Morecambe in my final analysis: To their credit, they knew that they had to kill the game off today and chisel out a result, with a typical lower league, bottom half, away performance. Their time wasting, gamesmanship and non stop haranguing of the match officials
was off the scale at times, but they got the job done and if Mansfield want to climb up the table to safer height then they are at times, in a horses for courses sort of way, going to have to man up and meet fire with fire when the need arises.
FT: Mansfield Town 0 v Morecambe 1
For what it is worth, I'd happily take a 0-0 draw against Darren Ferguson's Donny Rovers now.

Being the ever helpful sort of guy that I am, I nipped into my local corner shop on the way home to
pick up a magazine for Matt Green, because he seems to have mislaid his somewhere.

Tuesday 27th December 2016
SkyBet EFL Championship
at the IPRO Stadium (Pride Park)
Derby County (0) 1
Darren Bent 64 pen
Birmingham City (0) 0
Admission £32 Programme £3
Attendance 32,616 (inc 3,119 away)

Blues went into today's game just two points behind their hosts, sitting in eleventh place in the Championship table having lost three and won one of their last four games, a run that includes the fairly one sided going over they suffered at Newcastle United.

Of course, City have made more headlines off the pitch than on it, since that ill fated trip to the north east, because in spite of them only being three points off of third place at that time and having just beaten Ipswich Town at home in the midweek aftermath of the defeat at St. James' Park, the club's new owners Trillion Trophy Asia sacked the highly rated and popular first team manager Gary Rowett, who had worked wonders at the club since he took over at the helm, and replaced him with Giafranco Zola.

Zola only had the opportunity to take just one training session before his first game in charge, against Brighton & Hove Albion (at home), who are battling for top spot with Newcastle... and the Seagulls scored two late goals to pinch the three points from that Saturday evening game after Lukas Jutkiewicz had headed Birmingham in front in the 52nd minute.
There is a very strong rumour circulating, that the club's new owners have given Zola a list of transfer targets to pursue in the forthcoming transfer window.
You really can't make some of these takeover sagas involving overseas investors up, can you!?
And even if you did people would dismiss a lot of the tales relating to their strategies and demands as being fictional creations of a vivid imagination, because they seem too far fetched to be real.
The truth is often stranger than any fiction in the current climate.

By contrast Derby County have won five of their last six league matches at home and were set to claim a new club record if they could keep a seventh consecutive home clean sheet (in league matches) this afternoon, which of course they did and that particular milestone never genuinely looked like being under any threat whatsoever for long spells of this game.
Although it is worth noting, that a Rams side did suffer a 2-3 defeat at Pride Park in the Checkatrade EFL Trophy, against Mansfield Town on November 8th.
Since that reversal against the Stags, Derby had won five out their last six games, prior to today... and drew 2-2 at Fulham in their final outing before the Championship's unnecessarily long Xmas sabbatical.

Of course, the Rams had a 'headline' managerial change of their own earlier in the season, when Nigel Pearson left the club on 27th September, while on 12th October, Steve McClaren returned to the club he had played for from 1985 to 1988 and managed from 2013 to 2015, before he'd moved onto Newcastle United who dismissed him in March of this year and installed Rafa Benitez into their hot seat, with one eye on starting from scratch and rebuilding their team which was facing inevitable relegation from the Premier League. That plan B is evidently reaping dividends now then, though it has alsoworked out very nicely for Derby County too.
Musical chairs anyone!?

Bring me sunshine?

Yesterday, all four teams that are currently occupying the play off berths: Reading, Huddersfield Town, Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday all won, with the latter picking up three points on the road at Newcastle United. Earlier today Brighton & Hove Albion picked up an easy three points against Queens Park Rangers in a lunchtime kick off, which saw the south coast side leapfrog over the Magpies to regain top spot in the Championship. I watched the second half on one of the screens beneath the Toyota Stand when I arrived at the iPro Stadium and bad pun intended, the Seagulls were flying today!

Ah, it was Brian Clough & Peter Taylor all along.

The crux of Birmingham City's dip in results of late, was highlighted right from the early stages of the game, whereby the players who had ground out results in a manner that wasn't always aesthetically easy on the eye, under Gary Rowett, by being hard to beat, containing opposition sides and smothering their creativeness, while hitting them on the counter attack and basing their game plan on a solid foundation of resilient hard graft and application, don't fit into the new manager's attacking and pressing tactics, because although they are all good players, very good in a number of cases, few of them are technically great.

Dave Mackay a Hearts and Rams legend.
I didn't realise he had half a leg missing!

Rowett had devised a system whereby he got the the best out of the resources at his disposal, which he had fashioned out of a team of players that he had assembled within a strictly limited budget.
But Gianfranco Zola doesn't play the game that way, though it might have been wise of him to adapt his approach temporarily to utilise the strengths of the players he has at his disposal, until he can bolster his squad in the January sales, so to speak, with the calibre of players required to play his desired high tempo passing game.
Birmingham offered very little in the final third today, because having reached such a position, their players struggled to find that extra spark that was required to unlock this ultra efficient Rams defence, that Steve McClaren has impressively built his team's recent meteoric rise around.

Granted, Blues were without their main striker Clayton Donaldson and the width provided by Davis Cotterill, but you could also point out to the fact that Zola had left Che Adams on the bench today and he could have been the perfect foil for Lukas Jutkiewicz in a two pronged attack, because he is one player who has the ability to play himself out of a tight situation.
When I heard the City manager say in his after match press talk, that he thought his side were unlucky to lose today, I put it down to the fact that it would be unprofessional for him to say publicly "We weren't very good, we were half decent across the back, but didn't penetrate in the last third and that is down to the fact that you can only piss with the cock you're given... and it was very cold out there today!", though to be fair he never actually said that he thought Blues should've won either.
What he did actually go on to say was: "That sort of thing happens all the time in the box, players put hands on each other like that and it happens every week. Normally these penalties are not given.
"They did not threaten us. We did not look threatening either and I think 0-0 would have been a fair result. The missing thing was the productivity in the final third."

Truth is, the visitors only really forced the issue right at the end (after the belated introduction of Adams), by which time Derby had parked the whole row of park and ride buses laid onto take supporters to the city centre after the game, across the face of their goal.
Under Rowett, Blues possibly had just about enough in their arsenal to scrape into the play offs, but they were nowhere near the finished article that could've competed at a higher level, if by some quirk of fate they had actually gone and won promotion..
But time stands still for no one, not even a popular manager whose club supporters had a great affinity for, and now the 'Bluenoses' attentions must focus upon how and if Zola is going to salvage this season now. If he is to do so, then he's going to have to pluck some fairly impressive rabbits out of his hat in the new year.
Moments after the Rams had gone ahead, their fans mocked Zola and the travelling Blues fans with a boisterous chorus of "There's only one Gary Rowett!", but the Birmingham contingent spontaneously echoed the chant, by way of a tribute to their former boss, who was present in the guise of a media pundit, and as a pointed expression of their frustration at what was unfolding out on the pitch.

It is indeed, as the Italian pointed out himself "a marathon not a sprint", but with so many teams jockeying for position, Blues can't afford to lose too much ground during this period of transition.
But, like I said after their capitulation at Newcastle, Blues look like a good promotion bet for next year, rather than the current one.
Meanwhile, Derby currently look like a better bet to sustain a realistic push for the end of season four team lottery, there is certainly a feelgood factor and upbeat mood around Pride Park and a belief that better times are just around the corner.
Not that the home crowd raised the roof noise wise especially (while the visiting support belted out an impress array of club anthems at full volume all afternoon), until after Darren Bent sent Tomasz Kuszzcak the wrong way from the penalty spot on sixty four minutes after Michael Morrison was adjudged to have fouled Richard Keogh as the two of them wrestled for position in the area.
After the game McClaren went as far as to say that he had highlighted how closely the visitors defence weere marking his players from set pieces and corners to the match referee Graham Scott at half time.
It was one of those decisions that you'd be disappointed to be on the wrong end of, but wouldn't feel even an ounce of guilt about if you were the beneficiary.

And if McClaren had got into the referee's head with his pointed observation, then well played him for tapping into the under rated science of sports psychology. Many an up and coming aspiring young manager could learn a lot from such actions.
Ranting and raving at match officials will never get you anywhere, subtlety however, does have its merits.
And from then on in the Rams upped the ante and looked more relaxed than they had done at any time before during the game, especially during the first half when the two sides were overly cautious and only created three reasonable goalscoring opportunities among them, with Darren Bent failing to convert two chances, that were both set up by Johnny Russell... much to the amusement of the large away following who took no encouraging to remind him about his former employment at Villa Park
and Birmingham's Lukas Jutkiewicz badly miscued a shot, after a through ball from Jacques Maghoma had sent him on a clear run with just Scott Carson to beat. Jutkiewicz is good at getting balls in the hair on target... but I'll leave it at that.

In his post match analysis the Rams manager hit the nail squarely on the head, quipping: "We got better and stronger in the second half and upped the tempo, we created chances, got the goal and then defended well at the end to get the points" before ominously adding "Birmingham were waiting to be beaten and we took it to them", which was just about as hard of a reality slap as he could have delivered across the smarting cheeks of any Blues supporter within earshot.
He was dead right though.
Derby's Will Hughes was presented with the man of the match award (possibly because his name sounds like ewes), though personally I thought that two of his team mates: Brad Johnson and Johhny Russell had both done more for the Rams cause today. Given a little more time, Hughes, an industrious and clever midfielder is going to be an asset to the full England team. I've seen him in action numerous times for the Under 21's and the former Mickleover Jubilee youngster has come a long way in a short time, as has the former Oadby Town and Ilkeston attackinh midfielder, twenty year old Che Zach Everton Fred Adams, who impressed today after finally getting on. I can foresee the day when these two line up alongside each other for the full national side.You saw it here first ;-)

Once the Rams had taken the lead, they weren't about to surrender it, not with players like Keogh running themselves into the ground.

Former Derby player Ryan Shotton did well today, ticking most of the boxes from my pitch side vantage point, but collectively, his team were lacking the will and composure to take the game to the home side, One could suggest that they had set out their stall for a goalless draw, it certainly looked that way at times.

At the outset of the game, Zola's side had retained possession and passed the ball around well, without actually making much headway into in opposition territory, in fact I did note that I thought they were actually over passing the ball, when such an approach wasn't proving to be effective and they really needed to adopt a typical away team performance, of containing Derby and then hitting them on the break. I fully understand that such an approach isn't going to help the team develop and become serious promotion contenders any time soon, but football at this level is a results based industry and Blues have now only picked up three points from the last fifteen that were available to them.

I always liked the way that Gianfranco Zola played the game, with a smile on his face and unlimited amount of trickery in his feet. But even though it would be something quite special if the St. Andrews faithful could be treated to anything like a fraction of innovative skill and entertainment that Zola provided as a player, that kind of talent won't come cheaply and though I am all for players expressing themselves and doing something that bit special when thy are on the ball, I do think that the ingratiating star of international football, will have to cut his cloth accordingly for a while yet.

McClaren will stand Derby in good stead, they have the players who can up the tempo and turn on the style when needed and can also close down games and out maneuver sides to grind out a result like they did today.

Derby just about deserved to win today and err,,, Birmingham didn't.

FT: Derby County 1 v Birmingham City 0

Both of these sides are in action again on Saturday, when Derby entertain Wigan Athletic, while Birmingham travel up the M1 to take on Barnsley at Oakwell

Sadly I was unable to attend my second scheduled game today, which was going to be Ollerton Town v Teversal's evening kick off.

Because, to cut a long story short, I broke the big toe on my left foot in bed on Xmas Eve and it had swollen to such a size as I painfully hobbled back towards my car from Pride Park, the only place I was bound for on the way home from there was the outpatients depatment at Worksop hospital, where I received some strapping, antibiotics and painkillers as a late Xmas box. While being advised that I was to rest up with my foot elevated 'for the time being'.

Yeah, like until tomorrow night!

Thursday 29th December 2016
SkyBet EFL Championship
at the AESSAL New York Stadium
Rotherham United (1) 1
Tom Adeyemi 45+4
Burton Albion (2) 2
Chris O'Grady 36
Jackson Irvine 41
Admission £27 Programme £3
Attendance 9,806 (inc. 775 away)

Rotherham United are currently cemented to the bottom of the Championship table, some ten points adrift of safety as a consequence of this result and it was easy for all to see the most blatantly obvious reason why they are accelerating their plight rapidly down a very steep and slippery slope towards an almost irretrievable situation tonight.
The Millers created approximately fourteen decent chances over the course of the game, but only managed to convert one of them. And therein lays the problem.
And although I'm loath to single any individual out, when football is supposed to be a team game, based on collective responsibility; Lewis Price, the home side's keeper, had a 'mare' with both of Burton's goals.
For the most part, Paul Warne's side bossed the tempo of the game and saw far more of the ball than their Staffordshire visitors (go on, fess up, who thought Burton upon Trent was in Derbyshire?); but goals win games and Rotherham were ultimately cut down to size, by a two strike smash n' grab raid, in the space of five minutes towards the end of the first half, which by and large was very much against the run of play.

Rotherham United:

Price, Mattock (Blackstock 85), Wood, Forde (Odemwingie 67), Frecklington, D Ward, Fisher, Newell, Adeyemi (Halford 79), Belaïd, Brown.

Unused subs - Bilboe, Kelly, Broadfoot, Taylor.

Burton Albion:

McLaughlin, Brayford (Flanagan 46), Mousinho, McFadzean, O’Grady (Harness 72), Akins, Dyer, McCrory, Naylor, Palmer (Barker 90), Irvine.

Unused subs - Bywater, Williamson, Beavon, J Ward.

Jon McLaughlin, the Albion keeper, had been called into action and thwarted the Millers several times, before his side had even made any real kind of impression inside their hosts half, but the 'heat map' percentages won't trouble Nigel Clough any, as his side chalked up their first victory on the road this season, which also means that they finally picked up their first ever Championship away win too.

It was a result that saw them climb from twenty first in the table to nineteenth, though the two teams they climbed over as a consequence of this vital scoreline, do both have a game in hand.

Rotherham for their part proved true that old adage, that when you are at the bottom of the pile, nothing, or very little, ever goes your way.

On the way home I listened to the local radio discussion about what the Millers need to do in the forthcoming transfer window.
Might I politely suggest that they get their scouting network to go out and about to see if anybody has got a miracle for sale at an affordable price.

With players of the calibre of the former England youth international Izzy Brown, who is currently on loan from Chelsea until the end of the season, it is difficult to see why Rotherham are struggling quite as badly as they are in front of goal, especially after Peter Odemwinge entered the fray from the bench in the second half.
Worryingly, for the home supporters, who to their immense credit, stuck with their side tonight in lieu of the unrelenting hard work and effort that the players were obviously putting in, it would seem that fate has a big part to play in the final outcome of this now monumental struggle against the drop to League 1.
They aren't in a completely impossible position, as of yet, but it's a very close call... and losing twice against Burton, away and then at home, at either end of December is probably the last thing they needed.

Former Bradford City keeper Jon McLaughlin saw plenty of the ball tonight and was a pivotal figure in his sides much needed win.
Prior to playing for the Bantams, McLaughlin, a native of Edinburgh, had turned out for Harrogate's two non league clubs: Town and Railway Athletic.
But try as they might, a mix of profligate finishing, no nonsense defending, McLaughlin's agility and a whole lot of bad luck, was keeping United at bay and stretching Albion to the limit.
Lloyd Dyer was showing some neat touches and making a nuisance of himself, across the width of the pitch, in a free roaming forward role for Burton and it was he who carved a moment of respite for the visitors, from the shooting practice session that Rotherham were having at the far end of the pitch, when he put on burst of pace to bi-line, on the left hand side of the Millers area and hooked a cross beyond the back post, that Joe Mattock headed away at the expense of a corner, just to make sure.

775 Burton Albion fans

If Akins had looked up before he crossed he might have spotted than Tom Naylor had made a good run forward and had arrived, completely unmarked on the right hand side of the eighteen yard box, level with the penalty spot.
From the resulting corner, Akins and John Brayford arrived in unison to clatter into Price and a rare Brewers opportunity had gone.
McLaughlin kept out an angled shot from Joe Newell, pushing the ball around his left hand upright at full stretch... and to all intents and purposes, it looked more of a when than an if, as regards Warne's side taking a deserved lead.
But it's a funny old game Saint!
In Chris O'Grady, Burton have an attacker who hadn't found the net in over a year, but he ended his fallow run in the thirty sixth minute, from an opportunity that I reckon just about anybody in tonight's 9,806 could have scored blindfolded, as Price got down to save Akins shot from the edge of the area, but let the ball roll from his hands to the feet of O'Grady, who opened the scoring from close range.

Within five minutes the visitors supporters were up on their feet feet celebrating again, breaking into a mocking variation based on the Beach Boys song 'Sloop John B', which contained the amended lyrics: "How shit must you be!? We're winning away!"

The Australian international Jackson Irvine, who joined the Brewers from Ross County earlier this years, towered above the Rotherham defence and emphatically planted his header over Price, from Brayford's cross, that the beleaguered keeper flapped his arms at in a vainglorious attempt to keep the ball out as it crashed down off the crossbar, but could only help it on it's way into the back of the net.

I have asked this one before, several times, but what are Sheffield United thinking off, allowing Brayford to go out on a season long loan?

He barely put a foot wrong all night, as he linked Burton's three man defence with some fairly eye catching wing play down the right flank.

Four minutes into an elongated spell of first half stoppage time, Darnell Fisher was released by Danny Ward with a defence splitting pass, but his shot was blocked, smothered and cleared by the Albion defence.

Damien McCrory fouled Izzy Brown just outside the left hand side of the Burton area. Joe Newell’s free kick picked out Richard Wood at the back stick, but McLaughlin saved superbly from the Millers number six's close range header, but the ball fell kindly for Tom Adeyemi, who had the simplest of tasks as he nudged the ball into the open goal, to half the home side's deficit.

Right on the stroke of half time Akins floated a right wing cross into the home side's six yard box, Naylor connected with the ball, but his header flew inches over the cross bar.

If Rotherham had the better of the first half, play wise in spite of the result, they actually owned the game after the interval and must be wondering what kind of witchcraft McLaughlin practices to be able to throw up a teak solid invisible force field around his goal.

Do this Burton defence moonlight as doormen? One must ask, because the Millers name wasn't on their list, so they were most definitely not getting in.

Burton had two early chances after the break, when Dyer and O'Grady both went close, but the visitors then stuck out their chins defiantly and offered the Millers to come and have a go.
In the aftermath of defeat in this six pointer, the home side's manager had claimed that Burton had come to play for a draw.
But they only shut up shop once they had surprisingly taken a two goal lead, though I can see what he's getting at given the visitors ultra cautious approach to the second half, where you got the impression that while they were defending a lead, they were already taking a damage limitation, backs to the wall approach, in case one of Rotherham's many attempts to break them down, eventually led to another goal.

A point would've suited Albion more than the Millers, but they fought tooth and nail to hold on to their spoils now, all the way to the final whistle.

With twenty minutes or so to go, Peter Odemwingie, was let loose on the visitors, but he too was frustrated by McLaughlin and his vastly over worked defence.

Perhaps if Odemwingie had been introduced earlier and and Rotherham had switched to a 3-5-2 with Brown up front alongside him.

But while Warne made several tactical switches, trying to change the shape of the game, in an attempt to force (at least) a second goal, Burton were back in numbers and, to their credit, putting a double shift in.

Both team desperately needed points and when Championship survival is at stake, it doesn't say anywhere in the rules, that you have to satisfy the purists or play 'tippy tappy' football.

Ugly football won the day, make no bones about that, but, by the same token, a failure to turn possession and numerous chances into goals, lost the game for Rotherham.

FT: Rotherham United 1 v Burton Albion 2

On Monday afternoon, Burton entertain Preston North End at the Pirelli Stadium, while Rotherham face a trip to Gary Monk's in form Leeds United. It's a fixture that probably have come at a worse time for them.

Saturday 31st December 2016

SkyBet EFL League 2

at the One Call Stadium/Field Mill

Mansfield Town (0) 1

Matt Green 59

Doncaster Rovers (0) 1

Liam Mandeville 77 pen

Admission by Season Ticket

Programme £3 Attendance 5,042 (inc.1,618 away fans)

Mansfield Town:

Shearer, Bennett, Benning, Collins, Pearce, Clements (M.Rose 86’), Green, Baxendale (Hurst 86’), Howkins, Hamilton, D.Rose (Hoban 78’)

Unused subs - Jensen, Thomas, Hemmings, McGuire

Doncaster Rovers:

Marosi, Mason, Alcock (Middleton 63’), Butler, Baudry, Rowe, Blair, Houghton, Mandeville (Keegan 85’), Marquis, Williams

Unused subs - Jones, Wright, Beestin, Calder, Longbottom

Clipstone FC on tour

League 2 leaders Doncaster Rovers made the short trip to the Mill for this dinner time kick off, sat proudly at the top of the basement division pile, in a neck and neck race for the title with Plymouth Argyle.

The pair of them started today a mere nineteen points ahead of the Stags. But results elsewhere this afternoon, sawDarren Ferguson's side slip to third place, with Argyle and Carlisle United both picking up maximum points, with wins over Crawley Town and Notts County respectively, with the latter result leaving the Stags county rivals just a solitary point above the relegation places.

"Hello, is that Rampton Hospital? You can call the manhunt off, we found him!"

It would be fair to say that my eternal flame of optimism for all things Mansfield Town wasn't exactly burning brightly this morning, off the back of that particularly lame showing against Morecambe on Boxing Day.

Things will get better, given time, I'm sure of that; but I was only present at this particular game out of a sense of duty and defiant stubbornness (... yes, me! Who would ever have thought it!? Or even knew that the letter n appears twice in stubbornness?), far more than through having any kind of confidence in the old adage, that states: it is better to travel in hope, than not to travel at all.

Besides, I wasn't going to Hope, I was heading towards bloody Mansfield again.

In their match preview, the Doncaster Star had billed this game as Rovers 'Biggest Scrap Yet', a headline that contained just one more letter than the three words that I had used to describe the Stags previous game.

But I feel that I must fess up, because on the face of things, I wasn't expecting a great deal of much from the Stags today at all, but it was nice to get an unexpected surprise to see out what has been a great year for me on a number of levels, when Steve Evans and Paul Raynor's side, took the game to 'Donny', more than matched their high flying visitors and were actually unlucky not to win the game.

In the run up to this Notts v South Yorkshire derby match, I would've been very happy to contribute a weeks wages to slip into the referee's boots as an inducement to see to it that the Stags were guaranteed a point today.

Yet, as I left the ground enthused by much of what I had just witnessed... and somewhat relieved that there had been no repeat of last week's debacle, our post match assessment was actually tinged with disappointment, that Mansfield hadn't got the result that their performance actually warranted.

What a difference a seven whole days can make in football.

Rovers fans could argue that they were unlucky not to have claimed a winning goal when Jordan Houghton's header came back off the left hand upright and into the waiting arms of Scott Shearer late in the game, but they would have to be fairly blinkered to do so, given that Liam Mandeville's seventy seventh minute spot kick was their first effort on target, in a game that the home side could have already put to bed by that stage of the game.

Certainly, 'Donny' rallied late on, but they had struggled against a very attack minded and lively approach from Mansfield, up until the point that the referee awarded the visitors with a penalty, after Tommy Rowe went to ground over the top of Shearer, who was down at his feet attempting to pull off the second part of a double save.

Shearer had done well in the opening exchanges, nullifying the visitors attempts to open up the Stags defence from down the flanks, by cleanly taking several crosses.
But Doncaster's early optimism was soon quelled, as the home side found their stride and got to grips with the job in hand, making the top team in League 1 look very ordinary in the process.
Danny Rose started the game and was obviously relishing the opportunity to have a go at the visitors defence, who in turn recognised the threat he posed, as they subjected him to a few quite physical challenges.
When (D) Rose left the field of play in the seventy eighth minute, it was to rapturous applause from the home crowd, who for once, seemed to unanimously agree with the sponsors choice of man of the match... well played and well deserved Danny Rose!

It was also pleasing to see that Matt Green, who had been out of sorts a week ago, was back on top of his game and doing what it is that he does best, i.e. putting the squeeze on opposition defenders, albeit in a slightly wider role than he might have been used to in the past.
But Green has the experience and quality to adapt and his versatility is pivotal to the attacking shape and approach that the new management is trying to implement.
It would be fair to say, that 'Greeny' has rediscovered his mojo... and you can only hope that the interest that MK Dons has been showing in the striker comes to nothing.

One job I really wouldn't have wanted this afternoon was that of the fourth official, who will probably have the loudest shouting voice of an agitated Scotsman impregnated in his head when he tries to get to sleep later, but Darren Ferguson inherited that noisy trait from his father Alex, the most successful British manager ever.

Likewise his assistant Gavin Strachan probably gets his shouty man gene from his dad too, though it could be argued that he is doing better in the game than Strachan senior, given that 'Gav' is the assistant manager at a League 2 (Divison 4) side, while his dad Gordon is only the manager of a third world and insignificant international team called Scotland.

OK! I possibly heard one or two comments aimed towards all four officials from the home bench too!

Steve Evans provided the afternoon's comedy moment, when the ball went out of play near him and he managed four keep ups in an impromptu public ball juggling display, two left footed and two right.

The man obviously has talents we didn't previously know about.

As the sides went in at the break with the game still goalless, Mansfield were still clinging on to their unique and unrivaled record for this season, insomuch as, they haven't scored a single goal in the first half of any league fixture yet.

Impressive stuff, eh!?

But fear not, because once that dam breaks, the goals are going to start flooding and you'll regret the day that you were sniggering at the mighty Stags.

Sammy the Stags puzzle page is proving popular

Finally, Rovers succumbed to the home sides pressing game in the fifty ninth minute, when they could only clear the ball as far as Malvind Benning whose thundering long distance shot was diverted past the Marko Marosi in the Rovers goal, by a cheeky back heel from Green.

Only an in form striker who is brimming with confidence would ever attempt something quite so audacious.

A second Stags goal would have killed the game off, but try as they might, it wasn't to be forthcoming.

Against the run of play, the visitors equalised from the penalty spot in the seventy seventh minute.

Mandeville's shot was blocked by Shearer, who had no option but to venture from his line to claim the loose ball that had fallen into the path of Tommy Rowe... the keeper got there first, marginally, but the Rovers player left stud marks on Shearer's thigh as he went over the top of the Stags number 1 and hit the deck.

There is no doubt that Rowe's momentum meant he had no chance of staying upright as he came into contact with Shearer, it certainly wasn't a dive as such, but was it actually a foul?

The referee thought it was and his opinion carries more weight than mine... so as Mandeville stroked the ball past Shearer from the penalty spot, Rovers had drawn level and were on the way to claiming a point from a game that they were fortunate to have got anything out of at all.

As we walked back to the car, I received a text message from a Rovers fan I know: "Mansfield should have won, best team. Happy New Year!"

He was right of course, but those fine margins that people go on about these days, always seem to fall heads up for the teams at the top of the table.

It was disappointing to hear people blaming Shearer for costing the Stags a win, because I fail to see what more he could've done in the build up to the Doncaster's penalty and nobody seemed to be asking why there was no defender on hand to clear the ball away after the initial save, but football is a game of multiple and often conflicting opinions, where if you asked a dozen different eye witnesses to relate any given incident, exactly how they had seen it personally, you would get twelve completely unidentical versions of events.

FT: Mansfield Town 1 v Doncaster Rovers 1

Mansfield... a tranquil beauty spot in Nottinghamshire

Versions of events:

Mansfield Town website

Donny Rovers website

Nobody seems to have mentioned that John Marquis was lucky not to have received two yellow cards this afternoon, so I'll let that go without a further mention, this being the season of goodwill n' all that.

Doncaster Rovers face Stevenage at home on Monday, while the Stags travel up to Blackpool. Never mind, eh!? There will be a couple more local derby options for bank holidays next season, if Lincoln City keep up their promotion push from the Conference and Chesterfield don't go bust before they are relegated.

Loads of positives in today's performance from Mansfield and a few new signings incoming to bolster the spine of the squad... it bodes well for 2017.

Next Saturday (7th January 2017) Mansfield Town play Doncaster Rovers, in the EFL U18 Youth Alliance. The game kicks off at 11AM and will be played at Rainworth Miners Welfare FC, Kirklington Road, Rainworth, NG21 0JY.

All support before you head off towards your afternoon games, will be greatly appreciated.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sunday 1st January 2017
Vanarama National League North
at the Martin & Co, Arena, the Northolme
Gainsborough Trinity (1) 1
James Reid 20 pen
Boston United (1) 2
Jay Rollins 23
Josh Robinson 90
Admission £12. Programme £2.50.
Attendance 1,005 (320 away)

Gainsborough Trinity:
George Willis; Josh Lacey, Ioan Evans, Adam Quinn, Brad Beatson; Adam Chapman (Matthew Templeton 81); Laurie Wilson; Jordan Thewlis, James Reid (Matt Thornhill 70), Noel Burdett; Ashley Worsfold (Nathan Jarman 89)
Unused subs - Gavin Rothery, Alex Wiles.
Boston United:
Ross Durrant; Kalern Thomas, Josh Robinson, Tom Batchelor, Ben Gordon; Joe Fitzpatrick, Charlie Gatter (Shane Clarke 76), Lewis Hilliard (Callum Chippendale 57); Marcus Marshall, Gregg Smith (Lamin Colley 67), Jay Rollins
Unused subs - Ben Clappison, Waide Fairhurst.

Roughly fifty five miles separates the Northolme from the Boston Stump, across the sprawling mass that is Lincolnshire; a county that encompasses approximately 2,700 square miles of land with a population of around 1,042,000 and an awful lot of fields.
United are known as the Pilgrims because of the town's connections with the Pilgrim Fathers, who fled from their Lincolnshire outpost to America (if you've ever been to Boston, during any period during it's history, you wouldn't blame them for having done such a thing) and founded Boston in Massachusetts.
Joking aside, the Pilgrim Fathers also had strong connections with the people's republic of East Retford, Austerfield, Babworth and Scrooby, which are all quite close to the former capital of England, that is Gainsborough itself.
For more details about this most fascinating subject click HERE

A study of concentration, starring Kenwyn Hughes

Trinity started the day sat precariously in nineteenth place, while their visitors rolled into town, just two points and two places above the Holy Blues in the table.
So a closely fought game was anticipated, with the emphasis being more on picking up some much needed points, than providing a display of finesse, entertainment and 'tippy tappy football' for the eagerly expectant crowd.
Especially as it had been tipping down with rain around these parts since the clock struck midnight to bid farewell to 2016... and the lush turf of the Northolme had been absorbing an awful lot of precipitation, straight off the back of thawing out from the recent frost.
The surface actually held up fairly well under the circumstances.

But game managed to live up to it's dull forecast, with the home side in particular slipping some way below what you would call 'below average' in the first half, before plummeting like a stone after the break, when to be frank, you couldn't honestly say that they even raised the ante above the 'piss poor' threshold, for more than a few fleeting moments.
When you sit back and invite your opponents to 'come and have a go', they will and if you don't keep tight on them, then you have only got yourself to blame when you get punished for showing a complete lack of creativity.

It would be fair to say that when the Pilgrims finally netted what proved to be their winning second goal, it had been coming, because they had spent so long camped in the Trinity half after the interval, they were in severe risk of actually being charged ground rent.
Even though Boston left it late to finally force the issue, I doubt if you could even find a Gainsborough supporter of the deepest blue, dyed in the wool type, who would say that this wasn't a fair win for their county rivals and both teams got exactly what their respective efforts deserved.
If Bradford Park Avenue had scraped any kind of win against Salford City this afternoon, then the Holy Blues would have slipped into the drop zone.

In all of their time as a senior non league club, Gainsborough Trinity can boast the proud record of never having been relegated; if they intend to keep that impressive statistic intact, they had better start making a fist of things ASAP, because if they defend their league status in the same manner that they performed in the second half today, then the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League beckons for Dom Roma's under achieving side.
Having seen off a volley of early forward play from the visitors, who were trying to used their width to get in behind the Trinity defence, while testing George Willis several times and seeing Tom Batchelor miss an absolute sitter when the ball fell unkindly for him, Gainsborough finally got forward in the twentieth minute and were gifted with an opportunity to snatch the lead, somewhat against the run of play, when the referee: Gareth Rhodes, spotted a handball amidst a crowd of bodies in the United goal area and awarded a penalty kick, that James Reid gratefully smashed past Russ Durrant to give Trinity an unlikely lead.

But the home side weren't in front for very long and just three minutes after Reid's spot kick, Boston were on level terms, when the soaked playing surface came into play as Jay Rollins twenty five yard low drive, somehow found it's way under George Willis' dive and ended up in the back of the net.

An away following of 320, in the segregated section set aside for the visiting supporters, but from the pockets of cheering elsewhere in the ground, one can safely assume that there were actually a few more 'Bostonians' present this afternoon.

Trinity almost restored their lead shortly afterwards, But after Noel Burdett had hooked a dangerous looking cross into the Boston area, Reid leaned back as he shot and the ball ended up among the Pilgrims fans stood at the open end of the Northolme.

The same Burdett/Reid combination tried making headway into Boston territory again, but the Pilgrims recently appointed manager, Adam Murray (who had recently vacated his post at Mansfield Town), is adept at preserving a favourable score line, had tweaked his system accordingly and it soon became evident, that Trinity were going to struggle to make any kind of impression in the attacking third of the pitch.

Boston's new young debutant, Joe Fitzpatrick, was providing some telling free kicks and distribution to Gregg Smith and Lewis Hillard up top for the Pilgrims and showed an impressive quota of confidence and composure for a nineteen year old.

HT: 1-1

The game between these two sides at York Street on Boxing Day had finished 1-1, but even though the hosts seemed content to hold out for a repeat scoreline, United didn't!

As with most games between rival sides on a perfect surface for slide tackling, things became a bit feisty at times, with one Trinity and four Pilgrims players being shown yellow cards.

Adam Chapman, who was lining up against the manager who released him from Mansfield Town a few months ago (but who has also made inquiries about signing him again, since he took over the reigns at Boston), broke forward but over hit his intended cross for Ashley Worsfold and a rare potential opportunity for Gainsborough went begging.

Willis was called into action twice, making excellent saves from both Josh Robinson and Hillard.
And Trinity's right back Josh Lacey, who was one of the home sides better players today, blocked a goal bound effort from Marcus Marshall.
Sadly, Gregg Smith, the Pilgrims captain had to leave the pitch on a stretcher that caused a few minutes delay, but the main thing is that he has a speedy and full recovery any time soon. It's Sunday and nobody was in any rush to get anywhere when all is said and done. Get well soon Gregg, I hope the injury isn't as bad as was initially feared.
Lamin Colley, who came on in place of Smith, slotted straight into the Boston attack in a virtually seamless manner, but it was beginning to look as though all of the Pilgrim's progress in the second half would be for nothing and that Trinity were on the verge of holding on for a point in a (s)crappy and mostly undeserved manner.

Jordan Thewlis went agonisingly close for the home side, as he shot just inches wide of Durrant's goal... a Trinity win at this point would've been cruel on Boston given that seventy five percent of the second half had been played out at the other end of the pitch, in a stop/start second half.
But in the 90th minute of scheduled time Boston got their winner after Lacey conceded a free kick and Callum Chippendale delivered a dipping cross towards Robinson, who got up above the Gainsborough defence to head the ball past Willis and claim the spoils for Murray's side.
It had been coming and a Boston win was wholly justified on the balance of things... but what a sickening way for Trinity to lose a game, when it looked as though they had just about managed to keep their dominant visitors at bay.
FT: Gainsborough Trinity 1 v Boston United 2

Boston climbed to thirteenth in the Nationwide North table as a consequence of their win at the Northolme today, they entertain Stockport County at home on Saturday, while Roma's side face a tricky away fixture against fellow strugglers AFC Telford United.

Handsworth Parramore 1 v Cleethorpes Town 2 - NCEL Prem

Handsworth Parramore 5 v Maltby Main 1 - NCEL Prem

Barnsley 2 v Nottingham Forest 5 - EFL Championship

Sheffield United 0 v Walsall 1 - EFL Division One

Gainsborough Trinity 1 v FC United of Manchester 2 - National League North

Notts County 2 v Peterborough United 2 - FA Cup R2

Lincoln United 1 v Stamford AFC 0 - EvoStik NPL Div 1 South

Teversal 6 v Retford United 2 - Notts Senior Cup R3

Newcastle United 4 v Birmingham City 0 - EFL Championship

Collingham FC 1 v Newark Town 2 - CMFL North

Lincoln United 2 v Chasetown 0 - EvoStik NPL Div 1 South

Collingham FC 2 v Retford FC 3 - CMFL North

Maltby Main 2 v Parkgate 0 - NCEL Prem

Peterborough United 2 v Notts County 0 - FA Cup R2 Replay

Leicester Nirvana 2 v Oadby Town 3 - UCL Prem

Mansfield Town 0 v Morecambe 1 - EFL League 2

Derby County 1 v Birmingham City 0 - EFL Championship

Rotherham United 1 v Burton Albion 2 - EFL Championship

Mansfield Town 1 v Doncaster Rovers 1 - EFL Championship

Gainsborough Trinity 1 v Boston United 2 - National League (North)