Wednesday 16 May 2012

Newark Town 0 v Clifton FC 2 - CMFL South

Wednesday 16th May 2012,
at Station Road, Collingham
Central Midlands League, Southern Division
Newark Town (0) 0
Clifton FC (0) 2
Chris Atkins 55, Rob Gill 66
Admission £3, Programme £1
Tonight's programme was 28 pages, full colour, plenty to read and packed with CMFL and Newark Town information. Respect due to programme editor Richard Lane.
Cheers for the acknowledgement in the programme Richard, you made me blush.Newark Town:
Craig Rhodes, James Elwood, Mark Ellison, Martin Wilson, Ryan Stafford, Jamie Brooks, Ian Hillier, Sam Wilford, Ben Ginnelly, Chris Self, Dom Swingler
Subs - Ben Barnard, Daz Baldwin, Craig Roche, Daz Townsley
Clifton FC:
John Marriott, Will Heath, Michael Holtham, Stuart Robinson, Lee Torr, Jake Richardson, Chris Atkins, Craig Anderson, Rob Gill, Michael Evans, Andy Davies
Subs - Dorian Miller, Matt Turner
Thanks very much to David Hurstfield at NTFC for the team sheet details.The winner of tonight's CMFL South, was guaranteed to finish fourth in the table, behind the league champions Basford United and the other big hitters in the division this season, Pinxton and South Normanton.
Clifton 'All Whites', started life as Thistledown Rovers, and they've been well established, at the forefront of developing football talent in Nottingham and the surrounding since the 1960's.
A glance at the 'Former PLayers' section on their Wikipedia confirms what a phenomenal amount of talent has used the club as a springboard, to go on to bigger things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_F.C.
Previously this season, Clifton have already beaten Newark 2-1 in the league on the opening day of the season and knocked them out of the Notts Senior Cup in a pulsating 4-3 win, that can be found lurking somewhere in the archives of this very blog.
Mark Ellison ... camera shy?

Tonight Newark started promisingly and had the visitors on the back foot for long spells in the first half.
But 'the Blues' were having no luck at all with the final touch in front of goal and in spite of their best efforts, were making hard work of turning the screw on Clifton and getting any kind of tangiable reward for their effort and endeavour.
Towards the end of the first half, Clifton appealed for a penalty when Jake Richardson went over in the box, but the referee waved play on, ruling that the visitors number 6 had merely fallen over Craig Rhodes in the Newark goal, after the home defence had already cleared the danger Clifton posed from an attack.
Though Newark had definitely had the better of the first half, without having anything to show for it, after the break the All Whites came out pumped up and raring to go and had the lions share of the ball, especially going forward, for the remainder of the game.
Michael Evans, unlocked the Newark defence and went 1 on 1 with Craig Rhodes, but the Blues keeper saved well.
Shortly afterwards, Craig Anderson shot narrowly wide of the Newark goal.
On 55 minutes, Jake Richardson sent Chris Atkins clear with a great pass and he shot Clifton in front from 15 yards out.
Clifton really had the scent of victory in their nostrils now and seemed to be oozing with confience. Chris Atkins dribbled into the Newark box, beating a couple of challenges on his way. But Ryan Stafford blocked his run with a saving tackle at the expense of a corner.
Unfortunately Atkins took a knock and he was unable to carry on.
In fact, he needed to leave the pitch on a stretcher. There was no malice in Stafford's tackle and Atkins was just unlucky to have taken a knock, as the Clifton player himself acknowledged when he emerged limping from the dressing room later on.
Atkins injury, put a bit of a dampener on things, but Clifton found their rhythm again and on 66 minutes, Craig Anderson provided a slide rule pass from midfield, out to Will Heath on the right, who chipped the ball into the box for Rob Gill to double the visitors lead.
Despite all of their earlier possession and attempts on goal, Newark Town would be finishing their season, exactly how they had started it, with a defeat against Clifton FC.
Tonight, on the balance of play, much as I would've liked to have seen Newark finish on a high, I don't think anybody could dispute the fact, that in light of their second half performance, Clifton FC deserved all three points and fourth place in the table.
The injured Chris Atkins, of Clifton, smiling through the pain barrier.
Get well soon Chris.