THE66POW

Monday 2nd January 2017
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at Forest Town Arena
AFC Mansfield (1) 1
Gary Bradshaw 10
Handsworth Parramore (0) 0
Admission £5
Programme £1.50
Attendance 116

Attention to detail:
The resplendent winter sun shines brightly through the
etched letters cut into AFC Mansfield's new turnstiles.

The Bootiful Game, a periodical magazine dedicated to the NCEL, ran a predict the result poll on Twitter in the run up to this game and their swing-o-meter was definitely hanging heavily towards an away win.
The scores on the doors were:
17% AFC Mansfield
74% Handsworth Parramore
9% Draw

But this just goes to show why the richest man in the Bookmakers, is invariably the one who has his name above the door.
For the record, I was one of the minority of 9% who had expected and voted for a draw.
Which I suppose it was, if you count this as part two of a double header between the two sides, after the Ambers had won the first leg 2-1 at the Worksop Van Hire Stadium on Boxing Day, when Alex Rippon and Aaron Moxam had given the Ambers a two goal half time lead, before Chris Timons netted a late consolation away goal for the Bulls.
Sadly for the former Stags player, away goals don't count double in this competition.

I will choose my words very carefully, given that there are quite a few people connected to both of these clubs who I regard as good friends and actually enjoy the company of.
But, from where I was sat watching this often turgid contest today... and without leaning either one way or the other, I think an overall fair and brief synopsis of the game that unfolded, would be: a team who put in a just above average performance, defeated their highly fancied opposition, who were themselves suffering from a severe case of having an off day.
Should a match highlights DVD ever become available, as a keep sake of this below par game, it wouldn't last very long, but could actually become a best seller, as a cure for insomnia.
Might I be so bold as to suggest, that it is far too early just yet, for some players (though not all of them) to be counting down the clock until the end of the season and merely going through the motions already.

Both teams can play much better than this and owe their management, respective club backers, volunteers and the people who paid in at the turnstiles to watch them play, a better performance next time out.
Truth be told, two evenly matched teams, both containing a spine of decent players, cancelled each other out for long spells, while the majority of this less than gripping encounter was slugged out in an overly congested midfield zone and the arc thirty yards or so above it.
Which actually made for a terrible game to watch, at times.
You couldn't fault a good number of players (though not all of them II) from both sides, for their commitment and effort, if nothing else, as they slugged things out across the width of the pitch, either side of the the centre circle; but a bit more inventiveness and taking opposition players on wouldn't have gone amiss, like the kind of stuff that Andy Ofusu of Parramore and Lynton Karcach both did once they were belatedly introduced from their respective subs benches.

Handsworth looked keen to take the initiative early on, but their enthusiasm seemed to disipate fairly quickly.
Danny Buttle made the first forward move and forced the Bulls into conceding a left wing corner, but as the two sets of players jostled for position amidst a tangled mass of arms and legs heading from the outer reaches of the goal area into the six yard box, Jordan Annable got up between Buttle's flag kick and the near post and made this defensive lark look easily, with a well anticipated and executed clearance.
A few firm but fair head on challenges, saw the ball vanishing into the stratosphere several times as opposition players simultaneously tried putting their feet through it, but in the fourteenth minute, Rudy Funk's side put together a few decent touches around the Ambers area (and one dead jammy and fortuitous inadvertent flick on) and netted what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

The evergreen Ryan Williams set the move in motion, with a cross from the right wing, that glanced off of Ollie Fearon's head towards Gary Bradshaw and the Bulls captain Danny Patterson who had taken up position just outside the area to the left of the D. Bradshaw instinctively ran forward
as his skipper hooked the ball over the static visitors defence towards Fearon, who knocked it down into the path of Bradshaw who scored from close range, while the Handsworth back line appealed for the linesman to get his flag raised for what they perceived to be an offside offence.
Although the referee's assistant seemed to favour making his decisions either late, or after the event, he was unmoved in this instance... and the goal stood.
However, the linesman on the opposite touchline didn't hesitate to raise his flag immediately as Jon Froggatt made his forward run a fraction too early, in pursuit of Alex Rippon's's knock forward.
Buttle dropped a corner in from out on the right, but as White collected the ball, he landed awkwardly almost fell backwards over his own line

Joe Cheeseman (I can only assume that he was the yellow one, who was full of holes), was combining well with Jon D'Laryea and the aforementioned Patterson, to offer cover between the Bulls goal area and the centre circle, while Ryan Williams must have a well at the foot of his garden, that is piped into the stream of eternal youth. Young players should take note of how the evergreen wide player looks after himself, if they desire longevity in their own playing days and follow in his footsteps, apart from that time he mistakenly moved to Chesterfield for a while. He recovered well from the experience mind you and as proof of this, he even earned himself a second spell at the Stags after temporarily playing his football at the wrong end of the A617.
You live and learn, eh!?
Luke Fletcher won a corner for the visitors out on the right, that Buttle delivered across the face of the Bulls goal, but D'Laryea got an important touch to guide the ball wide of the left post.
Tom Claisse delivered the flag kick from the left, but the referee had a close look as Cheeseman and Buttle came together and awarded a free kick in the Bulls centre halves favour.

Aaron Moxam, Handsworth's recent signing from nearby Rainworth Miners Welfare wasn't get much change out of Matty Plummer, but he did break free just after the half hour mark, but saw his stinging shot from ten yards tipped over the bar by Jason White.
Last month, when the Bulls had thrashed Retford United 13-0, to equal the all time top winning scoreline in the NCEL, their keeper White, had struck a penalty against the crossbar, so the record will have to stand a little while longer yet.
Claisse took the resulting corner, but Fearon was back to head the ball away, but only as far as Buttle, whose attempt to pick out Moxam with a delivery into the area was cleared by Cheeseman.
Meeanwhile at the other end of the pitch, Bradshaw chased the ball down towards the right flank and swung a decent cross towards Jimmy Ghaichem, whose flick on into a scrum of bodies found it's way into the back of the goal, but the 'goal' was ruled out for an infringement spotted by an eagle eyed flag bearer, who was probably attempting to even things up from what had occurred earlier in the game.

With half time looming, Bradshaw homed in on the Ambers goal as he chased a long ball down, but the ever reliable Connor Smythe was across quickly to cut out the danger.
Right on the stroke of half time, Buttle broke forward down the left for Handsworth, but Cheeseman tracked him back and made yet another telling interception and clearance.
HT: Bulls 1 v Ambers 0
I overheard a conversation at half time that made me chuckle: "Handsworth are too quiet, you can hear a pin drop out there today". "Yeah, they will be, Kieran Wells as ****ed off to Basford United!"
In the opening moments of the second half, a game of head tennis ensued in the Mansfield goalmouth from Claisse's corner, which saw Froggatt get approximately the sixth touch as the ball bounced one way and then the other, he nodded the ball towards the top of White's goal, but just as it looked as though it was about to tuck itself under the bar, the Cheese guy was there again to connect with his forehead and propel it away to safety.
"What's his name?" asked a spritely octogenarian sat to my left. I pretended to consult my team sheet and told him; "It's Zola pal... Gordon Zola!".
New year, same substandard jokes folks. But you keeping coming back for more!

Michael Harcourt slipped a through ball towards Moxam, but Plummer was on hand once more to thwart the prolific striker.
I do hope that after the game, Plummer checked before he sat down, that he didn't have the usually prolific hit man in his back pocket still. For the record, that isn't a slight on Moxam, the NCEL Premier Division's leading goalscorer, but a testament to the great shift that Plummer had put in.
Fearon and Williams were threatening to make the game safe for the Forest Town based side, with D'Laryea getting up in support to good effect, but when the latter broke through the left channel, Harcourt blocked his shot and as the ex Mansfield Town and Gainsborough Trinity midfielder reached the rebound, Smythe showed good positional awareness once again and stopped the ball en route togoal, before tidying things up for Micky Godber's side.
Bradshaw scuffed a close range effort over the bar after Ghaichem had played a bouncing cross right in front of him.

Smythe went close tolevelling things up with fifteen minutes to go, when he curled a low free kick from out on the right, just wide of the left hand upright.
Fearon and Ghaichem staged a two pronged attack from the left flank, but Harcourt stood firm and denied them both.

Claisse, sensing that time was running out, launched two long balls into the Bulls area... going long when you are chasing the game in the closing stages, is even allowed the purist football handbook, in fact, it is mandatory, but Cheeseman would've been happy to stand his ground and head such deliveries away all night.

Two Handsworth subs combined, but as Plummer blocked Ofusu's effort and the ball ran to Richard Tootle, he couldn't get enough power in his shot to trouble White unduly.

Karkach entered the fray with just two minutes remaining, offering more pace and width to the Bulls attack, but he was unable to harness it into his teams game or make any real impression, despite offering the onlooking crowd at touch of the flair that this game had been crying out for.

FT: AFC Mansfield 1 v Handsworth Parramore 0

The Bulls fashioned this win out of grit and determination.

There wasn't an awful lot of football, but there was quite a lot of awful football along the way this afternoon.

Handsworth need to regroup and go again on Saturday, when struggling Armthorpe visit them.

While AFC Mansfield host an FA Vase fourth round tie at the Forest Town Arena against Sunderland RCA. Good luck with that one Mr Funk!

Thursday 5th January 2017
SktBet EFL League 2
at the Keepmoat Stadium
Doncaster Rovers (1) 3
Jon Marquis 5, 71
Tommy Rowe 58
Portsmouth (1) 1
Kal Naismith 41
Admission £20 Programme £3
Attendance 5568 (inc. 669 away)

Doncaster Rovers:
Marosi (Etheridge, 86), Alcock, Baudry, Butler, Mason, Rowe, Grant, Houghton, Blair (Williams, 54), Coppinger (C) (Middleton, 66), Marquis. Subs not used: Wright, Keegan, May, Beestin.
Portsmouth:
Forde, Doyle (C), Burgess, Clarke, Rose, Stevens, Evans, Bennett (Roberts, 66), Baker ( Lalkovic, 61), Naismith (Chaplin, 75), Smith. Subs not used: O’Brien, Whatmough, Linganzi, Hunt.

Upon arrival at the Keepmoat Stadium, it was apparent just what lengths Rovers had gone to, to make sure that this televised game went ahead.
The potentially problem area of the pitch, in front of the 'Black Bank', was getting some special treatment with some specialist apparatus, that I have only ever previously seen being used in the home of my 'grow your own', horticultural enthusiast friend Jimmy the Weed, who lives in nearby Stainforth.
He's a popular lad is Jimmy, with a stream of visitors turning up at his house at all hours... even the local plain clothes C.I.D. park a discreet distance along the road from his homestead on a regular basis, hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
I'm not sure what he does for a living, but never seems to be short of cash.

Last year, (AKA, just a few days ago), I watched Rovers take a point, out of what was a less than convincing display at Mansfield Town.
Which actually bodes very well for Darren Ferguson's side, because the teams at the top end of the table, generally speaking, tend to pick up a fair amount of fortuitous points (and favourable 50/50 decisions) along the way, during the course of a successful season, whereas the opposite applies to clubs who are battling it out in the 'squeaky bum time' positions, near the bottom of the pile.

Peter Beagrie... I saw him make his debut for the England U21 side in 1987

'Donny' returned to pole position on Monday, when they squeezed past a stubborn Stevenage resistance to win 1-0, while Plymouth Argyle and Carlisle United both lost.
Tonight's visitors Portsmouth, beat fellow promotion contenders Luton Town 1-0 on Monday too, meaning that Paul Cook's Pompey arrived at the Keepmoat, well placed in fourth, having lost just once in their previous ten games.
John Marquis and Andy Williams gave Doncaster a two goal advantage in 2-1 away win at Fratton Park in October, before Carl Baker pulled one back for Portsmouth, in front of a crowd of 16,950.

As a consequence of tonight's entertaining win, Rovers finished the game a whole ten points ahead of Pompey.
The game was just five minutes old, James Coppinger broke free on the right flank, before delivering a cross into the visitors six yard box, that Matty Blair flicked on to John Marquis, who powered a header into the bottom left hand corner, against his former club, to put the home side ahead.
Connor Grant went close to doubling the home sides lead moments lateer, but he thwarted by the Pompey keeper David Forde. Meanwhile that man Coppinger was enjoying a lot of space out on the right and Michael Doyle had to make a timely interception to get rid of another cross into Forde's six yard box.
Paul Cook, the visitors manager, called their start to the game 'shambolic', however, once Portsmouth found their feet and began to impose themselves on the game, they probably had the better of the remainder of the first half.

"Na then... mi owd flower!"

Matt Clarke almost levelled things up, when he met Clive Baker's corner kick with a downward header, that Marko Marosi saved at full stretch down to his right and pushed the ball away, along his line.
Portsmouth were stretching Rovers to the max, with Kal Naismith and Gareth Evans, in particular, causing their hosts no end of problems out on the right, where they won a string of corners.
While Kyle Bennett, a former 'Donny' player, was chipping away looking for opening, as his every touch was booed by the home supporters, by way of a 'tribute' to their former player.

But Rovers countered and Niall Mason went close with a shot that found the side netting, before exposing the chink in Portsmouth's armour on the left hand side of their defence again, when right back Craig Alcock's overlapping run, led to him picking out Marquis with a pin point delivery, whose header hit the right hand upright.
Edna Stevens put the ball through the Rovers defence towards Michael Smith, but Marosi moved quickly off of his line to cut out the danger.

Four minutes before the break, Bennett latched onto a stray pass in midfield and quickly played the ball forward into the path of Naismith who motored forward and planted the ball past Marosi.
To be fair to Portsmouth, the equaliser had been coming and they hadn't deserved to go in at the break a goal behind anyway.
HT: Donny Rovers 1 v Pompey 1
The start to the second half was a little more tentative, with just the onereal effort on goal for the first ten minutes or so, when Evans tested Marosi from long range.

But just before the hour, Tommy Rowe crashed the ball past Forde, to restore the home side's lead, taking advantage of the bounce from Coppinger's cross to see off the challenge of Evans before unleashing a pile driver of a shot into the roof of the Pompey net.
Pompey then made two substitutes in quick succession, taking off Baker, whose movement had been great off the ball, but who seemed to have put his boots on the wrong feet whenever he was actually in possession and sending on Milan Lalkovic, and then replacing Bennett with Gary Roberts, just have the former Rovers player had been booked and was starting to show signs of frustration creeping in against his former team. I'm not suggesting for a moment that Bennett has a volatile edge, but it was a shrewd moment for cook to make a swap.

But before Pompey had time to regroup, Marquis struck again for the league leaders, smacking home a well executed volley from twelve yards out, after Rowe's cross had found it's way through to him via a deflection.
Lalkovic was denied by another Marosi save at full stretch, from Evans cross, as Pompey tried to get back into the game.
Marosi struggled to hold onto a cross near his penalty spot, with Smith challenging and the ball fell to Conor Chaplin, who had just come on in place of Naismith, but a well timed clearance by Alcock thwarted the third and final Pompey substitute, from forcing the issue, with six minutes to go.
Sadly the Rovers keeper was stretchered off, having not got up from his coming together with Smith (purely accidental) and the game was held up for seven minutes while he was attended to.
Ross Etheridge took over in goal for Rovers, for the remainder of the game, that they saw out safely to hold on to the three vital points.
FT: Doncaster Rovers 3 v Portsmouth 1

Friday 6th January 2017
Central Midlands League (North)
at Station Road, Collingham
Newark Town (4) 4
George Pearce 9
Jordan Thomas 22 pen
Nathan Brown 30 OG
Chris Dobbie 38
Bilsthorpe (0) 0
Admission £3. Programme £1. Attendance 64

As of yet any decision as to whether tonight's result will stand, given that the Blues were already four goals ahead, with just eight minutes of play remaining and that it was 'unlikely' at best that Bilsthorpe were destined to score four or more goals before the final whistle to effect the result, hasn't been taken. So we'll have to wait and see what the CMFL committee decree to that end, at their next meeting.

But all of that is immaterial really, compared to the plight of Lawrence 'Loz' Foster, who sustained a serious injury that saw the game abandoned, fingers crossed for the lad, let's hope that he makes a full and speedy recovery.

Professional footballers get paid while they recuperate from breaks and fractures, but at grassroots level the impact that a lay off from getting hurt playing sport can be more far reaching than some people might appreciate.

Another one of Bilsthorpe's walking wounded

As it was Newark Town's turn to play their weekend fixture on a Friday night, as part of the CMFL's #FloodyFriday initiative to boost attendances and they were slightly down on staff numbers tonight, I fulfilled my pledge to Richard Lane, the Newark Town club secretary and programme editor, to offer any assistance that he needed on the night.

My input didn't amount to very much if truth be told, but in that time slot leading up to kick off, when a multitude of tasks all require doing there and then and all 'must have' your immediate attention at precisely the same time, an extra pair of hands always helps to minimise the potential for chaos.

I've always had a good rapport with the teams that play at Station Road and as long as it doesn't clash with my duties elsewhere, they're always welcome to call on me when required.

BFC manager and former Stags youth protege
Dean Mitchell arrives at Station Road.
Get well soon pal!

Perhaps the fact that the legions of football travelers who descend on these sort of games in good numbers, had the opportunity to tick off this ground last month when Newark Town 'visited' Collingham, so to speak, had an effect on how many people turned out in the event, but the attendance figure, gate receipts and programme sales were all better than average, so to that end the night was a success.

And even a completely fanatical lover of UK non league football from Norway had made his way to Station Road to team up with his pal from Mansfield, as part of his current tour of grounds.

Good to see you both again... you make a lovely couple!

Having booked a hotel in Newcastle last week, only to see his intended games postponed due to the frost have a nibble at the regions pitches, Mr Johanson had commented: "This country is going soft, if they had been like this seventy years ago, you'd all of been speaking German now!"

Norwegians deal better with the cold, it must be all of the whale meat they eat, but I concede that the population of our green and pleasant land are we are a bit of a laughing stock in Scandanavia, because of the way that the north and midlands comes to a complete standstill under just a few inches of snow, while the same applies to our capital after 0.82 of a millimetre. But I digress...

From the outset, Newark were on the front foot tonight, taking the game to their visitors, who didn't really get their act together until after the break... and it was no surprise when Jordan Cummings threaded a great pass through the Bilsthorpe defence to pick out George Pearce who slotted the ball past Ryan Graves, inside the opening ten minutes.

Jordan Thomas was soon homing in on the visitors goal, as the Blues continued to make all of the early running, but Gary Atkins got back to force him wide and intercepted the ball at the expense of a corner.

A walking whiteboard. That must come in really handy.

It was another run by Thomas into the Bilsthorpe area that led to the home side's second goal, when Bilsthorpe's keeper Ryan Graves, grabbed the Blues number ten's ankle as he weaved his way past him and conceded a penalty, that Thomas duly thumped into the net via Graves outstretched hand.

George Simpson was showing a few decent touches as he tried to get the visitors going and it is worth noting, that in spite of this being a step seven non league game, that both sides were trying to keep the ball on the deck and play the game the way that the good lord (AKA Brian Clough) had intended.

The (all day) seasonal rainfall, had made for a slick and fast moving pitch, which encouraged a passing game, interspersed with a few 'proper' tackles, that took me back the halcyon days when slide tackling was allowed.

Atkins broke down the left flank as Bilsthorpe make a rare excursion deep into Newark's half, but the Blues goalkeeper Nathan Burrows met him with at the dead ball line and slid in to clear the danger.
Play switched quickly from end to end, but as Nathan Brown got to Jammy Lloyd's dropping ball into the visitors area first, it looked as though the potential goal threat had been avoided, until Brown headed the ball back to Graves without looking to see where he was stood first and inadvertently put Newark three goals ahead after half a hour. Whoops!

Graves was called on to make two saves from Thomas in quick succession as Newark looked to hammer a few more nails into Bilsthorpe's coffin before the interval, but the overworked visitors keeper was unable to keep out Chris Dobbie's thirty eighth minute strike, as the agile Blues striker pirouetted on the spot, fifteen yards from goal and scored with a peach of a shot on the turn, to all but tie up the result after thirty eight minutes.
A poor clearance fell into the path of Lloyd, who looked odds on to add to Bilsthorpe's misery, but Graves raced out quickly to nick the ball away.
I'm not privy to what Graves did wrong at the club Xmas party to warrant such a backlash from his own team mates, who seemed to have collectively ganged up against him with Newark, but it must've been pretty serious stuff.
HT: Newark Town 4 v Bilsthorpe 0

Anyway! What I need to know, is when did Newark Town drop their unique and classy 'Peaceful Warriors' nickname and simply become the Blues? And how trite and silly does that sound when they are wearing their change strip of yellow and green? Just saying!
Graves was in action again at the beginning of the second half, twisting and turning backwards, to tip Thomas' close range volley over the bar, before punching the resulting corner away into the middle distance.
But from then on in, the game was far more even than it had been before the interval and Bilsthorpe made far more of a fight of things.
One thing that wasn't going unnoticed was that the match referee, Will Murray, must've had his hearing aid turned off, because I have never heard so much effing and Geoffing aimed at a match official in years, in fact not since I stood on a touchline to monitor the behaviour of some particularly outspoken parents at a Harworth v Tickhill Under 10's game a few years ago (the referee from that game still carries the mental scars).

Kyle Wesley swung in a cross to Atkins and Burrows did well to get down to his left and make a save.
Craig Gould, the visitors captain, actually had the ball in the back of Newark's goal and though he was (correctly) flagged offside, the assistant referee had signalled his decision to the referee very late, which meant that he was now sharing the brunt of the profanities with Mr Murray.
Bilsthorpe seemed to think that their best chance of breaking down their hosts and chipping away at the four goal deficit was via the right flank, but the Newark captain, Rick Brewer was proving to be a formidable barrier and shut down that route efficiently.

Sam Wilford came close to putting the game to bed, but Graves blocked the ball with his feet, as his defence looked far more organised in front of him than they had earlier in the game.
Atkins, who had played well for the visitors tonight, was just inches away from puling a goal back inside the last ten minutes, but his curling shot from the right hand side of the area, flew wide of the left hand post.
With eight minutes remaining, Lawrence Foster, was bringing the ball under control out on the touchline, when Lloyd challenged him for it.
Sadly, the Newark number six caught Foster's right ankle, very firmly but purely accidentally and the sickening sound of a bone giving way, along with the chilling cries of pain, indicated exactly what had happened, even before any help arrived quickly on the scene.
Under the circumstances... and though he received some abuse for doing so... the referee abandoned the game.
He had to, and that decision had already been made for him, surely!

There were a couple of people who suggested that Foster could be removed from the pitch, which is never the right thing to do where breakages are concerned and some who thought that the abandonment was a bit hasty and that the referee should've waited to see how long the ambulance took to arrive.
Possibly he could have given it ten minutes or so, but he was in communication with Bilsthorpe's assistant manager who was on the phone to the emergency services, so he would've had a rough idea about the timescale that was expected.
In the event the ambulance arrived at 10.45pm, so the match official had called the situation correctly.
FT: Newark Town 4 v Bilsthorpe 0 (pending CMFL clarification)
I'm sure that I wasn't alone in flinching when I heard that awful bone splintering sound.
Hopefully, you're as comfortable as is humanly possible at the moment Lawrence Foster and on the mend soon.
Sure, everyone would have wanted the game to be played out to it's conclusion, but we must never lose sight of the fact that, that is all it is... a game and some thingsare infinitely more important.

It's your ass liner, you scratch it whenever you want to.

Saturday 7th January 2017
EFL U18 Youth Alliance
at Rainworth Miners Welfare FC
Mansfield Town (0) 1
Tyler Walker 58 OG
Doncaster Rovers (1) 1
Morgan Ratcliffe 13 OG

Mansfield Town:
Xavier Sundby, Teddy Bloor, Kane Baldwin, Cain Smith, Morgan Ratcliffe (C), Kieran Harrison, Henri Wilder, Ali Smith (Jason Law 60), Zayn Hakeem, Tom Marriott (Jake Dumbleton HT), Nyle Blake (Devante Reittie 69)
Unused subs - Aiden Walker, Surafel Behailu
Doncaster Rovers:
Louis Jones, Tyler Walker, Danny Amos, James Morgan (Cody Prior 85), Josh Barker (C), Reece Fielding, Keegan Townrow (Cameron Foulkes 62), Jake Fletcher, Lloyd Henderson (Lewis Scattergood 85), Will Longbottom, Matt Overton (James Morris 77)
Unused sub - James Leverton (GK)

With Burton Albion and Notts County both chasing hard, attempting to catch in the race for the title, a win against Rovers would have made the young Stags position a little more comfortable; but the visitors, looking for the points that would haul them up into the top half of the table, turned up and gave it a real go, as they looked to avenge the Stags narrow win at Cantley Park in October, when an opportunist strike from Tom Marriott was all that had separated the two sides.
It would be fair to say that the home side got off to a slow start to their first game of the new year and only really threatened Doncaster's goal sporadically until after half time.
Rovers showed their attacking intentions first, when Matt Overton broke away on the left flank and crossed to Lloyd Henderson, who crashed the ball against the crossbar from fifteen yards out.
Danny Amos was the next visiting player to deliver the ball in from the left, but Morgan Ratcliffe was on hand to head it away from danger.

Nyle Blake showed a burst of pace and darted forward through the left channel, but found himself outnumbered by four visiting players and he was unable to take them all on, on his own.
Ratcliffe hooked the ball clear from virtually under the bar, after Xavier Sundby had missed with an attempted punch to clear Keegan Townrow's free kick away.
But it proved to be third time unlucky for the Stags captain, when he tried to clear Will Longbottom's cross away in the thirteenth minute, but only managed to divert the ball into his own goal as it bounced unkindly and ricocheted off of his shin.
Doncaster probed for an opening on the left flank yet again and having made an overlapping run, Amos hooked the ball towards Jacob Fletcher, who lashed his shot over the bar.

But Fletcher atoned for his miss at the other end of the pitch moments later, when he managed to get in between Nyle Blake and Marriott's threaded pass and shielded the ball back to his keeper Louis Jones, who has impressed during several games for Maltby Main in the NCEL this season.
Mansfield's striker Zayn Hakeem was having his every move shadowed by Reece Fielding, a centre half who has played against the Stags first team for Rovers in this season's Checkatrade Trophy.
In a mix up that typified Mansfield's first half performance, Hakeem and Blake made a complete mess of completing a short corner routine and Tyler Walker comfortably cleared any apparent danger away.

Walker then comfortably cleared the Stags crossbar as Amos rolled a free kick into his path.
Cain Smith was relishing the battle for midfield and was the Stags standout player, filling in well in his own position and that of Cameron Healey who was absent from the game through illness.
With Wilder pushed to left back, to team up with Teddy Bloor, Ratcliffe and Kane Baldwin, Kieran Harrison appeared to be playing as a sweeper, in the hole behind Cain and Ali Smith.
And it was Harrison who having spotted the Rovers defence moving out who lobbed the ball over them for Hakeem to run onto, but having shaken off the attentions of Amos, the Antigua and Barbuda Under 20 international could only glance his shot instead of getting any real power behind it.

(C) Smith knocked the ball wide to Bloor on the right, who exchanged passes with Blake before crossing the ball towards Hakeem, but Jones had read the situation well and came off of his line to collect the ball. (C) Smith again, taking hold of the game by the scruff of it's neck, chipped a pass towards Hakeem who headed the ball towards Blake on the wing and sprinted forward to meet the return pass, but Jones showed good positioning again and made a catch.
Just before half time, the Stags had Kane Baldwin to thank for denying Rovers a second goal, when he managed to get his foot to a deflected shot from Amos and steer it away from the goal.
HT: Stags 0 v Rovers 1

Jacob Dumbleton came on from the bench at half time and almost made an immediate impact, when he showed a great touch on the left wing to take him past Walker before knocking the ball across the face of Rovers goal, to where Fielding hooked the ball away as far as Harrison, who blazed his shot wide of the left hand post.
Hakeem also took on Walker and dribbled past the frustrated full back, before running straight into Townrow and losing the ball.
(A) Smith dug the ball out of a crowd of players, advanced forward and played the ball out to Dumbleton on the left, whose first time delivery towards the six yard box was scrambled behind by a combination of Walker and Jones.
Sundby only got a glance of the ball at the last moment, but saved well from Overton who muscled his way past Ratcliffe.

Bloor was trying to unleash the Stags firepower, with a range of free kicks and long passes into the Rovers penalty area and in the fifty eighth minute, one of his dipping balls was diverted past Jones by Walker as he tried to head the ball wide, but found the net to chalk up the second own goal of the game.
Jason Law entered the fray to add to the Stags attacking options, as the Rovers defence started to find themselves with a few problems to solve. Bloor put a left wing corner onto the head of Hakeem, who headed wide of the target. Jones got down on one knee to gather Bloor's twenty yard free kick up into his chest. Harrison powered straight through the centre of midfield and launched a 'fire blaster' of a shot, that Fielding blocked.
Law and Harrison combined to put the Stags third substitute, Devante Reittie through on the right hand side of the Doncaster area and thought the angle was tight, he got his shot away, but the ball took a deflection and went wide.

Having withstood a ten minute battering, Rovers broke forward, when Longbottom escaped and made a twenty yard run, unchallenged, before forcing a good reflex save from Sundby, who turned the ball over at full stretch.
Amos picked out Henderson with his flag kick, but the Rovers number nine put the ball wide.
(C) Smith, the Stags engine room, was still purring as the clock ticked down towards full time, he won a fair but firm tackle before spraying a pass to Reittie, whose stinging shot flew wide off of
Josh Barker.
Jones wandered briefly off of his line and was almost undone by (C) Smith's scooped effort that bounced on the line before the fortunate keeper managed to push the ball away.
Hakeem and (C) Smith linked to set up Law with a shot, but the ball dropped wide of the post.

In stoppage time, the Stags had Sundby to thank for holding onto their hard won point, when he instinctively got his hand to a lob from Amos and kept out James Morris from close range as Rovers finished the game with a flourish.
FT: Mansfield Town 1 v Doncaster Rovers 1
A game that could have gone either way, in which Mansfield salvaged some pride from their second half endeavours, after a most uncharacteristic lacklustre showing before the break.
Next Saturday, Rovers face a trip to title challengers Notts County, while John Dempster's side face Hartlepool United at Clipstone in a game that kicks off at noon (i.e a hour before the Stags first team kick off at Meadow Lane against Notts County). Mansfield's youngsters will have to be on top of things to see off Pools, who beat them 1-0 with a 94th minute goal from Liam Travers back in October.

Saturday 7th January 2017

SkyBet EFL League 2/Division 4

at the One Call Stadium/Field Mill

Mansfield Town (1) 3

Yohan Arquin 5

Ben Whiteman 48

Rhys Bennett 84

Crewe Alexandra (0) 0

Admission by Season Ticket

Programme £3 Attendance 3,040 (226 away)

Back in October these two sides drew 1-1 at Gresty Road, with Pat Hoban giving the Stags a fifty first minute lead, before Chris Dagnall equalised shortly afterwards.

Steve Davis' Crewe side arrived at 'Wonk Hall' on the back of a six game run (including four defeats) in which they hadn't won a game.

Today they offered a multitude of clues as to why they're struggling at present, their shape and rhythm was almost as poor as the one being being beat out mundanely on a drum, that one of their supporters was banging in the sparsely populated North Stand, from where the most audible chant of the afternoon was "We want Davis out!"

Passing the ball around an infinite amount of times, across the width of the pitch, before squandering possession again and again (and thrice again), isn't going to help get the Railwaymen out the sidings that they have found themselves shunted into any time soon.

226 Crewe fans

A hungry and eager looking Stags side, tracked the 'Alex' down and pounced at the optimum time to claim the ball on numerous occasions, but the visitors seemed to lack the flexibility to change tact.

On New Years Eve, while Mansfield were being held 1-1 at the Mill against title favourites Doncaster Rovers, 'Alex' lost 1-0 at home against Accrington Stanley.

Bank holiday Monday saw the Stags claim all three points from a trip to Blackpool, thanks to a solitary goal from Matt Green, which moved them up one place in the table, ahead of Crewe, who didn't have a game that afternoon, so coming into today's game, Steve Evans side were sat in sixteenth place in the table, eight points away from the play offs, which are still just about attainable; but more importantly, in my opinion anyway, nine points above the drop zone.

As expected, the new Stags manager has wasted no time in bringing in some new faces as soon as the transfer window opened and four new signings made their debuts at Bloomfield Road earlier in the week, namely: striker Yoann Arquin, who recently left Swedish side Syrianska, having previously spent time with Notts County, St Mirren and Ross County. Midfielder Joel Byrom, who has joined Mansfield from Northampton Town after having been released from his contract there. Goalkeeper Jake Kean has come in on loan, until the end of the season. And finally Ben Whiteman, a midfielder has also joined on loan until the end of the season, from Sheffield United. They all started this afternoon too.

And of course, besides the newcomers, as recently as yesterday afternoon, West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis agreed to extend centre half Kyle Howkins loan period until May 31st... and that can only be a good thing in light of his recent form.

Wow! Someone's been busy at the Sports Direct January sale.

Meanwhile, heading in the opposite direction; Adi Yussuf has left the Stags and joined League 2 rivals Grimsby Town on an eighteen month contract (he has scored in his first two games for the Mariners), Alex Lacovitti, who was at the club on loan, has returned to Nottingham Forest, and Oscar Gobern and Darius Henderson haven't had their contracts renewed.

By all accounts, the management team are looking to trim down the first team pool to twenty two players once any further transfer/player registration business is concluded.

Driving home from this convincing Stags win, we tuned into BBC Radio Sheffield's always entertaining football phone in show 'Praise or Grumble', that this evening was besieged by Rotherham United supporters demanding changes at the New York Stadium, with the most popular suggestion by a country mile being that they take Steve Evans back as manager.

The Millers are a club that I personally bear no grudge against whatsoever, in fact you have to admire the way that they fought back from losing their fine old home at Millmoor, before keeping the club alive while playing at a (now demolished) athletic's stadium in Sheffield and finally hitting the dizzy heights of the Championship in their newly built all seater arena in the middle of Rotherham. Fair play to them and much respect too... but might I suggest that they should have tried a bit harder to keep hold of Neil Warnock as their manager at the end of last season. And that they can bugger right off as regards enticing their former, highly successful manager Steve Evans back.

Love him or loathe him, and I know people who fall into both camps, even among the Stags support, Evans is doing a job for Mansfield Town now... and after a bit of a start/stop/start reintroduction into the murky pool of basement division football, the signs are definitely there, that the Stags faithful are on the verge of having an attack minded, pressing, passing, high tempo and ultimately, winning side to watch from this point forward.

The game was just under five minutes old when Yohan Arquin rifled a shot front through a crowd of legs from just outside the six yard box, to give the home side the lead.

Mal Benning dropped a long cross over the Crewe six yard box from out on the left, which Ben Whiteman met at the back stick and nodded the back across the face of the goal, Arquin got his head to it and divetrted the ball towards the goal, where it fell back kindly to him off of Jon Guthrie and Matt Green who were both challenging to get a touch on the goal line... and Arquin added the finishing touch.

This was his first Stags goal, on a day that would mark several other firsts for the home side.

Ladies and Gentlemen, put you fingers in your ears, because... CRASH-BOOM-BANG!!!

There goes the curse of Field Mill, the evil hex placed on the club that has prevented them from scoring in the first half of any game at home, in any competition, all of this season, has been blown away forever. Now let the floodgates open wide and just watch these Stags boys go now!

Who could ever have doubted that Mansfield Town were about to turn the corner all along, eh!?

Hmm, a majority of Stags fans that have at least one vowel in their name I would have thought, and though they have only just entered that rather long curve, please allow me to believe, that for a change, just once, that this time, all of the inevitable twists and turns are actually going to lead to a worthwhile destination.

Not that I'm getting carried away (yet), you understand.

Mal Benning, who spent the best part of the afternoon winning and then dispatching the ball down the left flank, more often than not to CJ Hamilton, picked out that very player with a lofted pass, who combined with Conor Whiteman to force a corner, from which Benning found the head of Arquin, but the 'new lad' headed over from close range.

Whiteman was tripped eighteen yards from Crewe's goal and took the resulting free kick himself, that Ben Garratt got his body behind and held onto.

Jake Kean got down well to save from Zoumana Bakayago and Benning (who else?) was on hand to clear the loose ball away.
The Stags rode their luck when Bakayago went down in the Stags area after Rhys Bennett caught his heel with a stray kick, but the visitors number fourteen continued his run before stumbling unconvincingly to the ground several yards after the event. If he had gone to ground when contact was made he would definitely have won a penalty, but in choosing that option several seconds too late, he actually ran the risk of a yellow card for assimilation.
He'll know exactly what to do the next time it happens.
The Stags were pushing forward in search of a second goal to cement their advantage before the break, but the final touch kept evading them as they swarmed around the visitors area.
Crewe for their part were still knocking the ball around aimlessly to very little effect, nibbling at the Stags rearguard occasionally, but never actually having anything like a proper bite.
HT: Stags 1 v Railwaymen 0

Almost straight from the restart, the home side doubled their lead, with what wasn't just Whiteman's first Stags goal, but was actually his first ever first team goal ever.
Ollie Turton unwittingly became the provider of the Stags second goal, when he blocked Hamilton's goal attempt but could only divert the ball into Whiteman's path, who thumped his shot home from the edge of the box, that had enough power in it to end up in the net even though Garratt got his hand to it.
Bennett had two chances to increase the Stags lead, including one where he hit the outside of the right hand post from around eight feet out, that led to a cruel jibe from somebody within earshot of me who called out "...and that is why you're a full back!"
Matt Green ought to have done better with a shot on goal, but seemed to get caught in two minds about whether to lay it off for Arquin or go for glory himself.

Predominantly, Green has been moved to the role of a wide attacker, but he is adapting really quickly and is offering even more options to the team, from making this small but significant tactical switch.

Crewe had all but thrown in the towel and their angry supporters were upping the volume of dissent towards their beleaguered manager, as the game moved into it's final stages.

The Stags ruthlessly finished off their poor opposition with six minutes to go, when yet another Benning/Hamilton move forced a corner out on the left wing, from which Baxendale delivered the ball to Bennett, whose first shot was blocked by Garratt, but he made no mistake from the rebound.

Another first! That was the first time that Bennett has scored for the Stags, "... and the bloody last time too!" joked his nearby detractor, in jest. At least I hope he was joking.

The second of two back to back clean sheets, is also something that the home side achieved for only the first time this season today too.

FT: Mansfield Town 3 v Crewe Alexandra 0

North Stand floodlights from Bishop Street

Okay, granted, it was a fairly substandard outing from Crewe, on the Stags day of many firsts, but you can only apply yourself professionally and beat what is in front of you in games like this.

Mansfield won this game at a canter and in a manner that suggests that there is still more to come once this side really gels together.

The Stags are at home in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday night against Oldham Athletic, before they travel to Notts County for a 1pm kick off on Saturday.

While Crewe face two in form sides in their next couple games, namely Luton at home and Doncaster away, over the next two weekends.

FOOTNOTE: Following this result (and performance), Crewe have dismissed their manager Steve Davis and replaced him with the former Stags player David Artell. Small world innit!?

Tuesday 10th January 2017

Checkatrade EFL Trophy

at the One Call Stadium/Field Mill

Mansfield Town (0) 2
Pat Hoban 84, 90+2

Oldham Athletic (0) 0

Admission £10. Programme £1.50
Attendance 1343 (inc 149 away)

Mansfield Town:
Kean, Bennett, Howkins (McGuire 70’), Peace, Benning, Collins, Baxendale, Clements (Thomas 83’), Hamilton, Hoban, Arquin (Green 83’).
Unused subs - Shearer, Rose, Hurst, Hemmings.
Oldham Athletic:
Ripley, Wilson, Clarke, Edmundson, Law, Croft (Mckay 61’), Fane, Green (Winchester 70’), Flynn (Banks 61’), McLaughlin, Osei.
Unused subs - Kettings, Dummigan, King, Glackin.

Prior to tonight, Oldham had only won one game in their previous eleven outings this season, and that came when they beat Walsall 3-1 in the previous round of the Checkatrade EFL Trophy.

The Latics are currently anchored to the foot of the table in League 1 of the SkyBet EFL... and they're currently operating under a transfer embargo too.

Steve Evans and an exercise bike.
The mind boggles.

The club previously known as Pine Villa FC (formed in 1895), were inaugural and founder members of the Premier League in 1991, but slipped from their lofty perch in 1994.

Folklore has it that when Mark Hughes equalised for Manchester United against Athletic, in the last minute of extra time in an evenly contested FA Cup Semi Final at Wembley Stadium, it was the catalyst for the club's imminent decline, and they have never really recovered from getting turned over 4-1 by the Red Devils in the replay at Maine Road.

Woo hoo! Tonight's programme folds out into a rather neat fixtures wall chart poster. I mean, just how cool is that, eh!?

Victory against Oldham tonight, means that the Stags have picked up £80,000 in prize money from this much maligned competition so far this season, as they marched on to the quarter finals, with a fairly straight forward win against Steve Robinson's side.
The home side left it late, finally clinching victory with a brace of goals from Pat Hoban in the eight fourth minute and stoppage time, but it had never really looked as if the Latics were about to snatch a win at any point, unless they had been practicing taking penalties; because if the game had finished all square at full time, it would've gone straight to a shoot out, sans extra time.
If it's entertainment you were after, Field Mill was the place to be tonight, with the Match referee Darren Drysdale being of a particular vintage if you like watching clowns and their slap stick capers.
I'm damn sure that is one thing that the supporters of both teams would agree about too.

Oldham's volatile manager gets sent back to his own dug out,
while his opposite number from Mansfield look on placidly.

I was texted during the game: "How can you, as a true football supporter, even consider attending a game in the Checkatrade Trophy?" Alas, I was actually too busy actually watching a game involving the team that I support and work for, so I merely sent a link by way of a reply.
If you're one of those people who has seldom ever attended games in this competition, under it's various guises over the years... nobody is forcing you to attend, but don't you dare try using your apparent stance as a means of trying to claim the political high ground, over those who woulds prefer to watch their team as often as possible... and don't bother tapping me up for tickets if your team reaches the final at Wembley. Not a fuggin' hope pal!

In the ninetieth minute, Carl Winchester blazed a great chance wide from just inside the Stags penalty area and Ryan McClaughlin felt that he had been fouled as he squared up to shoot. Sodid I if truth be told, but Mr Drysdale was too busy performing the juggling and fire eating part of his act and didn't get a clear view as a consequence.

But either side of that encapsulated segment of the action, Pat Hoban scored for the home side.

His first came from a well worked move, which originated from the goal scorer passing along the left flank to CJ Hamilton , before assuming a position in the penalty area, Hamilton ghosted past his marker and delivered a cross to James Baxendale at the back stick, who hooked the ball across the face of the goal for Hoban to nod over the line from close range.

In stoppage time, Hoban timed his run perfectly to meet Baxendale's free kick and flicked the ball past Connor Ripley, to claim the victory for Mansfield.

Oldham hadn't been without a few decent chances themselves, with Edmundson and Pete Clarke, both heading wide... and Mal Benning had made a goal line clearance from Darius Osei just before the break..

However, Mansfield had the better of the game, albeit marginally at times and Chris Clements, Baxendale and Horan (again) had chances to put the game beyond the visitors lead.

Jake Kean had a couple of awkward moments to deal with, but ended the night with his third consecutive clean sheet against a side that he used to play on loan with, before the second biggest team in Sheffield let the Stags borrow him.

The draw for the quarter finals, takes place at 11.30am on Thursday morning and will be shown live on Sky Sports News.

The other sides to have reached the last eight, are: Cheltenham Town or Bradford City (playing 17th January), Coventry City, Luton Town, Oxford United, Swansea City U21, Wycombe Wanderers and Yeovil Town... hopefully the Stags will get a home draw then!

It would've been nice to visit Chesterfield one last time before they vanish off of the face of planet football forever, but the manager-less, directionless and pointless Spireites got battered 4-0 at Kenilworth Road tonight.

FT: Mansfield Town 2 v Oldham Athletic 0

Bright and breezy.

Saturday 14th January 2017
Central Midland League (North)
at Cannon Park, Leverton Road, Retford
Retford FC (2) 3
Jason Swannack 24
Will Tomlinson 45+
Arron Blakey 78
Newark Town (1) 3
Chris Dobbie 39
Tyler Martin 67
George Pearce 85
Admission £3. Programme £1. Attendance 50

Truth be told, this was the first time that I'd left my sickbed since Wednesday tea time (missing scheduled games on three consecutive nights as a consequence), as I have spent the arse end of this week lamenting not making my annual appointment to get my flu jab.
So it's my own fault... and I don't expect any sympathy from you lot, but funk me! It was a rough and disheveled approximation of yours truly, who just about managed to drag myself up t'road to watch this Central Midlands League encounter today, hoping that an hour and a half of fresh air and sunshine, would somehow have some sort of restorative powers.
As of yet, I can't say that course of action was even a minor success.

It was a game that was probably more pleasing as a spectacle for the crowd who had descended on a bright and breezy Cannon Park this afternoon, than it would've been for either management team, given the manner in which several wholly avoidable goals were conceded.
But a draw was just about the right result all told, even if Retford did create slightly more chances over the course of the ninety plus minutes.

The top two sides in the division won quite emphatically today, with FC Bolsover coming back from being behind (twice) against fourth placed Harworth Colliery, to finish up 7-2 winners at Shirebrook, while an improving Welbeck Lions side, who now have a tie up with Worksop Town's development side, were trounced 8-0 at their Meden Vale ground, by Clay Cross Town.

AFC Bentley are up to third courtesy of their 3-1 win over Dinnington Town, while Retford and Newark Town finished the afternoon in fifth and sixth place respectively, after sharing the points and a few thrills and spills, in this lively encounter.

Retford FC, a team with no nickname, played in their all navy blue kit, while Newark Town, who like to be called 'the Blues' played in their change strip of yellow and green, so apologies if that causes any confusion later in the day.

I did hear Retford being referred to as the 'fake Badgers' and 'United reserves' by somebody from Newark, but both of those handles are way off the mark. This club is a completely separate entity who happen to ground share with Retford United... and by the same flawed and uninformed logic used to make these assumptions, it could be (incorrectly) suggested that Newark themselves who might be accused of being 'Collingham reserves', in light of their own ground share; but let's stick to facts and dismiss such silliness. rubbish and far fetched conjecture out of hand, be it tongue in cheek banter, or otherwise.

It was the Badgers reserves, whoops! Look what you nearly made me do there you pesky idle gossips; I meant to say it was Retford FC, an independent a free standing football club, who representing grass roots football within the community of East Retford, who went on the attack from the off, with Will Tomlinson moving in stealth like to avoid the attentions of his marker, before striking the ball sweetly on the turn, just the wrong side of the left hand upright.
With five minutes on the clock, Dom Swingler went close at the other end after Damian Llloyd had nudged the ball forward into his path.
The Blues (of Retford) squeezed the visitors defence again and Tomlinson forced the Yellows (of Newark via Collingham) into conceding a corner, which Gareth Davies dropped tantalisingly into the six yard box and while the visitors defence did a passable impression of the (original and best) cast of Dad's Army, playing pass the parcel with a ticking time bomb, Tomlinson and Jerome Gordon both had shots blocked, before Stuart Rose eventually hooked the ball away off the goal line.

Tomlinson threatened once more, when he took a pass from Paul Middleton, turned 180 degrees on the spot to wrong foot Rose and stroked a crisply struck shot past Nathan Burrows but just a fag papers width past the left hand post. The Blues (from Newark) goal was leading something of a charmed life during the opening exchanges.
Almost as if a portal in time was running on repeat, Newark countered following Tomlinson's near miss and Swingler nudged the ball just wide at the other end, again.
Middleton won the ball in the middle of the park and sprayed a pass forward to Tomlinson, who freed Gordon with the time and space to shoot with a deft first touch, but Andy Smith was on hand, to block the powerhouse frontman's angled shot.

Gordon broke forward again through the left channel, with Retford's box to box left sided full back following him in hot pursuit, gambling on a loose ball and/or making himself available for a lay off in the event that the striker needed an extra option.

In the event Burrows and Rose both arrived at the same time to block Grdon's run and their combined efforts saw the ball break to Swannack, who dragged it away from the situation with his first touch and knocked it calmly into the goal with his second, meaning that the Retford number three hadscored to mark the occasion of his 50th appearance for the club.

Congratulations Swanny!

Ironically, as football and numbers so often intertwine symbolically, this afternoon's attendance was a nice round fifty too.

Aaron Hutchinson almost doubled the home side's lead moments later as he cut in on the right along the dead ball line, combining well with Middleton.

And Middleton was involved again, as he almost benefitted from the space that Tomlinson had created by taking three Newark players out of the equation as they followed him while he 'dinked' the ball inside, but Sam Wilford had remained vigilant and moved across to make the block.

Six minutes before the break, Newark pulled level, when Chris Dobbie spanked the ball under the dive of Chris Holmes in the Retford goal, from Tyler Martin's pass across the edge of the goal area.

The home side almost responded immediately, but Burrows saved well from Tomlinson's volley from Davies' forty yard knock over the top of the Newark defence.t.

Deep into first half stoppage time, Jack Johnson threaded a pass through to Tomlinson inside Newark's area, who powered forward and forced the ball over the line, in spite of the close attentions of (and a possible wrestling move by) Burrows, to give Retford a half time lead.

HT: Retford 2 V Newark Town 1

Having come to Newark's rescue a couple of times in the first half, Wilford almost made a catastrophic start to the second, when the 'heavy going' under foot conditions caught him out and he miscued a routine clearance into the path of Tomlinson and would have been relieved to see Burrows sprint from his line and reach the ball first.
Tyler Martin then went close twice for the visitors, when he chipped the ball wide from Swingler's pass and then saw Holmes pick out his wind assisted left wing cross from the under the bar, while Carl la Rocca did well to keep Swingler at bay as the visitors built up a head of steam.
Meanwhile, Swannacck countered quickly from the left and Burrows had to go down at his feet to deny him another goal on his 50th anniversary.

On sixty seven minutes, Newark were on level terms again, when Jammy Lloyd put a right wing free kick into the mix that Rose headed back across the face of goal, forcing Holmes to claw the ball away from under his bar, right into the path of Martin who netted from close range.
Arron Martin, a second half substitute for the visitors was making a nuisance of himself, offering more width and pace to Town's attack to good attack and he hadn't been on the pitch very long before Gareth Campion was being called on to clear things up at the back for the hosts, with Kieran Wall close by ready to make his mark.
Davies tried forcing the issue for Chris Woodhead's side after muscling his way through on goal from out on the right, but Burrows saved to preserve parity between the two sides.
George Pearce almost put (A) Martin through with a free kick down the left flank, but Middleton had tracked the ball and moved across to make an interception.

It's always a pleasure to see Arron Blakey in action, especially in full cry with the opposition's goal in front of him, but he has been blighted with bad luck as regards injuries that has curtailed the career of a player who otherwise had enough ability to play at a higher level.

Blakey entered the fray half way through the second half and announced his arrival in fine style in the seventy eighth minute, when having seen his initial shot blocked by Burrows after Tomlinson had picked out his run with a dipping pass over the Newark back line, he smashed the ball with such ferocity from the rebound, that Burrows can probably consider himself to be very lucky that he didn't actually get in the way of it, as it zipped into the back of the net, to put Retford ahead for a third time.

You've got to admire the way that Blakey still has the confidence and self belief to apply himself fully to such situations after the series of set backs that have befallen him over the years.

Blakey's strike, was one worthy of winning any game, but Newark weren't having any of that and they were soon back in the hunt for a third equaliser and Rose looked to have found the roof of the Retford net, until Holmes twisted and contorted his frame to reach the ball and tip it over.
Instead of holding an internal finger pointing shouting match about 'who the **** was picking him up?' and blaming each other for switching off with the three points in sight, Retford would've done better to put their squabbling on the back burner until after the game and focus on putting a foot through the ball and getting it away from the danger zone, as (A) Martin's flag kick bounced around inside the goalmouth and a scramble to get something on it ensued... George Pearce stood back a few yards from the goal and was in just the right place at right time as the ball rolled towards him from the melee and he crashed a first time shot through a crowd of legs to claim the draw for Newark,

(T) Martin almost snatched a fourth for Collingham based side playing in yellow and green but calling themselves the Blues, deep into stoppage time, but he couldn't keeping his shot on target, Though that might have constituted as rubbing things in just that little bit too much.
FT: Retford 3 v Newark Town 3
So did an afternoon of sunshine, fresh air and mental stimulation, help to fend off my ailments?
Did it bloody hell as like!
Where's that bloody Lemsip max strength and my duvet!?
See you all on the other side, it may be a while.

Wednesday 18th January 2017
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at the Forest Town Arena
AFC Mansfield (0) 3
Ollie Fearon 54, 69
James Cullingworth 77
Bottesford Town (0) 0
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 61

When these teams last met, back in August at Birch Park, Bottesford shaded the game, between (what were then) these two newly promoted sides, by two goals to one,
In the run up to tonight's encounter, the Poachers were sitting just a solitary point (and one league position), above their hosts in the NCEL Premier Division table; so a close game was anticipated... and that was pretty much how things panned out, during the first half at least, with both team's experienced goalkeepers: Jason White and Jody Barford seeing plenty of the ball and pulling off a number of instinctive saves to keep the score line goalless at the interval.
The Bulls recently added a two year extension to the existing contract of their proven and successful manager: Rudy Funk, which gives both parties the base of some much needed stability to build on, towards their mutual longer term ambitions... and tonight, following Funk's half time team talk and the introduction of Grant Allott from the bench in place of the home side's captain Danny Patterson at the interval, Mansfield upped the ante and ran out deserved winners, as Bottesford were left to rue a string of missed chances, especially before the break.
I would actually go as far to say, that tonight's second half performance was as good as I've seen the Bulls play in absolutely yonks!

Ollie Fearon and Lynton Karkach both went close in the opening exchanges, while Karkach found the back of the net from Jimmy Ghaichem's knock across the six yard box from out on the right, but the pacy former Gainsborough Trinity player had strayed marginally offside.
Gaz Barlow had two attempts on the Bulls goal inside the space of a couple of minutes, but his initial effort, from eighteen yards fizzed past the left hand upright, while Jason White took the sting out of his second strike from just inside the area, at full stretch, before Matt Plummer made a last ditch clearance of off the goal line.
Danny Naylor unleashed a long range shot, that had neither the power or accuracy to trouble Barford, but Fearon went muchcloser to breaking the deadlock from the Bulls next attack, when he guided Ghaicgem's delivery just past the left hand upright.
Danny Gibbons was impressing out on the right for the Poachers and he got in round the back of the Mansfield defence twice, but Plummer and Joe Cheeseman are developing a really good understanding in the middle of the back line and they stood strong and cleared away the danger, that Gibbons' crossing was creating.
It is also worth mentioning how well Brad Wilson played at right back for the home side tonight.

James Cullingworth took an age over lining up his angles for a free kick, some twenty five yards from the visitors goal, but got too much contact under the ball and scooped his effort well over the bar.

Five minutes before the break, Josh Nichol created the best chance of the half, when he threaded a pass into the path of Danny Boulton,whose rasping shot on the turn forced, an excellent save out of White.

Moments later, it was Barford's turn to show his prowess between the sticks, when Fearon danced past two challenges but saw his shot turned round the post by the visitors keeper.

In first half stoppage time, Boulton picked up the ball and motored towards the Bulls goal, but being mindful of Plummer tracking his run. the Bottesford number nine probably didn't realise just gow much time he had on the ball and he rushed his shot and hit a gilt edged chance straight at White.

HT: Bulls 0 v Poachers 0

After the break, although the Poachers were still chipping away, without making anything like as much headway as they had done in the first half, while their hosts began to rise in stature and impose themselves on the game, using their width to good effect when Ghaichem pushed forward on the left and picked out Fearon with a pinpoint cross, which the Mansfield striker placed past Barford, with a well placed, (textbook) downwards header.

The goal knocked the stuffing out of the Lincolnshire side and Ollie Donald had to make a last ditch clearance as Karcach battled his way into the goalmouth with a mazy run.

And that man Fearon all but put the game out of the Poachers reach, when he took on the ball and the initiative to surge through the right channel, before unleashing a pile driver of a shot into the top right hand corner, that was only ever destined for the roof of the net the moment it left his boot.

A quality strike... and then some.

The flow of the game took a temporary respite, as both managers looked to shuffle their respective packs to make the most of the remaining time, but the Bulls were soon back in the ascendancy.

In the seventy seventh minute, following a spell of sustained pressure from the Nottinghamshire side, Cullingworth took the ball down on the left hand side of a crowded penalty area and threaded a precision shot through the narrowest of gaps, that crept just inside the left hand upright to seal the win for Mansfield.
In the end it was a comfortable and convincing win for Rudy Funk's men, thanks to three well taken goals while they were on the front foot after the interval.
Bottesford had more than played their part in a compelling contest, but must have wished that they could have taken something from their first half endeavours, when the game was more even, because once Fearon had nudged the Bulls ahead, there was only ever going to be one outcome, particularly after the Mansfield centre forward had netted that phenomenal strike to double his side's lead.
FT: AFC Mansfield 3 v Bottesford Town 0
Get well soon to my good pal Pete Craggs, the Bulls Matchday Secretary and man of many talents, who was absent tonight; having sustained an injury!
His temporary replacement was a natural and did 'alright on the night' after being drafted in at the eleventh hour.
It was pleasure to be able to help out ladies and gents... just this once ;-)

The Rabble

Saturday 21st January 2017
EFL U18 Youth Alliance (North)
at Roundwood Sports Complex, Rawmarsh (Parkgate FC)
Rotherham United (0) 1
Morgan Ratcliffe 85 OG
Mansfield Town (1) 2
Cain Smith 17, Nyle Blake 52
PHOTO GALLERY TO FOLLOW MONDAY PM

Rotherham United:
George McMahon, Deegan Atherton (Jake Sallemloops 73), Akeem Hinds, Lewis Murr (Trae Adeyemi 82). Jovanni Sterling, J Cee Abraham, Josh Kayode, Tom Maquire, Akeel Francis, Ben Wiles (C) (Jack Osborne), Reece McGinley
Unused subs: Harry Fiddler (GK)
Note* I have no idea whether Rotherham's number 15 was called Jake Sallemloops or not, but having offered their team sheet to several handwriting experts, inc. one who is fluenrt in Sanskrit, that was as near an approximation as we could collectively decipher.
Mansfield Town:
Xavier Sundby, Teddy Bloor, Henri Wilder, Cain Smith, Kieran Harrison (C), Nyle Blake, Cameron Healey, Zayn Hakeem, Jason Law (Morgan Ratcliffe 83), Jake Dumbleton (Tom Marriott 87)
Unused subs - Sam Wilson (GK), Aiden Walker, Ali Smith

League leaders and reigning champions Mansfield Town, rolled into Rawmarsh, knowing that Burton Albion and Notts County were breathing down their necks in the race for the title, both hoping that John Dempster's young Stags side would drop points against the in form Millers, who approached this game on the back of a three match unbeaten run, that included a draw against the second placed Brewers last week. In the event, Burton's game at Scunthorpe United was postponed and County went down 1-0 at Grimsby Town.

This win, at Parkgate FC's ground, was a real test of the visitors mettle, resilience and desire to keep a grip on their status as top team in this hard fought division... and to that end they certainly weren't found wanting.
Cain Smith, who has been showing some great form and fighting spirit of late, was heavily involved in the opening exchanges, firing narrowly wide inside the opening minute and then created himself with enough space to float a tempting cross in towards Jason Law, that glanced off the Stags forward's head with just George McMahon to beat.

Having thwarted Mansfield's lively start, Rotherham built up a head of steam of their own and stretched the visitors defence for several minutes, with Akeel Francis going close to opening the scoring when he charged down Xavier Sundby's clearance, but Kieran Harrison was covering his keeper's back and made a timely interception.
Ben McGinley surged into the Stags area, but Kane Baldwin put in a blocking tackle and recovered his footing quickly to cut out McGinley's angled cross as the loose ball fell to the Millers winger.
The home side tried to force the issue down the left flank once more, but (C) Smith was back helping out his defence at salvaged the situation with a firm but fair challenge that typified his performance today, when he was, without any doubt... pretty fly for a white guy!

Jake Dumbleton went close to breaking the deadlock twice within the space of a few minutes, when he shot narrowly over from Zayn Hakeem's low cross from out on the left and was then thwarted by McMahon's agility as Nyle Blake picked out the live-wire front man with a measured ball from the right flank.
Henri Wilder teamed up with Hakeem and (C) Smith, to unlock the Millers back line, forcing Jovanni Sterling to rush his clearance and tee the ball up for Harrison, whose first time shot was well held by McMahon.

Francis and Wiles combined for the Millers and the latter picked out Tom Maguire, who had a free shot inside the six yard box, but hooked his shot wide of the upright, with what must count as a real let off for the visitors.
But the Stags brushed themselves down and a great passage of flowing, passing football, right across the whole width of the pitch, involving Teddy Bloor, Blake, Dumbleton, (C) Smith, Wilder and Hakeem, released Law on the edge of the area and his inviting sideways knock sat up perfectly for (C) Smith who unleashed the ball past McMahon to give the Stags the lead after seventeen minutes.

J Cee Abraham, picked out Francis with a long range free kick, but his downward header went wide.
The Stags were having the better of things by now, but Rotherham kept dropping hints that they weren't here just to make the numbers up and were more than capable of providing a threat of their own.
Mansfield picked up the pace down the right through Bloor, whose cross to Law was knocked into the path of (C) Smith, who was fouled before he could repeat his earlier strike. Hakeem took responsibility for the free kick, but hooked the ball wide of the bottom of the right hand post.
With further international recognition on the horizon for Hakeem, his growing reputation precedes him around the Youth Alliance now and it would be fair to say that he was being very closely marked today... in fact, intimately perhaps.

McGinley miscued a left wing cross into the Stags area, which cannoned back into play off of the woodwork.
McGinley and Lewis Murr both had shots blocked, before the ball fell to Deegan Atherton who forced a great stop out of Sundby with a viscious shot.
Rotherham were adept at moving the ball swiftly from box to box... and not in an overly direct 'long ball' manner either. McMahon drilled a measured pass forward to Wiles' feet and he laid the ball off, first time to Francis, who lashed his effort wide.
Another quick break from their own half by the home side, left the Stags exposed again in first half stoppage time, but Sundby raced from his line to thwart Francis.
HT: Millers Youth 0 v Stags Youth 1
Right from the restart, Hakeem forced a corner off of his marker, Atherton, which Bloor delivered into the Millers six yard box; but one of the home sides obvious strengths, that stood out in this game in particular, was their ability to deal with set pieces and corners, with Abraham and Sterling both putting in a workmanlike shift apiece.

Blake cut out a cross from McGinley and then released the ball quickly to set up a Stags counter attack, Hakeem and (C) Smith, squeezed the Rotherham defence and caused them to back off, which gave (C) Smith the opportunity to nudge the ball through to the feet of Blake who had continued his run and, with fifty two minutes on the clock, he fired home from eight yards, despite the efforts of McMahon to double Mansfield's lead.
By virtue of his goal and assist today, Cain had provided a 'Brace for Trace'... or two goals for his mum by way of explaining an in joke.
Evidently it isn't only the Millers who can turn defence into attack at the flick of a switch.

It looked as if it was all over for Rotherham, when Bloor picked out Law with a long corner toward the back of the Millers area from out on the right, and as Law's shot came back off the post, Dumbleton was on hand to score.
But, for whatever reason, the goal was disallowed for something that the referee's assistant had spotted that didn't actually involve Dumbleton himself, because he was clearly onside and had a defender and the goalkeeper stood between him and the goal when he struck.
Dumbleton shrugged off his disappointment and stayed focused and was unlucky to see his shot clear the bar within a minute of his disallowed 'goal'.

The Stags were comfortably seeing the game home, as Rotherham's Maguire hit a hopeful ball across the face of Sundby's goal, which Morgan Ratcliffe, just on from the substitutes bench, moved in quickly to deal with.
But a bounce straight in front of him, saw the Stags centre half steer the ball past his own keeper.
And with five minutes still remaining, the visitors were no longer playing down time in a comfort zone, they were now defending a slender single goal lead..
The Millers forced a corner on the right wing, from which Maguire delivered the ball to meet the run of Sterling, who connected with a thumping header but cleared the crossbar from close range.
In stoppage time, Sundby tipped an audacious attempt on goal by McGinley over the bar and then saved Sterling's header from Maquire's resulting corner.

The Stags youngsters are obviously a scalp that every team in this league now wants to claim and you could clearly see how much Rotherham wanted the result today.
But even though they had done enough to claim another three points and they probably ought to have won this lively encounter more convincingly, John Dempster's youngsters showed a lot of commitment and fortitude to steer themselves past the post... and that must bode well for the remainder of the season.
FT: Rotherham United U18 1 v Mansfield Town U18 2

The Stags U18's next scheduled match is due to take place at Clipstone FC, at 11AM on Tuesday 24th January 2017, when Lincoln City U18 are the visitors.

Saturday 21st January 2017
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at Muglet Lane, Maltby
Maltby Main (0) 1
Ryan Carroll 80
Hemsworth Miners Welfare (0) 1
Jack Steers 81
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 65

The final score was probably a fair reflection of the balance of play overall, in this no holds barred, all action game; even though the visitors possibly shaded the first half as regards their use of the ball inside Maltby's final third.
In midweek, the Miners recorded their second of two back to back 4-2 wins on the road, when, having beaten in form Athersley Rec, they overcame Hemsworth at the MDC Stadium in Fitzwilliam. Such a result was never really on the cards this afternoon, in spite of both sides seeing plenty of goalmouth action.
The return of several first team players from injury and the reintroduction of a couple more who are in the process of re-signing for the club, have given Maltby a real boost in the arm and the recent upturn in results and the return of the feelgood factor around Muglet Lane are testament to that.

At times, the Wells supporters (Wells is an abbreviation of Welfare, we asked!), weren't slow in coming forward with some fairly noisy remonstrating towards the match officials, but they were tight lipped inside the opening five minutes, when Nash Connolly received the ball in an offside position, but the linesman's flag stayed down as he broke forward at pace down the right flank and Reece Wesley needed to get across to make a timely interception.

To be fair to 'the men in black' (and regardless of what anyone else might tell you), any slight errors on their part, were evenly shared between the two sides and there was no kind of bias involved in the way that they oversaw the game... and let's be clear about this: Maltby v Hemsworth was never likely to be a 'tippy tappy' game, between two sides who were going to be shy about putting a foot in or were ever going to go about things at anything less than full tilt.

Stan and Dan

Rich Collier picked out Nick Guest from the corner kick and Maltby could consider themselves a bit fortunate that the all action visitors number ten planted his header just over the bar.

Meanwhile, the home side pushed forward on the right flank and Sam Leigh made a mess of dealing with a long throw from Nicky Darker and Wesley almost took advantage, but diverted the ball wide of the upright.

Danny Rusling was called into action twice, dashing from his area to kick clear as Collier chased down a long ball and then beating Guest to the ball from the resulting throw in.

Jack Steers couldn't keep the ball on target as he rose to meet another right wing corner by Collier.

Joe Austin,who has just returned to Muglet Lane from Clipstone, put in a great shift today, but he was at fault when he under hit a back pass into the path of Guest, who was denied by Rusling once again.

Harry Viggars made a forty yard run through the middle before squaring a pass to Collier, whose first time shot was blocked by Darker.

Cameron Rigby tried his luck from thirty yards, but Luke Danville got his head to the ball and turned it away at the expense of a corner, from which Jordan Snodin found Rigby on the edge of the area, but this time he drilled a shot high and wide of the right hand post.

Josh Hemmingway played a long forward pass to Ryan Carroll, who turned the ball towards Steve Hopewell, who was tripped by Danville, but the referee missed it... so, you see, these things do even themselves out over the course of a game.

Snodin and Carroll combined and sent Rigby free through the left channel, but Leigh got down well to his right to make a save.

Austin knocked the ball down the right wing to Carroll, but his run was impeded when Cameron Clark grabbed hold of the Maltby front man, but once again the match officials disproved one particularly outspoken visiting supporters point of view that the ref was giving them 'nowt!

I feel that I must point out, that the banter between the two sets of fans was good natured, if a little expletive heavy, in fact at one point, a middle aged lady from Hemsworth actually apologized to us for her bad language, explaining that she was very passionate about her team and hated it when the linesman was a fookin' shithead!

We politely smiled and said "You carry on duck!"Connolly and Collier advanced forward towards the Maltby goal but when the latter's cross evaded Guest, Bill Law scuffed the ball into the side netting.

Collier was causing a lot of problems for Maltby and was prone to turn up on either flank, he linked up with Clark and Hemmingway who was tracking back had to clear behind his own goal.

Right on the stroke of half time Collier put the ball wide from Connolly's cross.

HT: Miners 0 v Wells 0

Hemsworth attacked straight from the restart and Rusling had to be alert to the threat posed by Guest once again and was forced into conceding a corner. Darker headed Collier's flag kick away to safety and Maltby picked up the attacking initiative, with Carroll heading Snodin's measured cross back across the face of the visitors goal, but Steers hooked the ball away.

Dean Smith won the ball on the left flank and sent Rigby racing forward with a great knock, but Steers intercepted once again as the Miners number eleven almost threaded a pass through to Carroll.

Jack Greeves almost released Carroll as well, but Danville poked the ball away with a last ditch challenge.

Wesley cut out an attempted clearance and got the ball forward quickly to Hopewell who turned and rolled the ball towards Carroll, who was thwarted when Danville got a foot in at full stretch, but could only divert the ball into the path of Darker, who fizzed a shot wide from outside the area.

Maltby were imposing themselves better on the game than they had during the first half, but Hemsworth stilled posed a threat on the counter attack and to all intents and purposes a goalless draw, with a few thrills and spills chucked in along the way, looked to be the most likely outcome.

Rigby, Carroll, Hopewell and Darker, ably assisted by Wesley who was having a hell of a game and adding a whole lot of input at either end of the pitch, kept chipping away at Hemsworth's rearguard.

But it was the visitors who almost broke the deadlock with fifteen minutes still remaining, when Austin put in a slide tackle on Guest, right on the edge of the six yard box and though he got the ball cleanly, Guest toppled over him, which inspired the Hemsworth fans at that end to call for a penalty, particularly when the loose ball fell to Law and his thumping shot ricocheted off of Austin who was still on the ground, cries of "Handball!" filled the air, but the ref signalled 'play on' and his assistant was unmoved too.

The ball actually hit Austin in his back, squarely between his shoulder blades... and as such it was neither a handball or deliberate on the part of Maltby's right back... and angry spectators calling the linesman two words beginning with the letter C, (one of them being 'cheating'), wasn't going to sway his decision.

Carroll went close with a long range shot, but Hemsworth pushed forward again from the goal kick and Austin denied the 'Wells' once again when he cleared Viggars cross cum shot off the line.

Both teams were definitely still going at it hammer and tongs and wanting the three points, which was providing a great spectacle for all present.

Hopewell got in between his marker and Snodin's right wing corner kick, but he could only knockthe ball past the wrong side of the near post.

Ryan Carroll finally opened the scoring in the eightieth minute, when he showed great perseverance on the ball, after picking up a low cross from Hopewell... and while using all of his upper body strength to hold off Danville, withstood a kick on the ankle and drilled the ball past Leigh from a tight angle.

With the home fans still celebrating Carroll's emphatic strike, Hemsworth broke forward and won a left wing corner.

Collier swung his delivery in towards Rusling's right hand post and as the ball pinged about in the six yard box, Steers forced the ball over the line in spite of the vainglorious efforts of Greeves and Wesley to divert it away.

A messy goal, but they all count!

Hemsworth MW - Luminous shirts

Both teams still weren't content to settle for a point apiece, though ultimately they had to, but Guest almost forced the issue, when he was denied, yet again, by Rusling, who can be very pleased with his own performance this afternoon; while Leigh plucked a right wing cross from Darker from under his bar as the game went into stoppage time.

FT: Maltby Main 1 v Hemsworth Miners Welfare 1

Neither side deserved to lose... and to that end, I wouldn't imagine that there will be any complaints from either manager about the final outcome. Both of their teams couldn't be faulted for the amount of effort they had put in.

A great afternoon's entertainment all told, on and off the pitch.

There are some genuinely funny and good natured people among the hardcore support of both of these teams... and despite appearances, their bark is far worse than their actual bite.

On Saturday Maltby Main travel to AFC Mansfield, while Hemsworth have two home games coming up, on Tuesday and Saturday, against Rainworth MW and Clipstone respectively.

Tuesday 24th January 2017
EFL Youth Alliance (North East)
at Clipstone FC
Mansfield Town (0) 0
Lincoln City (0) 0
Flickr photo gallery to follow on Wednesday night

Mansfield Town:
Sam Wilson, Teddy Bloor, Henri Wilder, Cain Smith (C), Kane Baldwin, Morgan Ratcliffe, Tom Marriott, Luke Morgan (Aiden Walker 73), Nyle Blake (Harry Bircumshaw 73), Jason Law (Devante Reittie HT), Jake Dumbleton
Unused subs - Xavier Sundby, Steve Johnson

Lincoln City:
Regan Start, Archie Moyes, Ryley Thompson, Keilen Gretton, Luke Anderson, Jack Fixter, Reece Robinson James (Jon Smith 79), Danny Horton, Luke White, James Hugo (Declan O'Hare 69)
Unused sub - Michael Antkowiak

Many thanks to old thingy, Barry, Jim and Malc at Clipstone FC
for their hospitality and ensuring that today's game went ahead.

The young Stags, playing with several enforced changes from the side that won at Rotherham on Saturday, with two players withdrawn to take their place on the subs bench at tonight's Checkatrade Trophy quarter final game and others rested in prepartion for tomorrow afternoon's U21/Reserve team Central League fixture against YorkCity at Rainworth (2pm kick off); drew a blank against a very well organised Imps team, that contained quite a few first year players
A stalemate ensued, as fairly lacklustre and scrappy game unfolded, that was bereft of very many clear cut chances, for either side.
Mansfield made an encouraging start, when Tom Marriott's right wing corner found it's way through to Jake Dumbleton, who was only denied a second minute goal, by a great reflex save from Regan Start.

The Stags pushed forward again when Teddy Bloor released Dumbleton down the right flank, who linked up with Marriott, but his attempted cross cleared the bar.
The home side got lucky when Jack McMenemy broke free through the left channel and fired an angled shot across the face of Sam Wilson's goal. that crashed against the inside of the right hand post and rolled along the goal line, before Henri Wilder hooked it away.
The referee looked to his assistant, Lee Clarke, who decreed that not all of the ball had crossed the line, despite Lincoln's understandable appeals.

Stagsnet veterans Kernow and Martin Shaw

To be fair, the Imps probably had good reason to feel aggrieved, but these sort of decisions and scenarios balance themselves out over the course of the season. Or so I am told.
Luke Morgan, making his first start in the EFL Youth Alliance for Mansfield this season, did well to block McMenemy's goal bound shot and then headed clear from Archie Moyes corner kick.
Lincoln pushed forward right at the end of the first half and went close when Wilder's clearance from inside the Stags penalty area, fell to Keilen Gretton, whose first time strike flew just wide of the right hand upright.
HT: 0-0

Nyle Blake combined with Dumbleton, as the Stags looked to open up a resilient Lincoln defence, which was being well marshalled by the workaholic Jack Fixter, but they were getting very little scope to make any space, by a determined Imps back line.
Marriott picked up the ball thirty yards from goal and rolled it sideways to Smith, who strode forward before shooting over the bar from the edge of the area.
The Stags went close to taking the lead when Ryley Thompson was a whisker away from turning the ball into his own goal from Wilder's left wing cross, while Luke Anderson intercepted Marriott's resulting corner, that was aimed towards Nyle Blake.

Reece Robinson Jones scuffed a shot when he was well placed in front of the Stags goal and Morgan had to move quickly put the ball behind for a corner as McMenemy moved in. The Stags onlt half cleared the flag kick as far as Anderson, who crashed the loose ball over the bar.
Gretton and McMenemy linked up on the left flank, but Aiden Walker a second half substitute for the Stags, intercepted the ball and calmly cleared the danger away.
It has been a while since Walker got a run out, but in blended in seamlessly and added no small amount of composure out on the right for the home side where he had a good understanding with one of the unsung heroes of the current campaign, Kane Baldwin.

Walker and Dumbleton exchanged passes and freed Devante Reittie on the right hand side of the area and his pass across the area to Bloor and Smith caused a few moments of panic in the Imps defence, before the Fixter and Anderson partnership closed ranks again.
Wilder fed the ball forward to Dumbleton, he in turn laid it off first time to Smith, who lobbed a pass into the path of Devante Reittie, and the Lincoln defence collectively held their breath, as the ball rolled agonisingly across the face of goal after the lively front man held off the attentions of Fixter and diverted a shot from an acute angle.
It was Lincon's turn to get lucky this time!
In stoppage time, Smith threaded a pass through to Marriott on the right hand side of the Imps goalmouth, who raced forward before nicking the ball past the advancing Start, but alas, it flew inches wide of the left hand post too.
FT: Mansfield Town U18 0 v Lincoln City U18 0

Tuesday 24th January 2017

(Checkatrade) EFL Trophy Quarter Final

at the One Call Stadium/Field Mill

Mansfield Town (1) 1

Matt Green 34 pen

Wycombe Wanderers (0) 2

Scott Kashket 73

Adebayo Akinfenwa 81

Admission £10 Programme £1.50

Attendance 2,047 (inc. 108 away fans)

Football is a simple game... and by rule of thumb, if you make errors and don't pick up opposition players in and around your own goal area, then you will get punished accordingly.

Wycombe have some particularly big, strong players throughout their ranks and at times their sheer physicality muscled the Stags out of the game.

Although the vast majority of it was 'firm but fair' fare, at times the referee, David Webb, certainly appeared to be letting a lot of the strong-arm stuff go unpunished ... but I've no complaints to that end, nor do I feel the need point to any of the rough and tumble by way of making any excuses; because even if it was apparent that the officials were being lenient towards a lot of heavy handed stuff, then Mansfield had the opportunity to adapt to the circumstances and meet fire with fire.

And if they aspire to being serious promotion contenders through the play offs, this is the sort of level of commitment, strength in the tackle and uptempo pressing and closing down, that they will have to apply themselves, on an unstinting, regular and consistent basis.

Tonight's visitors are well and truly up for a scrap to get out of League 2 and they're tucked in nicely in a play off spot,just behind the automatic promotion places.

Should Mansfield wish to join them at the business end of the table then tonight was a good indication of how they need to up the ante to become a very good side who are just as difficult to beat as Gareth Ainsworth's formidable charges, as opposed to just being an above average team, who are more than capable of raising their game on occasion, but aren't quite the finished article, as of yet.

On the pitch, Mansfield Town are making some giant strides in the right direction, but they are still in a work in progress and transitional phase.

The Stags didn't play badly tonight, not at all, in fact up until a couple of defensive lapses cost them the two late goals, the home side were actually on the verge of nicking a result against one of the better sides who will visit Field Mill this season.

And let us not overlook the fact that since the Chairboys drew with Mansfield back in October, they have only lost once in their last twenty games prior to tonight (against Coventry City in a Checkatrade Trophy group game), so running them so close was actually an accomplishment, of sorts, in itself.

Both sides had several before the home side took the lead, with the best two falling to Wycombe's Sam Saunders, but it was Matt Green who broke the deadlock from the penalty spot, after Joe Jacobson controlled the ball with his right hand from Mal Benning's left wing cross, after the Stags left back had made a lengthy run forward from inside his own half.

Several ungenerous Wanderers fans claimed on social media that it shouldn't have been a penalty, but I will politely suggest that they were unsighted (at best), having a laugh or talking crap, borne out of a deep rooted sense of bias. It couldn't have been much more of a stonewall penalty and nailed on decision if Jacobson had actually caught the ball and run away with it tucked underneath his arm.

Green finished emphatically from the spot in the 34th minute... and a trip to Wembley, to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Stags winning the Freight Rover Trophy at the national stadium, began to look like a distinct possibility.

Cameron Healey and Zayn Hakeem. Stags U18 ITA

Having taken in a single goal advantage at the interval, the Stags might have had another chance to increase their lead from another spot kick, when Matt Green went to ground under a challenge in the Chairboys area, but Mr Webb waved away Mansfield's appeals, much to Wycombe's relief and the annoyance of the home side's bench, though I personally think that the official had got that one right too... even though I readily joined in with the (hopeful) cries of injustice... as you do!

But cometh the hour (and six minutes), cometh the heavy artillery... and Wycombe brought on Adebayo Akinfenwa along top scorer Scott Kashket, to add even more bite and firepower to their side. The plan worked!

Oh no!
Here come Scott Kashket and TV chef Ainsley Harriott

In the 72nd minute, Max Muller shot from outside the Stags area and Jake Kean didn't take a clean catch but spilled the ball into the path of the prolific front-man Kashket, who duly planted the loose ball into the back of the goal. Bugger!
Yoann Arquin had the opportunity to put the Stags back in front, but didn't get enough power nor precision into his shot and Wycombe moved forward ominously once again as they visibly grew in stature.
Marcus Bean lobbed a pass to (inevitably) Akinfenwa, who took the ball down, held off the attentions of the Mansfield defence and turned on the spot before drilling the ball home to give the visitors an 81st minute lead.
CJ Hamilton and Danny Rose both had chances late on to force the tie to penalties, but having got a grip of the game, Wycombe weren't going to let go now... and the £50,000 quarter final prize money and a semi final place was theirs.
In conclusion, the best team on the night won, even though the Stags had given it a go... and if they can continue to motor on in this sort of form, I wouldn't be surprised to see Ainsworth's sides actually grabbing one of this season's automatic promotion spots.

Ultimately, having the luxury of the two pronged strike force Akinfenwa and Kashket on the bench to throw into the mix, won the day for the visitors, while Mansfield were given a glimpse of the kind of ante they'll have to sustain to break into the promotion race themselves.
On Saturday the Stags are at home against Leyton Orient... and in a generous attempt to attract the localsupport back toField Mill, anybody buying a ticket for this game can claim a free one for the next home game against Hartlepool United.
Wycombe Wanderers have a slightly different sort of game to look forward to at the weekend, when they travel to White Hart Lane to face Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup 4th Round.
Good luck with that!
FT: Mansfield Town 1 v Wycombe Wanderers 2
I have seen the ticket prices for the Checkatrade EFL Trophy finalat Wembley Stadium, that softened the blow of tonight's defeat as I drove home.

Wednesday 25th January 2017

Toolstation NCEL League Cup 4th Round

at the Forest Town Arena

AFC Mansfield (0) 3

Ollie Fearon 55

Lynton Karkach 61

James Cullingworth 82

Knaresborough Town (0) 0

Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 53

With Clipstone going down 3-2 in extra time at Penistone Church on this spitefully cold night, AFC Mansfield joined Rainworth Miners Welfare and Teversal, who both won yesterday, to become the third Nottinghamshire based club to make it through to the fifth round.
And as things panned out, after a fairly evenly balanced first half, the Bulls eased their way towards a comfortable win after the interval.
Ever so slightly against the run of play, Danny Naylor gave the home side the lead inside the first minute, but the assistant referee, the right honorable James Thornhill of Ilkeston, raised his flag and ruled that a.n.other Mansfield player who was standing in an offside position, was interfering with play and the strike was ruled out.
Personally I think that the linesman's head was still in a muddle after the non stop barrage of abuse he'd had screamed at him by a 'middle aged' couple from Hemsworth on Saturday at Maltby Main, but hey ho! These things balance themselves out... blah, blah, blah.
I had stood up for Mr Thornhill at the weekend, when one of his vocal critics had offered the opinion that he wasn't fit to officiate at a fancy dress game, played between two teams of circus clowns, I had corrected them... because he certainly is ;-)

Norm from Cheers admires the very smart Maltby Main pennant in his office.

Colin Heath took up the ball in a good position for Knaresborough and tore forward towards the home side's goal, through the right channel was blocked by Jason White and a fraction after he'd released his shot Grant Allott clipped his heel, causing the visitors manager to have an outspoken at the referee Martyn Fryer, which would prove costly later on when the official decided that he had been subjected to quite enough expletive laiden abuse and eventually ordered Paul Stansfield from his dug out midway through the second half.

But he wasn't the first person from Knaresborough to see (a straight) red on the night; because that dubious honour belonged to Ben Parkes, who had executed... well not quite but very nearly... Lynton Karkach, with an horrific late tackle, that was as nasty as it was unnecessary.

Thankfully, Karkach was able to carry on following Parke's assault and just for good measure he very nearly scored directly from the free kick that the visitors left back had conceded as a consequence of a rush of blood to his head.

In the meantime, Karkach's former Gainsborough Trinity team mate, Jon D'Laryea went close with a dipping long range shot, but at half time, as the temperature plummeting like a great big rock, the game remained goalless.

HT: 0-0

After the break, the Bulls cranked their game up a notch, while the visitors struggled to deal with their numerical disadvantage against a better team from a higher division.

The outcome was virtually inevitable by now... and it was only the question of when, rather than if, Rudy Funk's side would take control of the game and start rattling in the goals that remained to be answered.

The opening goal duly came on fifty five minutes... albeit a fairly curious one.

Because as Ollie Fearon moved forward to meet James Cullingworth's right wing cross, he failed to make a decent contact with the ball and it spun off of his leg and was seemingly destined to clear the crossbar by some way. But in a moment that would grace the BBC's Question of Sport 'What Happened Next' slot, as several players starting walking back towards the halfway line in anticipation of a goalkick and the visitors keeper resigned himself to having to go and fetch the ball backfrom the cycle track that runs around the Forest Town Arena, it dropped sharply, narrowly missing the crossbar and bounced into the back of the net off of the goal line.

They all count! ut if young Mr Fearon tells any of you that he meant it, you have my express permission to tell him to stop fibbing!

Just after the hour mark, as if to prove that he was much bigger a tougher than he actually looks, Karkach shrugged off the after effects of Parkes first half crunching tackle and twisted and turned just outside the visitors area, before crashing an unstoppable shot past Jack Rushworth to double the Bulls advantage.
D'oh! I was hoping for extra time and penalties because I've never seen a game of football played out in an ice tomb before.
But it was a great finish and worthy of putting the game beyond the ten men of Knaresborough's reach, so I'll let him off... this time.
The Bulls defence were doing the few bits of mopping things up at the back well, as it became more and more obvious that the visitors were on a hiding to nothing. I actually felt sorry for the visitors secretary, committee people and supporters, because they always come across as a friendly bunch whenever our paths have crossed.

Cullingworth shot wide when he was well placed,but it wasn't going to have an adverse effect on the outcome of the game now, especially when the visitors manager finally touched the referee's raw nerves once too often and was sent on his way.

Besides, with eight minutes remaining Cullingworth atoned for his miss and put the game well beyond the reach of the visitors with a third goal for Mansfield, who comfortably saw the game out, while a dejected looking Knaresborough looked resigned to their fate and will probably be grateful that there was only a minimum of stoppage time added on.

Karkach almost added a fourth goal for the home side, but his long range shot crashed off of the left hand upright... and that was that!

FT: AFC Mansfield 3 v Knaresborough Town 0

The Bulls have a tricky fixture at the Forest Town Arena this weekend against an in form Maltby Main, while play off chasing Knaresborough have a home game against ninth placed Selby Town to look forward to in the NCEL Division One.

There is a distinct probability that I will be at one of these games.

Ta very much to Jane Wilson for the strong and restorative hot cup of coffee when I arrived at tonight's game.

That whatisname is a very lucky bloke ;-)

Friday 27th January 2017
FA Cup Fourth Round
at the IPRO Stadium (Pride Park)
Derby County (2) 2
Darren Bent 21, Craig Bryson 40
Leicester City (1) 2
Darren Bent 8 OG, Wes Morgan 86
Admission: it said £21 on the ticket, but I received it as a gift
Programme: £3. Attendance: 25,079

Not what I'd expected to be doing tonight at all; in fact prior to taking a phone call while I was just about to go down 'our hill', in East Retford upon Idle, to pick up a 'chippy tea', my destination for tonight was going to be Brooksby Melton College, to watch a Mansfield Town's Under 21 side take on Boston United in a practice match on the 3G pitch (for the record Boston won 3-0).
But a meeting place near Pride Park (AKA Subway) was quickly organised and I was soon on my way to pick up a match ticket and car park pass... as the lure of the magic of the FA Cup gripped me by the knackers,
As a consequence, I wasn't ever so well organised upon my arrival and any photos that I have used to break up my monotonous text tonight, were taken earlier in the season, when I saw Mansfield Town win at 'the Ipro Stadium' and Birmingham City lose.
It was too wet to take many notes or risk water damaging my phone taking pictures.
Any slight pangs of a guilty conscience that I may have felt about getting a free ticket tonight, were somewhat offset by the fact that I had paid £32 when Gianfranco Zola's Blues played here in December... and as I recall, they were bloody awful!

Besides, on the subject of ex gratis gifts, I put a lot of unpaid hours in each and every week, in pursuit of doing all manner of jobs for several clubs, who ply their trade at different levels of the game... and I seldom hang on to my petrol receipts; so the odd freebie every now and then doesn't hurt anybody.
I put in far more tan I ever take out, 'nuff said!?
For the record, I nearly always take my own food with me to matches and I don't actually like prawn sandwiches.
So anyway, on with the game...
Derby are unbeaten at home since Steve McClaren returned as manager. while the Foxes have won away from home just once all season, when a brace of goals from Ahmed Musa, saw them overturn a one goal deficit to beat Everton at Goodison Park, in the third round of the FA Cup. The Rams won at West Bromwich Albion by the same score in the previous round, with Tom Ince and Darren Bent, both scoring after the Baggies were a goalin front at half time.
The last time I was here, Darren Bent scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot, but he eclipsed that achievement tonight by scoring for both teams inside the opening twenty one minutes.

His first was an own goal of epic comedy proportions, when he miscued a goal line clearance, after Chris Baird had inadvertently directed the ball towards him, from Huth's header back across the six yard box from Marc Albrighton's right wing corner kick.
Bent made amends, when he directed a glancing header beyond the reach of Kasper Schmeichel, after Will Hughes had latched onto the Leicester keeper's punched clearance before picking out bent with a pinpoint cross.
Hughes put in a dominant performance before having to leave the field of play halfway through the second half with a pulled hamstring... the outcome might have been different, if the England U21 midfielder had seen out the whole game, such was his influence.
Craig Bryson put the home side ahead five minutes before the break, when he made a surging run past three pedestrian Leicester defenders before planting his angled shot into the net across the face of Schmeichel, the ball took a slight deflection off of Huth, but was goal bound all the way anyway.
HT: Rams 2 v Foxes 1

So, WTF has happened to Leicester City, who are seemingly trying to reclaim their unenviable title as being a perpetual yo-yo team, who regularly switch their league status between the top two divisions? Because having stormed their way to the Premier League title last season in a remarkable fashion, that was probably only ever bettered by Nottingham Forest as a fairy-tale scenario when Brian Clough took over at struggling Nottingham Forest and led them to promotion, league championship honours and back to back European Cup triumphs, Claudio Ranieri's side are currently only five points above the relegation places... though ironically, they are through to the knockout stages of the European Champions League as well.
Teams who were caught out by Leicester's game plan last term, seem to have the measure of them now and last season's top flight scoring sensation Jamie Vardy isn't having a party anymore and is currently suffering from a severe goal drought. I'd go so far as to say, that if he carries on playing like he did tonight, he'd struggle to get back into the Stocksbridge Park Steels team.
But joking aside, good players don't become bad ones overnight and once Vardy gives his head a shake and stops getting carried away with all of the hype, he will be back among the goals.

This one wasn't taken tonight

Leicester had enough chances to get back into the game, but Scott Carson, the Rams keeper made some good stops, while also demonstrating no small amount of good positional awareness and benefitting from a decent portion (plus second helpings) of good fortune once or twice, especially when he saved a Shinji Okazaki shot by catching the ball between his thighs.
Demarai Gray crashed a shot against the upright and right at that moment in time, it looked as if Leicester wouldn't be in the hat for the fifth round draw (yes, I know that it is really a suede draw string bag with monogrammed FA crest on it that the FA Cup draw balls are kept in, but it has always been called a hat and probably always will be), but Wes Morgan headed home Gray's corner with just four minutes to go, to take the game to a replay.
The home side had good reason to feel aggrieved when they weren't awarded a penalty late in the game, when Abdoul Camara's shot hit Huth's hand. It was a 'ball to hand' call, but Camara had hit the ball cleanly and it was on target, but Mark Clattenburg is a better referee than the likes of you and I could ever aspire to be, so give him his due and accept the decision... while calling Leicester dead jammy!
FT: Derby County 2 v Leicester City 2

...and neither was this!

A draw was just about a fair and just result all told.
The replay will take place on Wednesday 8th February at the King Power Stadium in Leicester.

Both teams now face away gamesin the league this coming Tuesday, with Derby heading to Portman Road to face Ipswich Town, while Leicester take on Burnley at Turf Moor.

I got soaked to the skin tonight, but it was a decent game, full of twists, turns and sub plots and it was a good night, in spite of the Subway 'meatball marinara' being completely inedible and only fit to chuck at the old guy selling half and half Derby/Leicester scarves.
I didn't actually see anyone buying one BTW, nor did I throw the sloppy mess at him.

Saturday 28th January 2017

Toolstation NCEL Premier Division

AFC Mansfield (0) 2

Jon D'Laryea 58

Matt Plummer 90

Maltby Main (0) 1

Reece Wesley 70

Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance

Both of these two sides most recent games, namely: Maltby Main v Hemsworth Miners Welfare in the NCEL Premier Division last Saturday and the AFC Mansfield v Knaresborough Town midweek League Cup game, were covered by this eloquently written and extremely well presented self indulgent bullshit blog with added football content; as was the Miners 3-1 win over the Bulls at Muglet Lane earlier inthe season season.

So it made perfect sense to me, that I should also be present at the next installment of this ongoing local non league saga this afternoon... if for no other reason than to exploit the opportunity to insert four self promoting click on links into the opening paragraph.

Losing to a ninety fourth minute goal is always a kick in teeth and several of the Maltby contingent were wont to ask where the referee Luke Watson had found so much stoppage time from.
But by applying the letter of the law (as one tends to do when there are NCEL committee personnel watching on) and adding on thirty seconds for each goal scored and every substitution made, then the match officials timekeeping was actually just about spot on.
Ironically, it was the last of those substitutes: Ellis Wall (who signed for the Bulls from Clipstone this week), who was the architect of what proved to be the winning goal.
What a dynamic entrance!

After a scrappy opening five minutes, as both sides weighed each other up, the first chance of the game fell to Conner White, who, in spite of seeing Jason White deal with his shot, grabbed his chance to impress today, with both hands, having been drafted in to cover for Jordan Snodin, who was unavailable.

It must be something of a luxury for Spencer Fearn to have such selection dilemmas, since players returned to the club from elsewhere and a few who had been out through injury returned to full fitness.

Lynton Karkach, who is enjoying a good run of form for the Bulls, worked himself the space to unleash an angled shot from ten yards, but Nicky Darker had anticipated well and made a timely block, on an afternoon hen he caught the eye and put in a real captain's performance all over the pitch.

Joe Cheeseman collected the ball on the edge of the area with his back to goal and hit a shot on the turn that rattled the visitors crossbar.
Played switched to the other end and Jon D'Laryea, Matty Plummer and Jason White, were all tested at pieces as Maltby bombarded the Bulls goal area with dead ball (corner and free) kicks from Josh Hemmingway and a series of long throw ins by Nicky Draker.
White in particular, seemed to have the measure of Hemmingway's corner kicks, but while-soever Maltby kept getting the ball into the mix they posed a threat through Ryan Carroll and Steve Hopewell, with Reece Wesley getting up in support.
Cameron Rigby and George Milner were having a wholesome scrap for the ball throughout the first half, along the strip of ground in front of the Mansfield right back Brad Wilson, who himself was adding width to the home side's attack as Karkach looked for him with a range of wide balls.

Alas, having put in several half decent crosses towards Ollie Fearon, Wilson limped out the the game at half time with a pulled hamstring.

White spotted Carroll's run into the left hand side of the home sides penalty area, but the Maltby striker probably didn't realise quite how much time and space he actually had as he hooked the ball over the bar as he tried to get his shot away before White could move out and narrow the angles.

Hemingway tried a similar knock into the path of Rigby, but Plummer got across quickly and put the ball out for a corner, which White dealt with easily as Hemingway put the flag kick across the face of his goal.

HT: AFC Mansfield 0 v Maltby Main 0

Mansfield made a lively start to the second half, with Fearon and Karkach charging around like Bulls in a China shop.

Fearon crossed to Karkach whose shot was deflected wide and whose corner kick was cleared by Joe Austin.

Karkach then battled his way into the area and went to ground as he challenged Wesley shoulder to shoulder and as the loose ball fell to Fearon, the Bulls number nine crashed his shot just wide.

"Bloody hell referee! Don't you do penalties any more!?", demanded and elderly local.

Hmm... wait and see my friend, wait and see ;-)

Danny Rusling, who has been playing with a confident spring in his step of late, wouldn't have seen much of the ball before he pulled off a a save from Fearon's speculative effort.

Wesley got up in support of the Maltby front line once again and delicately chipped the ball just over the bar from Hemingway's long free kick.

Yes... for purposes of clarification, I just used the words Wesley and delicate in the same sentence.

The deadlock was finally broken in the fifty eighth minute, when George Milner hooked the ball across the Miners area from out on the right and Fearon headed the ball back across the face of goal to where, D'Laryea got a touch and forced the ball home from close range.

It probably won't have been the tidiest strike that the former Mansfield Town and Gainsborough Trinity player has ever scored in his entire career, but a goal is a goal.

Ryan Carroll almost responded immediately to the Bulls opening goal, but having broke free on the right, he saw his cross cum shot narrowly clear the bar and land on the roof of the net.

D'Laryea threaded a pass through to Milner who was tackled firmly by Darker and a brief stoppage in play ensued as the Maltby captain twisted his ankle awkwardly, but he was able to carry on and the referee started his stopwatch again. While Ellis Wall entered the fay in place of Milner who was probably feeling the effects of having meet with Darker head on.

The Miners were on level terms in the seventieth minute, when Darker launched a lengthy throw into the crowded Bulls area from out on the left wing and Wesley got a decisive touch and directed the ball past White.

Steve Hopewell, who has been pivotal to Maltby's recent upturn in results, very nearly put the visitors ahead, but Jimmy Ghaichem had tracked back and put in a last ditch tackle.

"What was is doing back there, is he lost!?" called out the resident octogenarian comic.

An all hands to the pumps scrap for the ball broke out, just outside the Mansfield area and Lewis Bemrose pounced and drilled the ball wide from twenty yards.

Having covered every blade of grass on the right hand side of the pitch for the visitors, Connor White was replaced by Ollie Lawrence for the final ten minutes.

The visitors were grateful to Rusling when he pulled off two good saves in quick succession, the first from James Cullingworth's thumping close range shot after the former Maltby striker Fearon had headed the ball into the second half substitutes path and the second from Fearon himself after Ghaichem had kept the ball live from Rusling's initial save and chipped across the six yard box.

Cullingworth was agonisingly close to grabbing the three points for Rudy Funk's side when he caught out the Maltby defence with a dipping shot from just outside the right hand side of the goal area,but the ball crashed against the top of the left hand post and Maltby were reprieved.

At the other end Carroll almost claimed the game for Maltby, but as he muscled past Cheeseman, he was pulled back as he shot and the ball deflected back to White off of Jordan Annable.

I would never, ever, criticise a player for being too honest, but whenever Ryan Carroll gets a sniff of a strike on goal, you could drive an articulated truck into him and the lad would try to stay on his feet and get his shot in.

It was now the last minute of the ninety and Ryan Carroll spotted a Mansfield counter attack developing and sprinted back into his own half to cut out a forward pass from Karkach for Fearon to run on to, otherwise Rusling would have been left exposed in a two against one situation.

Four minutes into stoppage time, Cullingworth received the ball inside the Miners area from Ellis Wall and one of the defenders he was backing into scythed the Bulls players legs from under him. It was as blatant a penalty as you or I have ever seen, but not in the opinion of the referee. And he was getting paid to be here, unlike any of us, so...err, he must've been right.

And the outspoken old gentleman from Attlee Avenue had the answer to his earlier question. Does this referee give penalties?

Apparently not.

But Wall had chased after the ball and stayed focused among all of the finger pointing and remonstrating and he played to the whistle and delivered an inch perfect cross to Plummer who buried the ball into the back of Rusling's net, to finish off a very determined Maltby side, right at the death.

FT: AFC Mansfield 2 v Maltby Main 1

The Bulls next game, will be against Armthorpe Welfare at Forest Town Arena, while Maltby have back to back home games on Wednesday and Saturday, against Staveley (who had a delegation in attendance, running the rule over the Miners today, because their game was postponed, due to a waterlogged pitch at Inkersall Road) and Clipstone, who went down 5-2 at Hemsworth this afternoon, in spite of a goal by the dual registered Mansfield Town work experience player Keaton Ward.

Monday 30th January 2017

Lincolnshire U21 Development League

at the Martin & Co. Arena, the Northolme, Gainsborough

Gainsborough Trinity (1) 1
Jack Wilkinson 31

Lincoln City (1) 5
Cenk Acar 44 pen, Jack McMenemy 51
Archie Moyses 67, Taylor Miles 74 pen
Kielen Gretton 80

Admission £2

Gainsborough Trinity:

Blake Caldwell, Dan Gardner, Lee Betts, Jacob Robinson, Charlie Mann, Brad Bateson, Joe Smith, Josh Hobson, Jack Wilkinson, Jacob Fenton, Joe Edwards

Substitutes: Alex Hayes, Ben Turner, Joe Pettit, Shaiden Millican, Henry Mallett

Lincoln City:

Reece Start, Jack Fixter, Ryley Thompson, Taylor Miles, Jack Weatherell, Luke Andersen, Danny Horton, Archie Moyses, Jack McMenemy, CenkAcar, Reece Robinson-Jones

Substitutes: Chris Hall, Ritchie Burdett, Luke White, Kielen Gretton, Michael Antkowiak

I guess it would be wrong to say anything about Lincoln City at this current moment in time, without mentioning their first team's quite remarkable FA Cup run and slant at promotion back to the Football League.

Rest assured, I am well placed to comment on the fact that Division 4, or the SkyBet EFL League 2 if you really must insist on the basement division it's Sunday name, isn't always the holy grail that it is cracked up to be.
Nevertheless, it is where Lincoln City belong, while they currently stand out like a sore thumb when the non league results are read out... and have done for far too long now.

Good luck at Burnley and enjoy the cup run all you Imps fans (even Adam Barlow).
And I hope that you win promotion this time round too, if only to cut down on our petrol consumption and train fares when we're travelling to away games next term.

Assuming, of course, that the mighty Stags are still plying their trade in the basement division.

Because, if Lincoln can turf Ipswich Town and Championship title contenders Brighton & Hove Albion out of the FA Cup, then the Stags can make up a two point gap and gatecrash the play off party too, because football is a magical game, where 'owt can happen... and dreams can come true. You just ask Gabrielle!

But tonight was a different kettle of fish, as the development sides from two ex Football League clubs came face to face in a Lincolnshire derby, on a night that was unseasonably mild up until just after half time when the temperature plummeted sharply and reminded me of just how nesh I have become in my old age.

Trinity started the game well enough and their efforts early in the game were rewarded when they took the lead just after the half hour mark, but Lincoln looked stronger all over the pitch and once they had absorbed a spell of pressure from Gainsborough and started to take a foothold, there was no looking back for the Imps... and having drawn level just before the break they were dominant in the second half.

Suffice to say the full time score was an accurate reflection of the game overall.

It was refreshing to see both sides using their Under 21 sides as development teams, when so many teams seem to be using these sort of fixtures as glorified reserve games.

Surely, it should be a case of either/or, shouldn't it?

And any club who wants to blood a conveyor belt of young talent and have an outlet for their stiffs to have a run out, really needs to have both and Under 21 and reserve team. Sure the edges would probably have to blur and merge from time to time; but while first team squad and fringe players (and those coming back from injury) need to stay match fit and sharp, the crop of youngsters who are coming up through the ranks, need to be playing at a competitive level on a regular basis too.

Some players at league club academies flourish when they go out on loan to non league clubs to get roughed up a bit and learn the ways of the world, while others need nurturing for a while longer, where they will benefit from going under the wing of specialist coaching. The crux of the matter is, individual players peak in their development at a different pace and as a consequence, only a flexible template will stop far too many of them slipping through the net.

I had watched the vast majority of tonight's Imps side less than a week ago, when they travelled to Clipstone and held the table topping, reigning Under 18 league champions Mansfield Town... I am contractually obliged to use the preceding nine words in every single report I write ;-) ... to a draw, in a game they came very close to winning.

The visitors keeper Reece Start made thefirst save inside the opening two minutes, when Joe Edwards tried his luck with a well struck free kick from long range.

Joe Smith and Jack Wilkinson were making all of the right runs and offering themselves up as an outlet up front for Trinity, but Jack Fixter, Luke Anderson and (in particular) Jack Wetherell, were on top of their game (again) in defence for City.

For the record, Wetherell is now famous in our household, because when Lincoln City recently played Mick McCarthy's Ipswich Town in t'cup and the highlights were on the telly, my missus pointed out that: "Hey! That kid who plays for Lincoln Under 18's with all that hair is on the bench tonight!"

Blake Caldwell in the Trinity goal, had to be alert to Reece Robinson-Jones sprint forward when Jack McMenemy slipped a defence splitting pass into his path, but the young 'Holy Blues' keeper smothered the ball.

Just after the half hour mark, Gainsborough played the ball forward out of defence and Jacob Robinson looked up in the centre circle and spotted that Wilkinson had escaped the attentions of Anderson and dropped a great pass into his path, that the Trinity striker controlled first time, burst forward and planted a shot that nestled just inside the left hand post, across the path of Start who was advancing quickly from his line.

I have seen Wilkinson playing for the youth teams at several clubs over the last two seasons and he's never given less than 100% anywhere he's been.

Alas, the goal had the same effect on Lincoln that you would get if you smeared your naked body in honey and started prodding at a bees nest and offering the occupants out for a scrap.

Charlie Mann and Brad Bateson in the middle of the Gainsborough defence, were tested to the max. as Lincoln swarmed forward.

Archie Moyses crossed to McMenemy, who laid the ball across the face of the home sides goal, but Taylor Miles struck his shot over the bar.

Mann and Bateson blocked shots in quick succession from Acar and McMenemy as the visitors laid siege to the Trinity goal.

But Gainsborough almost made it two nil from a counter attack, when Jake Fenton broke away at speed down the right wing from Mann's clearance and delivered a cross to Joe Smith, whose eighteen yard shot was tipped over by Start, who made an excellent one handed save.

The Northolme. I didn't take this aerial picture, obviously.
But you can just about see the place where I work in
the top right hand corner, behind a building site..

Despite being spared a two goal deficit by the agility of their keeper, the Imps were still looking likely to pull level any time soon... and it took another good block from Caldwell to keep out a thumping shot from Miles, before McMenemy rolled the ball into the path of Acar, who battled his way towards the Trinity goal, running shoulder to shoulder with Mann, before being pushed off the ball as the home side conceded a penalty in the final minute of the first half.

Caldwell dived the right way, but the power of Acar's spot kick beat him and the two sides went in level at the break.

HT: 1-1

Right at the start of the second half, Trinity started with a flurry, when Robinson played the ball forward to Wilkinson, who turned on the spot and played the ball away from his marker to Edwards, but Danny Hurton got a foot in and cleared up the danger for Lincoln.

But from hereon in, the visitors virtually took over and Trinity were chasing shadows for a while me because of the speed, accuracy and frequency that the Imps were knocking the ball around the pitch.

Hurton picked out Robinson-Jones on the left flank, he crossed to Acar who held off a challenge and fed the ball sideways to McMenemy, who had ghosted past the Trinity defence on their blind side, into a bloody great big area of free space and made no mistake from ten yards out.

McMenemy was almost on the score sheet again, after some good footwork by Ryley Thompson opened up the home side down the left wing, but Caldwell got down to block his shot.

Wetherell played a long pass out of defence towards Acar, who took the ball as far as the dead ball line, before turning back and drilling it across the face of goal, where it narrowly cleared the right hand post.

McMenemy shot just wide from the edge of the area and appeared to tweak his hamstring as he let fly, but ran any ill effects off after hobbling around for a few minutes, even though it seemed to slow him down slightly when he came second in a race for the ball with Caldwell after Miles had delivered a decent cross from Fixter's throw in.

Josh Hobson tried to catch Start out with an ambitious free kick from forty yards out, but the Imps keeper punch the ball away as far as Moyses, who hooked it away back into the Trinity half.

It was looking virtually inevitable that Lincoln would add to the scoring tonight, such was the balance of play. Miles and Moyses combined well from a free kick routine, picking out McMenemy on the edge of the area, who rolled the ball back into the path of Miles to have a crack at goal, that Caldwell did well to save at full stretch.

The cold was creeping into my bones, but it was just about bearable and not half as annoying as the bell ringing practice at the nearby All Saints Church, who made an unearthly racket for most of the night. Each to their own I s'pose!
Fixter had a shot blocked by Mann, Caldwell ran from his area to clear the ball as McMenemy chased down a long ball from Wetherell and Mann and McMenemy set up a chance for Moyses from an interchange of passes that Caldwell managed to hold by the foot of the right hand post.
But Moyses scored from Lincoln's next attack, when Acar held off a challenge on the right hand side of the Trinity area and knocked a square pass to the Imps number eight, who swept it past Caldwell from ten yards.
Gainsborough mounted a rare attack and Hobson wasn't very far away from giving the scoreline a more respectable look, when he diverted Lee Betts left wing cross just past the post.

Image result for gainsborough trinity the66pow

Acar homed in on Caldwell's goal once more and Mann clipped his heels as he got his shot away, so the referee blew up and pointed to the spot again.
With Acar feeling the effects of the challenge and subsequently being substituted, Miles took responsibility for taking the penalty and at four one, the game was beyond salvaging for Gainsborough now.
Although Wilkinson curled a shot into the arms of start, after Wetherell had uncharacteristically sliced a clearance into the path of the Trinity striker.
Both teams made several substitutions and one of the players who Lincoln introduced, Kielen Gretton, netted the goal of the night, when he picked the ball up in midfield advanced forward and spanked a shot past Caldwell from all of thirty yards.
In the final minute, Wilkinson broke forward through the left channel, but there were no other Trinity players up in support and the move broke down as Anderson blocked the route to goal.
FT: Gainsborough Trinity U18 1 v Lincoln City 5

Image result for Lincolnshire Under 21 development league

Tuesday 31st January 2017
SkyBet EFL Championship
at St Andrews, Birmingham
Birmingham City (0) 0
Reading (0) 1
John Swift 77
Admission £15. Programme £3
Attendance16,672 (inc. 627 away fans)

Sometimes in football, the truth is far stranger than any kind of fiction that you made up could ever be.
Take Birmingham City's current season for instance!
Tonight, just three of Blues eighteen attempts on goal were on target, as they chalked up a tenth consecutive game without a win since Gionfranco Zola took over as the first team manger, following the shock sacking of the fan's favourite Gary Rowett, when his side were just three points off of the automatic promotion places.
Rowett had a new improved contract deal on the table, but stalled when it came to signing it... and was almost (but not quite) sending out a vibe to other clubs and suitors that he might be coming available anytime soon, so from a business perspective, it was a shrewd move for the club's new owners to have an alternative sorted out, just in case they were left in the lurch, manager-less and rudderless, midway through what was always going to be a transitional season, with the transfer window about to open.
For what it is worth, I don't think that Birmingham City would have been getting promoted this season, regardless of whether either Rowett or Zola was in charge, they weren't ready for the step up and under the previous manager... and still aren't. Yet!

Trillion Trophy Asia, probably expected Rowett to put pen to paper and demonstrate his loyalty to the club, given that their massive cash injection was affording Blues financial stability and security after years of having to cut their cloth accordingly and they were nonplussed that their backing wasn't being grasped with both hands and a little more swiftly and maybe doubts were raised and alarm bells began to sound.
In the world of high finance, harsh and ruthless decisions are made on a daily basis, based on protecting fiscal interests, sans any emotion, sentiment, kowtowing to tradition and hanging around waiting for dispensable employees to make their minds up. Tis the way of the world I'm afraid to say.
Who really knows though?
And I am sure that there are several sides to every story and numerous versions of events.
But who wants to dwell on boardroom politics?
Not me!
What's done is done. And though I have a massive amount of respect for Rowett and hold him in very high regard, football is an industry with a turnover rate of staff bigger than any other and to that end nobody is excused from the perpetual cycle of comings and goings.

Image result for birmingham city the66pow

Zola has been very busy during the transfer window and now the fifty year old former West Ham United, Italy U16, Watford, Cagliari and Al-Arabi boss, will now be judged solely on his own merits, after having to make do and mend the squad he inherited.
Understandably feelings have been running high and still are, as City's loyal fan base react to Rowett's dismissal and the dismal recent run of poor results and some of the invective that has been aimed between the various camps that have emerged (when in trutheverybody should be on the same side) has been shocking.
But it was noticeable tonight, the only chants about the former manager, that were aimed at Zola from the Reading fans section of the ground... and to that end, he probably shouldn't have responded to their taunts in his after match aftermath press conference.
I'll give it four minutes before the Fulham fans visiting St. Andrews on Saturday, start indulging in similar chants, now that they know it will upset the Birmingham manager.

John Swift pounced on a defensive error to claim the only goal of the game as the Royals picked up their third win in a row, but on the overall balance of play, had the visitors actually deserved to win tonight?
I'd say they didn't and Blues did more than enough to take something out of this game, even though they hadn't actually done enough to dominate things and impose themselves enough and actually claim all three points.
But the shoots of recovery were clear to see.
Well that's the way of the world and the jist of things covered, just about, as I see them.
On Saturday when I attend the Birmingham City v Fulham game, I will write about the match instead and endeavour to be slightly more upbeat, about the current climate in the EFL Championship.
FT: Birmingham City 0 v Reading 1
I'm away now to remove the splinters from my big arse... these things tend to happen when you blatantly sit on the fence as much as I have.
Once again, none of the pictures that I have used to break up my monotonous text were actually taken tonight, apart from the Programme and team sheet scans.
I'm getting lazy like that. But I'll try harder in future.
Tonight's tedious drive in the rain, encompassed a 192 mile round trip... so that's all I've got to say about things as Iburn the midnight oil to update this here blog type thing.
I am up for work at 5.30AM and I am so hideously ugly, that I desperately need to get some beauty sleep ASAP.

Wednesday 1st February 2017

Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at Muglet Lane, Maltby
Maltby Main (2) 3
Ryan Carroll 17
Lewis Bemrose 22, 57
Staveley MW (1) 2
Kurtis Morley 14
Tyla Bell 60
Admission £5. Programme £1.50.
Attendance 86

Image result for maltby main the66pow images

When these two sides met earlier in the season at Muglet Lane, in the NCEL League Cup, the Derbyshire side left South Yorkshire a fairly comfortable 5-1 win.
Tonight however, any repeat of that kind of result was never on the cards, as Staveley found Spencer Fearn's side to be far more competitive proposition.
It was somewhat fitting that on the occasion of me watching the Miners for the first time ever as a fully fledged member of their committee, that they triumphed against a team that come from Chesterfield.
It isn't a place I hold any sort of affection for, by any stretch of the imagination... and I am very happy to report, that as regards the feelings of quite a lot of people who reside in that neck of the woods, that sentiment is mutual.
And I wouldn't have it any other way!

Ed Sheeran fan!
With matching needy roots and snorkel parka fur ensemble

Earlier in the season, I had a temporary role, acting as the matchday secretary at Maltby Main, back in October, when they took on Bottesford Town in the NCEL at Birch Park and played Staveley in the aforementioned cup game at Muglet Lane.
I won't be attending every single Maltby game as a consequence of going on board with them and I'm definitely still carrying on doing my thing with the Mansfield Town Under 18 side (who I haven't mentioned are reigning champions and current league leaders on this blog for at least the last 48 hours), for the foreseeable future... but the two roles definitely won't collide.
Time allocation (if nothing else) is my forte.
I'm really looking forward to some new and exciting challenges. I have much to offer Maltby Main... and likewise, they have plenty that appeals to me too.
One thing that I hope to be able to convince the Maltby manager, Spencer Fearn, is a good idea, will be the introduction of white numbering on the back of the home kit.
The black numbers merge with the shirt colours and become invisible to the naked eye at night games.
Just saying like!

Conner White late replacement

for Josh Hemminway

Staveley's manager Brett Marshall had watched Maltby at AFC Mansfield on Saturday with an entourage from his club, when the Trojans game was postponed because their pitch at Inkersall Road was waterlogged again, so he will have been well aware of the danger posed by Nicky Darker's long throw ins.
Which is where the games first opening came from, but the visitors goalkeeper Lewis Naylor took a clean catch and dealt with the threat.
I was surprised that the referee and his assistants didn't spot Marshall's assistant Paul Ward blatantly stepping in front of a couple of throw ins from near the away teams dug out to thwart the potential damage that a well delivered chuck into the visitors goalmouth could cause, but he's an experienced old pro and evidently knows far more crafty tricks than the officials.
These things happen and Ward won't be the first person (or the last) to use gamesmanship to gain an advantage.

Ryan Carroll, who is in great form at the moment, tested Naylor twice with angled shots from the left hand side of the area. The visitors keeper held on to the ball well from Carroll's initial effort, but was lucky that Maltby had nobody following in when he spilled the second across the face of his goal.
But having taken the game to their visitors from the off, the Miners found themselves a goal behind after fourteen minutes, when Tyla Bell showed some neat footwork to lay Ricky Hanson's right wing ross into the path of Kurtis Morley, who drilled the ball into the back of the net from the edge of the area.
'Kurt' came through the youth ranks at Staveley when the emphasis there was still on producing home grown players, he is without a shadow of doubt a great asset to his side... but one needs to ask, why is he still plying his trade in the NCEL when he obviously has the ability to play at a higher level.

Maltby were on level terms within three minutes, when Steve Hopewell picked up the ball in his own half and released Carroll with a sublime through ball, that left Staveley's backline and midfield standing around like columns of Japanese Terracotta Warriors while the Miners front man paced forward and made light work of leaving Naylor grasping at fresh air with a quality finish, that gave the Trojans keeper, who was vaingloriously sprinting from his line no chance of saving.
Hopewell battled forward on the right hand side of the visitors area, but went to ground as Naylor dived in at his feet and the ball spun away and out of play.
From my vantage point, the referee, Paul Tomes, only had two options to choose from... and they were: was the foul committed inside the area or out?
But the official opted to award Maltby a corner instead.
Jordan Snodin delivered a well weighted flag kick into the six yard box, that Staveley just about cleared away, but the ball dropped to Lewis Bemrose, who unleashed a pile driver of a shot to put the Main ahead.

Image result for japanese terracotta soldiers

Hopewell's through ball leaves Staveley glued to the spot

Danny Patterson, who arrived at Muglet Lane from AFC Mansfield this week, slotted in seamlessly with his new team mates and looks like being a first class acquisition for the Miners.
Both sides had further chances to score before the interval, with Carroll dragging a shot narrowly past the left hand post from just inside the area, while Callum Mawbey took an eternity over preparing for a free kick, twenty yards from the Maltby goal, before slicing his shot over the bar and somewhere into the night sky in the general direction of Outgang Lane.
HT: Miners 2 v Trojans 1
That nice Mr Hawley made my missus a cracking cup of tea at half time, while she absorbed the news that had delayed telling her about me getting involved in local non league football again... and even treated her to some Pork Pie and a Custard Cream.
You don't get this kind of treatment anywhere else m'lady!
I thought she was taking things remarkably well, but soon found out I had merely given her an excuse to 'fess up to me that she had a surprise of her own to dump on me from a great height. She has purchased tickets for Ed Sheeran's upcoming tour, at £70 a throw. WTF!
I didn't have a dummy spit, or even change my facial expression, but if this person wishes to remain married to me for much longer, she will need to stop wasting copious amounts of cash, on watching such boring, mundane, wrist slittingly dull and (probably worst of all) ginger musicians.

Boring

Thankfully, our uneasy truce lasted until the teams came out for the second half and as the game got back underway, I felt confident enough to show her the new MALTBY MAIN FC 1916 tattoo that I've had done across my knuckles (I live in East Retford and as a consequence have enough fingers to accommodate such a work of art).
Ollie Lawrence, who had replaced Conner White when he took a knock halfway through the first half, who had originally replaced Josh Hemmingway when he'd pulled up injured in the pre match warm up, forced a corner straight from the restart, but Staveley cleared their lines.

Lewis Bemrose put Maltby further in front in the fifty fifth minute, with a simple tap in from six yards out, after Hopewell had pushed on into the left hand side of the visitors area, before stumbling, regaining his composure and spotting Naylor committing himself to go down at his feet, so he rolled the ball sideways to Bemrose who was well placed and added the finishing details.
It was almost game when Carroll cut inside from the right hand edge of the area and curled a shot that dropped over the left hand stanchion of Maltby's posh new goal.
I had moved from the stand behind the dug outs, where I had been watching the first half from, onto the terracing, because that was the direction that Maltby were attacking in now and on this occasion, my overview of the game was never likely to be totally impartial, even though I had enjoyed some decent banter with a few good friends who had made the journey over from Staveley.

Both teams were indulging in some man sized, firm but fair, competitive borderline tackles and when you're getting stuck in, one must accept the the opposition will respond in kind.
It all made for a very intriguing game, with neither side giving any quarter or pulling out of a few 'hospital ball' type situations.
On the hour, Tyla Bell steered the ball just inside the back stick, from a cross out on the left (apologies my view of who delivered the ball was obscured by the crowd of managers and coaches congregated in front of the visitors bench) and it was game on again.
But having got into a winning position,the Miners dug in and kept their ninth placed visitors at bay, while pinning them down into a corner of the pitch for long spells, while Lawrence did some great work, shielding the ball and running the clock down.

Carroll nearly scored again; while Danny Rusling, who has been so important to Maltby's recent upsurge in results, kept a couple of half decent chances out at the other end, behind a defence that was bolstered late on by another one of Maltby's recenyt signings, Richard Adams from Handsworth Parramore... but as the final whistle sounded to bring a pulsating game to it's conclusion, Maltby finished the night nineteen points ahead of the drop zone and heading towards mid table at an impressive rate of knots, while Staveley returned home with 'nowt for their efforts.
All told, although both teams had their moments, Maltby were worthy winners and had that little bit more in their tank than their opposition, went two big and strong, hard hitting sides went toe to toe.
Well done Maltby! :-)
FT: Maltby Main 3 v Staveley Miners Welfare 2
Athersley Recreation await Staveley on Saturday, while Maltby Main will face Clipstone at home.

Oh yeah!

While I remember, Reece Wesley didn't do anything delicate tonight; he was far too busy putting in run after run and instilling loads of hard graft to the Maltby cause, between the two goal areas, for any of that kind of stuff ;-)

Saturday 4th February 2017
SkyBet EFL Championship
at St. Andrew's
Birmingham City (0) 1
Lukas Jutkiewicz 75
Fulham (0) 0
Admission £25. Programme £3
Attendance 17,426 (inc. 1,041 away)
Photo gallery to follow ASAP

Birmingham City:

Tomasz Kuszczak, Emilio Nsue, Paul Robinson, Johnathon Grounds, Cheick Keita, Stephen Gleeson, David Davis (Robert Tesche 83), Maikel Kieftenbeld, Craig Gardner, Jerome Sinclair (Che Adams 67), Lukas Jutkiewicz.

Unused subs - Adam Legzdins (GK), Greg Stewart, Kerim Frei, Josh Dacres-Cogley, Krystian Bielik

Fulham:

David Button, Ryan Fredericks, Toma Kalas, Tim Reams, Ryan Sessegnon (Scott Malone 60), Kevin McDonald, Stefan Johansen, Sone Aluko (Gohi Cyriac 78), Tom Cairney (C), Lucas Piazon (Floyd Ayite 60), Chris Martin.

Unused subs - Marcus Bettinelli (C), Denis Odoi, Scott Parker, Michael Madl

B9 - Trainspotting

Earlier in the season, on a grey and wet West London afternoon, Blues beat Fulham 1-0 at Craven Cottage, courtesy of a Clayton Donaldson penalty, early in the second half.
Alas Donaldson didn't feature today, as a consequence of being a long term absentee, because of a calf injury.
So much water has passed under the bridge at St. Andrew's since that win in September, it would be difficult to know where to start wading in and highlighting a few of the salient points... so I won't!

Prior to today, Slaviša Jokanović's Fulham side had lost only twice in their previous twelve games and have won twice inside the last seven days, namely: 4-1 at home against Premier League Hull City in the FA Cup on Sunday and 2-0 at the Pirelli Stadium against Burton Albion on Wednesday night.

Whereas Birmingham City had gone ten games since their last win (1-0 v Ipswich Town) on Tuesday 13th December, two days before Gianfranco Zola was appointed as their first team manager, in place of Gary Rowett who was dismissed, much to the disdain of a good percentage of the club's fan base, the morning after the Ipswich game.
Blues had failed to score in their last two outings: losing 2-0 at Norwich City on Saturday, before succumbing to the only goal of the game against Reading on Tuesday night, when they were actually unlucky not to have claimed at least a draw.

The comings and goings at St. Andrew's during the transfer window, would fill a lengthy article all of it's own, so you might wish to refer elsewhere if you aren't already au fait with all of the details.
In the run up to the game: Michael Morrison and Ryan Shotton, Birmingham's first choice central defensive pairing, both required late fitness tests, which was hardly ideal preparation for the visit of in form Fulham, who started the day in ninth place just three points off the play off places and six points ahead of Blues who have slumped to twelfth, during their 'transitional' phase.

In the event neither of the 'twin towers' made the cut, but the make do and mend back four that Zola threw together out of necessity, showed the kind of tenacity and resilience that provided the cornerstone for this afternoon's first win in ages, with (from right to left) Emilio Nsue, Paul Robinson, Jonathan Grounds and Cheick Kieta, proving to be a formidable barrier for an attack minded Cottagers side who are renowned for shooting on sight.

Chieck Kieta

Nsue had a steady game at right back, Grounds, so often the but of criticism from some sections of the crowd, moved inside from his favoured left back berth, Robinson was the absolute heartbeat of the team and played with the stamina and energy that defied his age and Kieta, well... what a revelation he turned out to be on his Blues debut, once he'd got his bearings.
Early in the game, the home side were guilty of some poor passing, distribution and clearances; doubtless the need to win any time soon, had been understandably praying on a few minds, but once they had settled down and began to get to a grip on the game, the home crowd responded appreciatively.

Cheers and applause filled the air, when another stray pass appeared to be bouncing towards row six of the Kop, but Kieta killed the ball dead with his left foot, bringing it down at chest height, before directing play towards the Fulham goal.
Lukas Jutkiewicz crashed a header against the underside of Fulham's bar from close range, but the Londoners cleared the ball away to safety.
Another of Zola's recent signings Jerome Sinclair, was being closely monitored by the visitors defence, which gave Jutkiewicz more room to operate.

Early in the second half, Sinclair turned and broke forward, before testing David Button from twenty yards out... a glimpse of things to come from the on-loan Watford striker perhaps?
Only time will tell. But as first impressions go, the signs looked promising.

Ryan Fredericks, a former Tottenham youth player who arrived at Craven Cottage via a short spell (of less than one month) at Bristol City, tormented the home side down the right flank during the first half and was clearly the visitors main outlet for attack, with his quick footed trickery and pace.

Fulham came very close a couple of times with both Chris Martin and Lucas Piazon placing headed opportunities off target when they ought to have done better.

Ironically it was Fredericks who tipped the balance in the second half (along with the introduction of Che Adams from the bench), when he was shown a straight red card for bad lunge on Craig Gardner (who recently rejoined Birmingham on loan from West Bromwich Albion, with a view to a permanent move), near the halfway line in front of the dug outs.

I felt that the match referee, Andrew Madley, had been very lenient with the visitors captain Tom Cairney this afternoon, who it seemed was amusing himself by playing a game of just how far he could push the officials and get away with; but was no way that Fredericks was getting away with such a rash challenge.

Adams almost had an instant impact, but just failed to hit the target moments after coming on in place of Sinclair.

The red card upset Fulham's shape and game plan and Kieta excelled at exploiting the space that Fredericks' departure had left, when, having moved more in field half way through the second half, he received a sideways pass from Stephen Gleeson who was in the centre circle, before spraying the ball out wide to David Davis and bursting forward through the left channel to collect the return pass, where he saw off the attentions of Sone Aluko, before squaring the ball across the face of Fulham's goal, where Jutkiewicz provided the finishing touch.

The reaction of 16,000 plus celebrating Brummies, mixed with a communal outpouring of relief, saw to it that the remainder of the game was played out in a cauldron of noise.

As the clocked ticked down... at what seemed like agonisingly slowly rate for the home crowd, Button denied Jutkiewicz with a great save to push over an elaborate overhead kick.

After battling for the result in a typical, dare I say it... Gary Rowett kind of style.

Was that a moment of what to expect, once Gianfranco Zola instills his game plan and football ethos onto the side he is finally getting around to rebuilding, or did Jutkiwicz merely find himself standing the wrong way around? I guess the answer to that would depend on whether your glass is half full or half empty; but the shoots of recovery that were evident on Tuesday night, became something more tangible this afternoon.

It will be a while yet until Birmingham City turn the corner, but at least they seem to have found where that corner has been hiding for the previous ten games.

There was a switch in the atmosphere of the crowd, when the referee decreed that there would be an additional five minutes added on at the end of the game... and if Fulham had salvaged a draw in stoppage time, like they almost did when Floyd Ayité put the ball wide with just Tomasz Kuszczak to beat, then I suspect that the match officials would still be locked in their changing room until gone midnight (on Monday) for their own safety.

But the added suspense merely contributed to the celebratory mood when the final whistle finally sounded and unrestrained joy new no bounds within St. Andrew's.

Paul Robinson in particular was savouring the moment, almost as though he had just won the Championship title, with a hat trick at Villa Park, never mind the fact that Blues had just won by a single goal against a ten man Fulham for the second time this season (Michael Madl had been red carded when the two sides met in September).

But he had given so much today and put himself in the line of fire, beyond the call of duty, especially when he had been floored while inadvertently stopping a long range shot by blocking the ball with his unprotected groin.

I winced and my eyes watered just witnessing the moment of impact.

FT: Birmingham City 1 v Fulham 0

Fulham now face Wigan Athletic and Nottingham Forest in back to back home games.

You would have thought that the Cottagers would take all six points on offer, but their minds might be elsewhere, given that Tottenham visit Craven Cottage the following weekend in the FA Cup.

Next up for Blues; are two away trips to take on clubs who are both above them in the Championship table: Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night and Preston North End on Valentine's night.

The Owls are currently nestling in the play off places,but their results of late have been inconsistent, so I guess a lot will depend on what version of Carlos Carvalhal's Wednesday side turn up.

Preston haven't won for four games, but prior to that they beat the current Championship leaders Brighton & Hove Albion, so they shouldn't be taken lightly.

Birmingham City then return to St. Andrew's on Saturday 18th February when Queens Park Rangers are the visitors.

Monday 6th February 2017

Professional U23 Development League 2

at Oakwell Stadium (Training Ground)

Barnsley (2) 4

Kayden Jackson 12, 43

Adam Jackson 71

George Moncur 89

Birmingham City (0) 0

Photo credit: Barnsley FC

Barnsley:

Townsend (GK); Wardle, Lund, A.Jackson, Dolan; Carvell (Charles '71), Palmer (Wolfe '82), Moncur, Hedges; Patrick, K.Jackson.
Unused subs - Walton (GK), Proctor, Saeed.
Birmingham City:
Trueman, Harding, Baba (Lakin, 60), Mulders, Seddon, Storer, Bainbridge (T), Arthur (McCoy, 70), McDonald, Lubala, Hale (Timms, 80).
Unused subs - Weaver, Kwiecien.

As they say around these parts: By 'eck lad, it's t'proper 'cowd out theer tha knows!

Indeed it was.

With a shade more luck, the visitors could've gone in level at half time, but they were hit by a quick counter attack after being a fraction away from drawing level, after Kayden Jackson had given the Tykes the lead after twelve minutes, when Louis Wardle's ball into the area found Ryan Hedges, who headed the ball into the path of (K) Jackson, who was onside, in spite of the visitors defence seemingly stopping to wait for him to be flagged off, and finished well from close range.

Laws of the game, part one: Play to the whistle.

Blues keeper Connal Trueman kept out Hedges shot a few minutes later and thwarted Omari Patrick twice, with two great saves. He was in for a busy afternoon.

With half time approaching, Nick Townsend turned Wes Macdonald's well struck effort against the bar and Adam Jackson was on hand to clear the ball off the line as Steve Seddon latched onto the loose ball from the rebound.

Barnsley quickly switched play from one end to the other and James Carvell hooked the ball forward to (K) Jackson, who sprinted forward and calmly found the back of the net Trueman advancing from his line and no doubt wondering where his defence had cleared off to..

HT: Reds 2 v Blues 0

Having been suitably impressed by Birmingham's new signings on Saturday in their first team game, I was looking forward to seeing Dan Scarr in action today, who they recently picked up from Stourbridge. But he'd taken a knock in training and didn't travel to Oakwell.

Hedges continued to impress for Barnsley, taking an awkward ball from Moncur under control, before testing Trueman again, who tipped the lively Reds front man's half volley over the bar at full stretch.

Wes Harding looked comfortable on the ball for Birmingham and Macdonald saw another effort crash against the bar. It wasn't to be for the visitors today, whereas their hosts will be happy with the final scoreline, that was probably a bit harsh on Richard Beale's side... but Barnsley took their chances well when they came along, so fair do's.

He may have shipped in four goals today, but the Birmingham City keeper was probably the visitors man of the match. His defence for their part will no doubt learn from their mistakes.

Moncur picked out his captain, Adam Lund, with a defence splitting cross and Blues breathed a sigh of relief as he turned the ball against the upright from a good position.

But Moncur's next venture forward led to Barnsley scoring their third goal, as his cross was diverted into the net by (A) Jackson.

The home side finished the game with a flurry... and Moncur netted the goal his efforts had deserved from just outside the area, after a good passing move from Wardle and Hedges on the right hand side of the Reds attack

FT: Barnsley U23 4 v Birmingham City U23 0

AFC Mansfield 1 v Handsworth Parramore 0 - NCEL Prem

Doncaster Rovers 3 v Portsmouth 1 - EFL League 2

Newark Town 4 v Bilsthorpe 0 - CMFL North - Abandoned after 82 minutes

Mansfield Town 1 v Doncaster Rovers 1 - EFLYA U18

Mansfield Town 3 v Crewe Alexandra 0 - EFL League 2

Mansfield Town 2 v Oldham Athletic 0 - EFL Trophy

Retford 3 v Newark Town 3 - CMFL North

AFC Mansfield 3 v Bottesford Town 0 - NCEL Prem

Rotherham United 1 v Mansfield Town 2 - EFL Youth Alliance

Maltby Main 1 v Hemsworth MW 1 - NCEL Prem

Mansfield Town 0 v Lincoln City 0 - EFLYA

Mansfield Town 1 v Wycombe Wanderers 2 - EFL Trophy

AFC Mansfield 3 v Knaresborough Town 0 - NCEL LC4

Derby County 2 v Leicester City 2 - FA Cup 4th Round

AFC Mansfield v Maltby Main - NCEL Prem

Gainsborough Trinity 1 v Lincoln City 5 - Lincs U21 Development League

Birmingham City 0 v Reading 1 - EFL Championship

Maltby Main 3 v Staveley MW 2 - NCEL Prem

Birmingham City 1 v Fulham 0 - EFL Championship

Barnsley 4 v Birmingham City 0 - PU23DL2