Thursday 23rd November 2017
Worksop Van Hire North Midland U19 League (North)at Cannon Park, Leverton Road, Retford
Retford United (0) 3
CallumWilson 53, 78, Zach Casburn 90+3
Swallownest (0) 3
Liam Smart 68, Conor Gregg 85, Frazer Stenton 88
Admission £3 inc. programme
Chances galore went begging at either end during a goalless first half, as two evenly matched sides created plenty of opportunities, but couldn't quite provide a telling touch, while both keepers proved to be fleet of foot when coming off of their line to deal with any danger that manifested itself around the perimeter of their respective penalty areas and beyond.
The nearest that the Badgers came to breaking the deadlock before the break, was when Callum Amedola made a neat turn twenty five yeards out to make himself the room to try his luck with a dipping shot that fell just wide of the right hand upright and shortly afterwards Declan Heath's well struck half volley was tipped round the post at full stretch by Lewis Mills.
'Swall' looked odds on to take the lead, when a Joel Cousins cross presented Conor Gregg with a free header eight yards out, that he directed a fraction the wrong side of the upright and when Liam Smart threaded a defence splitting through ball to Jack Larrisey, the Retford captain had to spread himself and smother the ball at the feet of the visitors number eight.
Ironically, after we'd joked at half time that we could've recorded the score as 0-0 and nipped off home early to get thawed out on a brass monkey's kind of a cold night at ice station Cannon Park, neither side could stop scoring after the restart and several of the goals came from real quality strikes, that you fair-weather local football fans, who had stayed in watching Ant & Dec narrating D list 'celebrities' eating kangaroo testicle and dingo dangly bits soup, quite frankly deserved to have missed.
Liam Smart went close for the visitors when he crashed an angled shot past the far post from just inside the Retford area, but in spite of the Badgers having to absorb a spell of pressure by the 'Swall' youngsters, it was Callum Wilson who opened the scoring, when he looped a header over Mills from the edge of the area from a long knock forward in the fifty third minute.
 |
| Retford United |
Larrisey was involved again when he set up Gregg who could only divert the ball over the bar from close range.
Smart went close again, but found his touch on sixty minutes, as Swallownest forced two corners and the second one from Cousins, out on the left was only half cleared into his path and he spanked it into the roof of the net from on the right hand side of the area, twelve yards from goal.
Bancroft let fly with a long distance free kick, but Gamble stretched to his right and tipped the ball over the bar. Once more, United survived a few close shaves at their own end and took the lead again from the other, when Amendola rolled a sideways pass to Wilson and he unleashed an unstoppable thirty yard shot into the top corner of the visitors goal. What a quality strike!
 |
| Swallownest |
Cousins delivered a left wing cross towards Gregg, but the 'Swall' number nine cleared the bar with his header, but finally Gregg got just rewards for his efforts, when he forced the ball over the line as Cousins drove a cross come shot across the face of the Retford goal with just five minutes remaining.
Jack Thorpe's well timed interception prevented Louis Colley from getting a clear strike at the visitors goal, while Dan King's effort was fielded by Mills.
With two minutes of the scheduled ninety left to go, Frazer Stenton smashed the ball past Gamble from all of thirty yards out, it was a goal worthy of winning any game and as the game moved into to stoppage time, it looked to all intents and purposes as though the sixteen year old had won all three points for the South Yorkshire side, but Zach Casburn showed his predatory instincts inside the third added minute, with a decisive touch amidst a crowd of bodies in the Swallownest area and earned a draw for the Badgers right at the death.
FT: Retford United U19 3 v Swallownest U19 3
The slimline Clarke is the best before and after advertisement I've seen for weight watchers in a long time... keep up the good work Twiggy!
