Bottesford Town v Grimsby Borough - Ashby Benefit Cup Final

Tuesday 29th December 2009.
The Ashby Benefit Cup Final
Played at Birch Park, Bottesford

Bottesford Town 1 (Paul Chatterton 56 pen)
Grimsby Borough 2 (Jack Debnam 90 +4, Lee McFarland 95)

45 minutes 0-0,
90 minutes +4 minutes injury time 1-1
After Extra Time 1-2 FT

Admission £3, No programmes, Attendance 55 (ish)

The Ashby Benefit Cup, what's it all about?
Well, in 1947 the competition was set up to raise funds to provide financial assistance for injured players and that is still the basis that this competition is run on to this day.
If a player gets injured playing football and has to take time off work as a consequence, he will receive a lump sum payment of £100 after four weeks absence, out of the funds raised from the games ... and another reduced amount after a further four weeks, if he is still off work.
Taking that into account, it was quite disappointing that some people saw fit to use league committee passes and such like to gain free admission to this fund raising game, especially given that the admission was only a meagre £3 anyway.

The 7 o'clock kick off time meant I'd easily make it back to north Notts for my 10pm night shift with time to spare, but the best laid plans of mice, men and football enthusiasts are never that straight forward, are they?
Grimsby Borough turned up with their yellow away kit, which meant Bottesford had to change into their red away kit to avoid a colour clash. Most other games involving Non League clubs had been postponed tonight, but the pitch at Birch Park was in great condition, which was a bit ironic given that a NCEL fixture between these two sides at this same venue had been postponed a few days ago.
With the first half chugging steadily towards a goalless respite, one of my travelling companions consulted his mobile phone and announced to everyone with earshot "Villa and Liverpool is nil-nil too."
Now the reason the Ashby Benefit Cup Final was still waiting for it's opening goal was down to some lacklustre finishing and a couple of goalmouth scrambles that amounted to nothing. However there was a far more obvious reason for the Villa Park clash between two former Champions of Europe to still be locked in an unproductive stalemate ... it wasn't due to kick off for another ten minutes! Ah well, one has to make allowances for Impish bloggers who champion the dubious merits of Chris Sutton ;-P
On 56 minutes, Grimsby Borough conceded a soft penalty, more out of clumsiness than malicious intent, but they all count. Paul Chetterton drilled it straight down the middle as the keeper dived and Bottesford had one hand one the nice shiny trophy.
Try as they may, Grimsby weren't getting the breakthrough their effort warranted and the Poachers goal was leading a bit of a charmed life. With 4 minutes of injury time played we strolled leisurely towards the exit and stood waiting to making a swift getaway.
Jack Debnam hit a last ditch shot seeking a late, late equaliser but the keeper got down well to parry the ball away ... straight back to Debnam who gratefully fired home off the post.
I'm really going to have to stop pre-empting extra time and jinxing myself by leaving my vantage point to see cup ties out stood by the exit gates, this is becoming a regular occurrence now.

Grimsby scored again through Lee McFarland in the first spell of extra time and the Trophy that had been fetched out and put on a table in readiness for it's presentation to Bottesford with five minutes of normal time remaining, now stood out taunting the home side as a reminder of what they could have had if they had just hung on a fraction longer.
I reckon on the balance of play, Grimsby Borough just about deserved their victory and the local bragging rights for a year, but there wasn't much in it.

For the record (because I know you care), I made it to work on time, but it was a close run thing.

the66pow

Radford FC v Holwell Sports ECML and Calverton Miners Welfare v Newark Town CMFL

It was smart planning by Radford FC to bring the kick off time of this ECML fixture forward to 12.30PM. Their largest crowd of the season by some way turned out here at Selhurst Road this afternoon.
It also gave me the opportunity to get a couple of matches under my belt in one day to compensate for all the ones that I've missed recently due to postponements and work commitments.
Ollerton Town v Kirkby Town was my original choice as a second game, but the pitch there failed an inspection, so Calverton was a convenient port of call on the way back up the A60/A614 racetrack towards north Notts.

Monday 28th December 2009, Kick Off 12.30PM
East Midlands Counties League
Selhurst Road, Hyson Green, Nottingham

Radford FC (0) 0
Holwell Sports (2) 3 (Fox 2, Tinsley)

Admission £4, Programme £1, Free team sheet
Attendance 173

We arrived at Selhurst Road about half an hour before kick off and bagged one of the limited car parking spaces ready for a head start to game number two of the day. But upon entering the ground were told there was some doubt over whether the game was on because the pitch along one side, sheltered from all the sunshine we've been enjoying of late by a row of fir trees, was still quite hard and frozen.

The Radford staff set about sorting it out and their players warmed up on that side which seemed to satisfy the match referee and the game went ahead. Hoorah!

A badge infested ruck sack wielding, snorkel parka
wearing, Thermos flask brandishing horde*

Following a bit of a slow start to the season (I'm being generous here because I genuinely like Radford FC), the Pheasants have finally started to pick up a few points and claw their way off the foot of the table.

Holwell Sports haven't exactly been trail blazing this season either and the home side must've looked on today's fixture as a chance to close the gap on the clubs higher up the table (AKA everyone in the EMCL apart from Anstey Nomads).

I didn't see The Alamo on TV this Xmas, but here's some True Grit
Last bad pun of 2009 ;-)

Daniel Johnson, Radford's keeper, is a reliable enough performer usually (he also plays American Football for Nottingham Caesers), but today he had a 'mare' that he'll want to forget about in real hurry.

When Leigh Fox's header crept just under the bar for Holwell's opening goal, it was via Johnson's outstretched palms. And when Fox spotted Johnson off his line just after the half hour and attempted a 'Nayim' from just in front of the dug outs, the unfortunate keeper struggled to demonstrate any kind of hand/arm co-ordination whatsoever and could only manage to wrestle with the ball as it nestled inside the top rightstanchion of the goal.

Straight after the second half restart, Johnson's misfortune continued. Mark Tinsley hit the ball across the six yard box and Ian Bitmead ran in to get on the end of the cross-cum-shot, Johnson braced himself in readiness for Bitmead's shot but the number ten cleverly jumped over the ball which continued its trajectory over the line at agonising speed just out of Johnson's reach.

Radford had a succession of late corners, but couldn't capitalise on any of them and the score remained 0-3.

Johnson will have better days.

It's all well and good when a journeyman outfield player shows the first touch of a baby elephant and a passage in play breaks down when he scuffs the ball into a nearby school yard ... but any error of judgement from the keeper, more often than not, results in a goal.

Radford were the equal of today's visitors other than an out of sorts performance from their number one.

Monday 28th December, Kick Off 3PM
Central Midlands Football League Supreme Division
Kinton's Field, Hollinwood Lane

Calverton Miners Welfare (0) 0
Newark Town (1) 1 (Ellison)

Admission £3, Programme £1, Free team sheet
Attendance 82

Ably assisted by the dulcet tones of my new travel companion, a Joanna Lumley sound-alike sat nav narrator, we beat the procession of vehicles heading from Radford to Calverton, aided in no small way by me knowing my way around the nearby backstreet's of Hyson Green's 'red light district' (I know of an exclusive little music venue tucked away off the beaten track round there) and we made the second game easily 20 minutes before it kicked off, but still didn't arrive in time for there to be any programmes left.
However Calverton, like Radford, know their market ... and one of their eager and motivated staff shot off to print some more up. And once I'd worked out which way up and in which order some of the pages were meant to go, it was quite an interesting effort.
Radford, as always, had produced an excellent programme for the earlier game too ... and both sides had plentiful free team sheets available to satisfy the badge infested ruck sack wielding, snorkel parka wearing, bearded and Thermos flask brandishing hordes*.
Calverton started off well and created a few chances.
Newark seemed to have more strength in depth and bigger players, whereas the home side looked to have a few young players blessed with a good touch but who need to pile on a few pounds to compete in this league.
I wasn't surprised when Simon Ellison shot the visitors in front, but definitely thought there were going to be more goals to be had in this game that ebbed and flowed one way then the other.

I took this picture at precisely the right moment, but Newark's Simon Ellison was a
split second too late arriving to put home this cross for the only goal of the game

The second half only went ahead when some resourceful local coupled his car battery up to the floodlight generator ... big up to the crazy looking guy walking round in sub zero temperatures wearing shorts who probably couldn't start his car after we'd all gone home.

Right at the end Calverton, who had come good and were definitely looking for a share of the spoils, were denied by a blinding save from Newark's keeper Garry Attwood, who earned his side a big cut of their points haul with his quick reactions.

Further coverage of the above games can be found in the following places:

http://www.oopsupsideyourhead.co.uk/football-blog/of-mice-and-men

http://i-want-football-2009.blogspot.com/2009/12/monday-28th-december-2009.html

http://razorferret.blogspot.com/2009/12/day-out-in-nottinghamshire.html

thesixtysixparablesofwim

York City v Mansfield Town. Blue Square Premier

Saturday 26th December 2009. Blue Square Premier.
Kit Kat Crescent (AKA Bootham Crescent)

York City (1) 3 Brodie 2 (inc 1 pen), Gash
Mansfield Town (0) 0

Admission £14, Programme £3
Attendance 4587, Away support 642

There may be trouble ahead!!!

By heck, I've seen some one sided games of football in my time and I've also witnessed a whole load of inept away performances from Mansfield Town ... the most recent example of both being this afternoon at Bootham Crescent.
To think, I missed the "Some Mothers Do Have 'Em" nativity play episode being repeated on TV to watch this.
Hmm ... I dropped a whoopsy!
It beggars belief that this was a third (City) versus fourth (Stags) in the table clash, given the apparent gulf in quality between the sides in all departments today.
Sure, Mansfield had players missing through illness, others playing out of position ... and for some unfathomable reason a couple of proven performers capable of making a difference sat on the bench (or out on loan banging in goals for Gateshead), but after a brisk opening ten minutes or so, they simply caved in and let York boss the game.
There is no denying that the Minstermen are a good team who are well drilled and stick to their game-plan, but it was hard to tell on this showing whether they had developed an invincible streak and were becoming an excellent footballing side before our very eyes, or if the Stags were making them look far better than they already are, by standing off and allowing York all the time and space they needed to dismantle them into the process ... City's third goal being a case in point as Richard Brodie danced past a whole line of static defenders before laying the ball off for Michael Gash to score.
As I said, the home side proved to be a good team today, a very good team even, but a large number of the away supporters weren't singing 'What a load of rubbish' at the Mansfield Town players for nothing.
I didn't join in ... I was (just about) consoling myself with the fact that at least I was getting another game in towards the sponsored target I've been set to help raise money for Worksop Town.
Of course though, that meant I had to tough it out right up until the very end. Bugger!

Richard Brodie fires home his and York City's second from the spot

In the morning, with scheduled fixtures toppling like dominoes because of the recent weather making hundreds of pitches across the country unplayable, I advised several friends to head to Shirebrook Town to see Rudy Funk's Rainworth MW in action, because that game was definitely on (in the end it was the only game in both divisions of the NCEL to go ahead).
Unfortunately I didn't heed my own words and went to York instead.
I could kick myself , but on current form I'd probably miss ... even such a wide target!
Just as we entered York and were deciding which of our usual watering holes to frequent, I received a text message that the game we were heading to was now only going ahead if the pitch passed a second inspection ... it was "definitely on" before we left ... but I've heard that before in the not so distant past.
'Fortunately', the referee gave the game the go ahead, but by about 4.05PM I was wishing he hadn't.

The 'Bolsover Massive' were in town ;-)

So, to summarise:
Lively start from the Stags but they faded away quickly and at times went missing altogether. York realised the game was there for taking and never looked back after Brodie put them ahead. At half time it was still only 1-0, but despite a change in personnel Mansfield conceded a penalty right at the start of the second half, when Brodie (who else) outwitted Luke Jones on the edge of the box and was sent tumbling to the ground. Jones was red carded, Brodie hit home City's second from the resulting spot kick and by the time Michael Gash put the third goal away, created by Brodie (of course) the game had effectively been over for ages anyway.

Well played York City.
And I have nothing more to add.

Stags manager David Holdsworth's post match interview ...

Through the Barricades

XMAS DAY 1914
Frelinghien, France

The allied international Groundhopper force congregates in 'No Man's Land', eagerly awaiting the Xmas Day friendly fixture between Great Britain and Germany, wearing their state of the art Millets collection waterproof attire (still all the rage in Hucknall circa 2009 I'm led to believe).
Alas no programmes were issued and nobody had any batteries to use with their digital cameras so they could take pictures of the ground to download when they got back to the trenches.
Thus began the tradition of not being able to get hold of any batteries on Xmas Day for love nor money.
This was the only picture captured before the unknown soldier's camera died on him at an inopportune moment just as the teams were walking out onto the pitch (don't you just hate it when that happens).

Note, Cec (Ces?) Podd, 4th from the left, went on to make an impressive 502 first team appearances for Bradford City between 1970 and 1987, before he moved to Halifax Town.

Armthorpe Welfare v Shirebrook Town. NCEL Premier Division

Tuesday 8th December 2009. Northern Counties East League Premier Division.
Welfare Ground, Church Street, Armthorpe

Armthorpe Welfare (2) 3 (Bruno Holden 30, Liam Hardy 35, Henry Sibenge 67)
Shirebrook Town (0) 1 (Simon Johnson 50)

Admission £5, Programme £1, Attendance 47

Boys and girls go out to play. "That linesman! She's not a bloke!"
There's nowt gets past the observant locals round here, is there?

Shirebrook started the game with a depleted line up. When we arrived fifteen minutes before kick off, one of their travelling party was saying that they had a centre forward who was still twenty miles away and other players were missing due to work commitments too. Hardly the ideal preparation for a visit to an in form Armthorpe side who were looking to leapfrog the seaside teams, Bridlington and Scarborough, to go second in the table tonight.

Armthorpe's keeper tries to un-nerve the opposition before
kick off by demonstrating his prowess at doing the splits.

Both teams took a while to get going on a wet and blustery night, however slowly but surely Armthorpe got a grip of the midfield and started to take the the game to their lowly placed visitors.
It was only a matter of time before they were going to breach Shirebrook's rearguard.

On the half hour mark following some frantic activity in the penalty area, Bruno Holden smashed the ball home from the right hand edge of the six yard box, it was an unstoppable shot.
A Shirebrook Town supporting friend who was sat us uttered "Tsk! That was against the run of play!"
A less biased witness responded to that with "Neither side have had a sniff on goal for half an hour"
One of them was 100% correct.

Goal number two for Welfare came 5 minutes later, when Liam Hardy drove home from the left hand edge of the six yard box.

"Hmm, I'm not sure about all this rain, they might need to call this one off" joked the 'Shirebrook Massive'.
It did seem by now that abandonment of the game might be Shirebrook's only hope of avoiding defeat.
But the pitch was taking the downpour well and calling the game off never looked like an option.

HT 2-0

Five minutes into the second half, Shirebrook's number 9 Simon Johnson ran onto the ball just inside the home team's half and charged towards the goal, he slotted home a slide rule shot past the Armthorpe keeper from just outside the box, halving the deficit and giving his side a glimmer of hope.
It was a score line that had barely looked imaginable when the teams went in at the break.

Though 'Wellie' continued to dominate the game, while there was only a single goal in it Shirebrook weren't out of it yet and were always likely to hit their promotion chasing hosts on the counter attack.
On 67 minutes, Henry Sibenge, head and shoulders the most gifted player on the pitch, danced round the visitors defence and fired home a third and decisive goal.
From then on in Armthorpe turned the screw on Shirebrook's defence without actually finding the final touch again to finish off their lion's share of possession ... it was a case of damage limitation from then on in for the visitors.
And at 3-1 Shirebrook had got off lightly in the end. Whatever our travelling companion of the STFC persuasion might have said in the car on the way home ;-)

Armthorpe Welfare FC. Football for the Netto's generation.

Retford Town v Awsworth Villa. Nottinghamshire FA Intermediate Cup 3rd Round

Saturday 5th December 2009. Notts FA Intermediate Cup 3rd Round

At Bolham Sports Ground, Retford

Retford Town (1) 5 (Lee Garner, Dan House 3, OG)

Awsworth Villa (0) 3 (Danny Towle 2, Mitchel Scot)

Admission free, Programme £1, Attendance 24 (roughly)

Left click to enlarge and find out where Retford Town used to play, neat paint job ;-)

Today I have mostly been watching ... the third round of the Notts Intermediate Cup, in which Retford Town of the Doncaster Senior League took on Awsworth Villa of the Notts Senior League.
When we arrived at the Bolham Sports Ground, just as the teams were warming up out on the pitch, we got chatting with an Awsworth Villa official who asked me if Retford was in Yorkshire ... err, no!!!
But I'd always thought Awsworth was in Derbyshire, so we've both fixed a gap in our local geographical knowledge this afternoon then.
I set my alarm after getting home from last night's 12 hour shift, to give myself a couple of options regarding today's football destination.
The first thing I saw when I woke up were text messages warning me that Worksop Town's game at the New Manor Ground (on Awsworth Road ... in Derbyshire) was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, thanks for the heads up guys n' gals.
It was always going to be a toss up whether I went to Ilkeston or Retford Town today anyway, due to logistics of getting back to start work on time (in Retford), so the decision was made for me in the end.
The next time I go to a game here, I'm going to arrive a bit earlier to bag myself one of the hard standing car parking spaces. I would imagine that as the wet winter we're lurching into at an unrelenting pace continues, the mud bath we just about extricated our car from at full time will have been reclassified as a swamp.
That said, I'll definitely be back soon ... the standard of football played here is never going to produce the next David Beckham or Ray Hankin :-O (for the time being anyway) but it was much better than I had originally anticipated.
Retford Town have aspirations towards becoming a Central Midlands League club in the future and on today's showing they would hold their own at that level comfortably.
Town are managed by Brian Jackson, the guy responsible for forming Retford United the year after the original Retford Town went out of business.
Brian isn't the only person here who has moved across town from United for one reason or another of late.
A couple of their (United) fans who I always used to bump in to on the odd occasions I went to see the Badgers playing home games at Cannon Park, the Oakland's Sports Ground and even the Bevercotes Colliery Ground, as well as a good few away games in the CML, NCEL and Notts Alliance, now prefer to spend their Saturday afternoon's at Tiln Lane instead of Cannon Park citing "Some of the stuff that goes on up there now, the cost and some of the people that have latched on to Retford United" as their reasons.
To my way of thinking, the further United have progressed up the leagues ... and it's been a meteoric rise for which they deserve a lot of credit ... then the more money has become an issue, that is a necessary and unavoidable evil.
And more people will turn up wanting to be associated with a winning team who might not have had much of a grounding in grass roots football, one or two of them maybe have the wrong sort of 'glory whoring' attitude towards Non League football too ... but that doesn't make RUFC all bad though ... does it!?
Regarding the admission cost at Retford United these days (these people are ex-season ticket holders BTW), they only charge the same as the other clubs at Unibond Premier level (less than other so called 'bigger' clubs) and don't have a say in the minimum charge set for that division by the Unibond League either.
In an ideal world we could all watch football for free, but the higher up the 'pyramid' clubs progress, the bigger their overheads and running costs become.
As for "Some of the stuff that goes on up there now", I'm not repeating a word of what I was told, it wouldn't be right to comment because it's all hearsay and nowt' to do with me anyway ... I don't ever intend to make it my business either.

A former Mayor of Retford looking very dapper in his stylish cap (right)

Apparently when the ground improvements at Cannon Park finally take shape, Town are inheriting some of the fencing for their ground, but I don't know what the time-scale involved with that will be.
Anyway enough of this Retfordian bitching and gossiping stuff and on with the game.

After a tentative start to the game, Awsworth got into their stride before Retford did and had the better of the opening chances.
Jason Holberry, Town's goalkeeper did well to keep Villa out early on, particularly in a couple of one on one situations.
Jason has a relative based in Retford who writes a blog called THE66POW about his own Non League travel exploits and as a consequence was always unlikely to get a bad review today anyway ;-)
Town survived the couple couple of early scares and then Lee Garner knocked the wind out of the visitor's sails by firing Retford ahead on 17 minutes.
The home side took control of the game and pegged Awsworth back for a while, but didn't increase their lead in the first half. In fact, the visitors came strong at the end of the first 45 minutes and hit the post and saw a shot flash narrowly wide of the left upright as the clock ticked down towards the break.
It was still most definitely 'game on'.
Both keepers had been busy and a lot of goal scoring opportunities went begging too.
But the second half was where the fun really started.

Half time sanctuary and time to catch up on the news

The Awsworth players were back out on the pitch first, one of them was heard to shout out as a rallying call to gee up his troops "We're better than this. If we come all the way up here and let 'em win, it'll make us look silly!"

Meanwhile in the distance I could have sworn I heard a 'Boy Racer' tearing off down Smeath Road towards Clarborough with a certain song by The Smiths blaring out of his car stereo by way of a massive coincidence.

Though I could be mistaken or possibly even embellishing the situation ... either way you can't disprove anything, so there! Lee Garner laid the ball off to Dan House who shot Retford 2-0 ahead after 52 minutes.
Five minutes later House scored again and a certain Awsworth player was now running the risk of looking very silly indeed.
Cruising at 3-0, Retford Town let their guard drop and Awsworth snatched a goal back.
Credit where it's due, Villa kept trying to pass the ball and make in roads into Retford's lead and on 67 minutes their skilful left winger lobbed the ball over the advancing Holberry to score the visitors second goal.
Was extra time and possibly even a penalty shoot out looming?
Would their be enough daylight left to finish the game if there was?

Excellent programme, stuffed with information, printed locally too

On 77 minutes, Retford launched the ball into the Awsworth box from a free kick out on the left, the keeper made a bit of a mess of dealing with it and seemed from where we were stood (in line with his six yard box), to have fumbled the ball over the line before actually getting hold of it properly.
Granted when he stood still with the ball clutched 'safely' in his hands, his feet were in the penalty area the right side of his goal line, but moments before that the ball appeared to have (just) crossed the line ... and the linesman on the far side, in line with us, agreed. It wasn't a decision I would have liked to have had to call mind you.
A goal was given. 4-2. And I've listed it as an own goal, though Retford Town have actually credited it to K Metcalfe.
The Awsworth keeper lost the plot completely and spent the next five minutes shouting abuse at the young linesman while the game went on.
He shouted to the Villa bench "Take me off, I've lost it, I'll knock his bastard head off!"
At this point the linesman flagged the referee to deal with the worsening situation but it's a mystery how he hadn't heard it all himself in the first place. The keeper was only booked (he was lucky) and Villa substituted him.
As he approached the bench he threw his shirt and shouted "You can stick your team up your arse!" I bet he was fun to travel home with.
If the keeper had punched the ball instead of threatening to punch a match official, none of the above would've happened, but we all have the answers with the benefit of hindsight, eh!?

Retford Town's Lee Garner takes the ball down on his chest

Dean House completed his hat trick on 86 minutes and then Awsworth pulled it back to 5-3 straight from the restart. But there was no further scoring or incident of note, unsavoury or otherwise, to report and Retford Town march on in a competition that their neighbours United won in 2001.
It was handshakes all round at the end from the respective officials and players and we wheel spun our way out of the quagmire and back towards town.
I really enjoyed the game today, which incidentally was my 60th of the season. I wouldn't hesitate to take up the chance to watch either team again some time soon.
Both teams wanted it and were a credit to their respective leagues, if you discount the histrionics of Awsworth Villa's keeper that is. Maybe he was justifiably aggrieved, I guess we'll never really know, but there is a line you shouldn't cross when expressing your 'opinion' to match officials and in this case, whether the ball had been or not, the keeper was well over that line.

the66pow