Retford 5 v Welbeck Welfare 0 - CMFL North

Friday 2nd September 2015
Central Midlands League (North)
Cannon Park
Retford FC (4) 5
Aaron Blakey 1, 12, 67
Ash Chapman 18
Will Tomlinson 35
Welbeck Welfare (0) 0
Admission £3. Programme £1. Attendance 104

Retford FC:
Jamie Housley, Jack Munn (Martin Woodhead 75), Jason Swannack, Lee Gallagher, Ben Marro (Simon Brewster 60), Tom Gilmore, Ash Chapman, Nathan Fenn, Will Tomlinson (Captain) (Luke Edwards 53), Aaron Blakey, Paul Middleton.
Unused subs - Callum Rush, Ryan Elkington.
Welbeck Welfare:
Simon Brown (Andy Sipson HT), Jacob Reeve, Stef Wainwright, Nathan Ward, Tom Wagg, Matt Lowe, Josh Brentnall, Kyle Lee, Jordan Coleman, Vinny Hill, Levi Brentnall

Bottom of the table Welbeck Welfare, made the short, but very scenic, trip across north Nottinghamshire tonight, to take on Retford FC and... pretty much as expected, they lost their eighth league game in a row, as the home side climbed to second in the table, one point behind Appleby Frodingham (for now), by virtue of a straightforward 5-0 win.
'Frod' themselves, had beaten Welbeck 23 (twenty three) - 0 last month, to claim what has been officially recorded as the 'biggest non-league win of the century'.

Welcome to Lilliput 

Somewhat against the run of play, Aaron Blakey sprinted into the visitors goal area and scored the first goal after just 14 seconds.
Within a minute, Will Tomlinson had slipped a defence splitting pass through the Welbeck defence to Ash Chapman who steered the ball past Simon Brown and the left hand post.
Blakey netted his second of the night, when he burst unchallenged into the area and netted with a sublime angled lob.

No! It's not me! Thanks for asking.

Retford's third goal came in the 18th minute, when Brown blocked Tomlinson's free kick, but spilt the ball into the path of Chapman, who scored with the easiest chance he'll ever get served up on a plate in his whole life.

Welbeck lost the ball in the middle of the park and Retford broke quickly, but Blakey missed an absolute sitter.

At the other end, Vinny Hill had Jamie Housley at full stretch but crashed his free kick narrowly wide of the Retford goal.

Then the Sunshine Bus arrived

Jason Swannack was clattered by Hill as he push forward through the left hand side of midfield.
Tomlinson scuffed the resulting free kick and 'scudded' the ball along the ground, through the visitors defensive wall and into the bottom right hand corner of Brown's goal.
At half time Andy Sipson, the keeper who had conceded 23 goals in a game last month, came on in place of the injured Brown and the crowd collectively licked it's lips in anticipation of a night of goal-whoring.
But the anticipated rout never arrived and Retford, already home and dry at the break, only added another solitary goal in the second half, a well placed header from Blakey to complete his hat trick after 67 minutes.

The result was never in any doubt, probably even before the game kicked off, but you can only beat what is in front of you and Retford kept their focus and did a professional job on the night.
Of course, they had the chances to score a few more, but bullying isn't big, nor is it clever.
Besides, Retford have an away game at Radford in the cup on Tuesday night, so it was wise not to run themselves into the ground or risk picking up any injuries, when the game was already sewn up after 18 minutes.
Respect is due to the Welbeck players who turned up tonight; it takes a special kind of mettle to show up knowing that you are already beaten, more often than not, before you even step out onto the pitch.
FT: Retford 5 v Welbeck 0