Handsworth v Worksop Town - North Midlands Under 19's League

Monday 12th April 2010.
North Midlands Under 19's League Division One
at Olivers Mount, Handsworth, Sheffield

Handsworth (2) 3 (Nshandano pen, Leesely, Reid)
Worksop Town (0) 1 (Capewell)

Attendance 60ish

A semi-reformed skinhead football hooligan penning his memoirs

Tucked away in a corner where the Sheffield to Lincoln railway line and main Sheffield Parkway road out of the city cross each other, the facilities at Olivers Mount boast several pitches, full size and five aside size ... and the actual enclosure that Handsworth FC use, is a tidy enough little football ground, with a small stand and floodlights.
It's worth a visit if you haven't been here before.
There's a good selection of hot food available from a serving hatch in the same building where the changing rooms are and they even go to the trouble of producing a programme with a proper cover for Under 19's games.

Phil Hall conducts the pre match fence pushing competition

Owing to fixture congestion caused by all the postponements this winter, the North Midlands League had decided that tonight's fixture would be a double header over ninety minutes - meaning the winner would take six points and double whatever their winning margin was would be added to their goal difference total (or vice versa, double the deficit taken from the figure for the losing side).
But Hallam FC lodged an objection and the league overturned their original decision, meaning the clubs now have to fit in a re-arranged date sometime soon.

As it is, by virtue of only losing just 3 points tonight, instead of 6, Worksop now have the chance to recoup another 3 that they wouldn't have had after tonight if the original ruling had stood ... and they also have another outstanding fixture to complete too, against Hallam.

Service with a smile. The nice young ladies selling programmes at Handsworth FC

The Under 19's captain Steve Wankiewicz put the Tigers ahead (or so we thought) when he slotted the ball home on 15 minutes, but the linesman raised his flag and the effort was ruled out for offside.
I'm not sure who was adjudged to have been the offending player, but the goalscorer was onside, both when he got the ball and when he scored.
It isn't just the first team who are having this kind of luck then.
Incidentally, this blog doesn't use the same swear word filter as the Tigers forum where Steve's surname is outlawed!

It was a good, evenly matched first half, but on 35 minutes Worksop's #%£!&@#icz conceded a penalty.
And Chishanga Nshandano made no mistake from the spot.
Five minutes later James Leesely hit home a snap shot from outside a crowded penalty area that found the back of the net via the post to put the home side 2-0 ahead at the interval.

Tigers number 3 Perry Cawthorne covered every blade of grass tonight, here he

lines up a free kick in the Handsworth half of the pitch as Worksop push forward

On fifty five minutes Lewis Capewell got the Tigers back into the game when he fired home from inside the box.
At which point the young Tigers had their best spell of the game and an equaliser looked to be on the cards.
The best chance to draw level fell to Capewell six yards out, but he narrowly cleared the cross bar with his effort.
Handsworth realised that Worksop had started to come good and pushed forward to try to make the points safe.
A chance fell to Lanzel Reid and he finished it well.
Game, set and match to Handsworth.
A decent game, a few strange calls from the referee and his assistants (something I'm sure people present with a vested interest in both clubs would testify too) and a relatively short drive back home compared with most Tigers games this season ... and Worksop Town Under 19's have a chance to claim three of the points they would have lost to Handsworth tonight if the game would still have been a double header.