Saturday 9 December 2017

Cleethorpes Town 0 v Sheffield FC 4 - EvoStik NPL Div 1 South

Saturday 9th December 2017
EvoStik Northern Premier League Division 1 (South)
at Bradley Recreation Ground, Grimsby
Cleethorpes Town (0) 0
Sheffield FC (0) 4
Andy Gascoigne 56, 61 
Ben Algar 68
Rob Worrall 70
Admission £7. Programme £1.50, Attendance 163
EvoStik League newcomers (relatively speaking) Cleethorpes Town started the afternoon in fourth place in the table, with games in hand over every other team in the division, having only previously lost two league games to date all season, both away from home.
It's been an impressive start to their first season at this level, having been promoted as champions of the NCEL Premier Division last term, which they won by a margin of eleven points over second placed Pickering Town. The Owls lowest ever finish during their five year spell in the NCEL, was fourth in Division 1 at the end of their inaugural year (2012-13) at step 6. Besides promotion last season, they also won the Lincolnshire Senior Trophy, following emphatic wins against Winterton Rangers (7-2) and Barton Town Old Boys (6-1) en route to their 1-0 victory at Sincil Bank over Deeping Rangers in the final.
 
Of course, Cleethorpes also reached the FA Vase Final at Wembley, which proved to be a step too far for them in their pursuit of the treble, but what a great achievement it was for the club to have reached the national stadium (HERE).
Sheffield, officially the oldest football club anywhere in the known universe, since the beginning of time itself AKA 1857 (something of which they are justifiably very proud) rolled into town, desperate to kick start their season and attempt to start to negotiate the steep climb away from the relegation places, as fourteen defeats in their opening twenty games had seen them slump to twenty first in the table, just three points above bottom club Romulus.
'Club' have recently installed Mark Shaw as their first team manager, who has a job and a half on his hands to salvage anything out of their wreckage of a season so far, but he's been around the blocka few times, and despite appearances to the contrary, he knows what he is doing... and when the match referee Kieron Salmons blew the final whistle after four minutes of stoppage time, the visitors had taken all three points with an assured second half performance and climbed three places up the table as a consequence. 
Corby Town's 2-1 home win over Leek Town today, meant that they leapfrogged over 'Clee' in the table to go one point ahead of them, but Marcus Newell's side have played four games less than the Steelmen. 
Having been given the green light following a pitch inspection earlier in the day, there was a fair amount of conjecture pertaining to whether this game ought to have gone ahead or not, but the match referee Kieron Salmons seemed to be satisfied that everything was in order, so it was 'game on'.
Neither of the young goalkeepers: Richard Walton whose been cutting his teeth with Lincoln City's academy side and was wearing the number one shirt for the Owls today, or Louis Jones of Doncaster Rovers who is on loan at Sheffield (after appearing briefly for Maltby Main last season), will have been too thrilled about having to do their thing at either end of the field of play, as both goal areas didn't seem to soften up any over the course of the afternoon.
The home side started brightly, with Adam Drury, Andy Taylor and Brody Robertson (who was marking his return to the club from Alfreton Town) combining well. Alex Flett shot wide from just outside the visitors area, while Liam Dickens passed the ball forward to Drury, who rolled it to Robertson who released Tim Lowe on the right, but his cross was cleared away by the Sheffield captain Adam Chapman.
While at the other end, Rob Worrall found a space right in the middle of the Owls defence, but didn't get enough power behind his shot and it was an easy save for Walton to make.
Ben Turner played a long ball towards the Cleethorpes area from out on the right, which bounced up abruptly, stranding Walton in no mans land as he came off his line, but the ball dropped awkwardly for Andy Cascoigne who knocked his close range effort to turn it into the unguarded net wide.
Ben Algar and Alex Brown linked up on the left wing for 'Club', but when the latter knocked the ball sideways to Cascoigne, Walton saved an angled shot from ten yards with his outstretched foot.
The noise of studs rattling on the hardening ground, resonated in the icy cold air, as players from both teams took turns to recreate everyone's favourite scene from a certain Walt Disney film.
The Owls finished the first half in the ascendancy, having survived a couple of scares; Robertson came out of a 50/50 challenge with the ball and teed up Taylor who scooped a shot wide from the edge of the visitors area, and moments later Peter Winn lashed a twenty five yard free kick wide of the left hand post after Algar had upended Robertson as he attacked in tandem with Taylor. Jon Oglesby broke forward as far as the dead ball line, but Jones claimed his cross as Taylor homed in and almost on the stroke of half time Drury smashed a shot from distance wide of the post.
Both sides had their moments in front of goal during the first half, but as the interval arrived it was still goalless.
HT: Owls 0 v Club 0
'Clee' had the first chance of the second half, when Oglesby was only a whisker away from knocking the ball past Jones as he ran from his area to cut out Drury's long knock forward and before long, Lowe had picked out Taylor with a long dipping ball from out on the right flank, but having taken a touch on the slippery wicket, the Owls number nine diverted the ball past the wrong side of the post.
Sam Finlaw almost released Tyler Williams, with a probing pass, right through the heart of the Cleethorpes defence, but Winn kept his footing and made a timely interception, which under the circumstances was no small achievement as the east coast fell into the grip of the next Ice Age.
Finlaw was involved again, when he latched onto a clearance, but his long shot dropped wide of the target.
In the 56th minute Tyler Williams broke sideways, from right to left, across the face of the Owls defence and slipped the ball through to Gascoigne, who hooked it into the top corner of the net, just inside the left hand post beyond the reach of Walton to open the scoring.
The home side looked for an immediate response, but Drury's shot was blocked by Chapman. Oglesby sped forward on the left, leaving Ben Turner standing for pace, but when he cut inside his shot skidded wide of the far post.
Sheffield went on the attack again and won a throw in level with the Cleethorpes area, Algar found Cascoigne with his throw who exchanged passes with Worrall before planting the ball past Walton from a central position fifteen yards out from the goal, tonet his second goal in the space of five minutes.
Uncharacteristically, having gone two goals behind, Cleethorpes started to lose their shape and began to play several stray passes, while Sheffield continued to pick up the pace and make light of the underfoot conditions.
Julian Lawrence was playing his part in breaking down any attempted forward moves by the home side, picking up a booking along the way, for a robust 'interception' just inside the Sheffield half, but that could be seen as taking one for team while preserving their lead.
The visitors third goal reminded me of that one that John Barnes scored for England against Brazil in days of olde... Algar took a throw on the left to Brown, who knocked it back into the left back's feet for him to make a diagonal run straight across the front of the Owls capitulating defence, before reaching the right hand side of the area straight through the D and planting the ball past Walton at a right angle.
The game was all but killed off with twenty minutes still remaining, when Finlaw drilled a low ball into the 'Clee' area from forty yards for Williams to chase, that was blocked but only half cleared as far as Worrall, who had been waiting five yards outside the area to pick up any scraps and he advanced forward before placing the ball past Walton.
Taylor and Lawrence McKay had half chances to reduce the margin of defeat for the Owls, but Cecil Nyoni fluffed a great opportunity to score a fifth for the visitors, when he launched a shot high into the dark Winters sky.
FT: Cleethorpes Town 0 v Sheffield FC 4
After an evenly matched first half, Sheffield had turned the screw with a convincing performance in the second half, whereas Cleethorpes seemed to run out of impetus and ideas for a while, after the visitors closed ranks to shut off their usually reliable supply lines and pressed high up the field.
Marcus Newell's side travel to Gresley next weekend, who dropped to twenty first in the table today as a result of Sheffield's win and who might just be on the receiving end of a backlash reaction to today's below par performance by Cleethorpes. While Mark Shaw's team have a home game against Carlton Town, who are currently sixteenth in the table, but only have one more point than the South Yorkshire side.
The following Saturday, the Owls entertain Frickley Athletic at the 'Bradley' while Sheffield travel to Loughborough Dynamo.