Nottinghamshire Senior Cup Final 2009 - Eastwood Town 1 v Retford United 2

Wednesday 6th May 2009
Notts Senior Cup Final

Played at Meadow Lane (Notts County FC)

Eastwood Town (0) 1
Ian Holmes 51

Retford United (0) 2
Ben Chambers 85, Stuart Ludlam 90+4
Attendance 616
There is a great write up of the game from the excellent ON THE ROAD blog, to peruse said report, follow this link: CLICK HERE
Nice one Malc ;-)

After tonight's game Eastwood boss Paul Cox said:
"I felt they deserved it.
"Deakin kept us in it in the first half, we played testimonial football.
"We looked more effective in the second half even though we still didn't play well.
"But we only put the ball in the back of the net once and they did it twice.
"I have no complaints. I think there was a lack of desire from my players.
"I think some of them thought it didn't matter after winning the league – but it did."

Pivotal moment:
With time fast running out, Peter Duffield the Retford manager introduces himself as a sub and pushes 'Big Ben' Chambers up front, to dramatic effect.
From being 1-0 behind with five minutes remaining, Chambers equalised and Stuart Ludlam smashed home the winner late into injury time.

Match details:
Retford United thoroughly deserved their 'late, late show' and comeback in this Notts Senior Cup Final match at Meadow Lane.
Ian Deakin the Eastwood Town goalkeeper won the man of the match award, which speaks volumes for United's performance. One particular double save he pulled off just before half time can only be described as 'worldly'.
The Badgers (Retford) could and should have been two or three ahead of the Badgers (Eastwood) at half time, but for Deakin's heroics.

It appeared that Eastwood had a bollocking from their boss at half time because they upped the ante after the restart, but some poor finishing meant they were contained to just a single strike when Ian Holmes had latched on to the one mistake Chris Kingston in the Retford goal made all night.
Retford kept taking the game to Eastwood and weren't going to throw the towel in though.
The game was balanced on a knife edge when Chambers dived to head home the equalising goal and it looked as if extra time was on the cards. But with the very last kick of the game, four minutes into stoppage time Stuart Ludlam smashed home the winner.
All in all, a great advert for Nottinghamshire Non League football.

I don't follow Retford United ... they follow me!
I live in the town and used to watch Retford Town (the original one from River Lane not the other team that now use their name) up until the time that they folded... it was a very sad day for me personally. Consequently I've jumped in feet first at a number of local(ish) non-league clubs to help out, filling various roles, fundraising and even putting my hand into my own pocket when necessary... I don't want a medal for it, I just don't want to see any other club go the same way as the 'Shamrocks' did. There's a Morrison's supermarket built on the old River Lane ground now, but that's another tale for another time.

So besides watching my 'big teams' I started going over to Central Avenue, Worksop to scratch my non league itch and subsequently started out on a transient mission of watching the Tigers play 'home' matches at Central Avenue, Gainsborough, Sandy Lane, Hucknall (and  Maltby once in a Sheffield Cup game) and lord only knows where next season. Can I count having seen the Worksop Town Under 19's playing 'home' games at Retford United and Rossington Main this season towards a total of seven different 'home' grounds where I've watched WTFC in action at to date?
I thought not! Worth a try though, eh!?

Retford United were formed in 1987, but the standard wasn't really very good in first the Gainsborough & District League and then the Notts Alliance Division 2, so I was only ever a very rare visitor to their then home ground at the Oaklands Athletic Ground (the pitch was in the middle of the running track) over in the Newtown area of Retford.
In fact I only ever went there when I didn't have a game elsewhere and probably even then only because it was just over the railway footbridge from where I lived at the time.
I moved over town, to one of the last houses before you head out into the country towards Leverton and low and behold United relocated just a few hundred yards further out of Retford the following year.

In the interim I've also seen them play a few home games on the old Bevercotes Colliery pitch (between Retford and Bothamsall) where I used to work, when their Cannon Park home wasn't available due to bad weather (it's built on old flood land and does still get boggy from time to time).
Note, different road signs have it spelt as both Bevercotes and Bevercoates.
Take it up with the sign writers if you have spelling issues, I couldn't care less either way and to be perfectly honest I was glad to walk away from my employment for the National Coal Board there forever, many years ago (I also spent time down t'pit at both Harworth and Maltby).

I still remain only an occasional visitor to Retford United, and probably only watch them around half a dozen times a season, though I did follow them away a lot to a whole rack of Central Midlands League and Northern Counties East League grounds that I hadn't visited before a few years ago, ticking off first-time visits to numerous outposts as they climbed up through the non-league from very humble beginnings.
But even though I watch them in action on a semi-regular for a good few years now, I still wouldn't consider myself to be a supporter.
That said, it's very nice to have a team who are on the up and very entertaining to watch, playing just up the road from my happy abode though.

Retford United have gone from strength to strength since Brian Jackson got hold of the ground out on Leverton Road for them to move on to, he formed the club because he was saddened by the demise of Retford Town FC in the 1980's and wanted the town to have a club at least on a par with Town.
He must be very happy that his vision is now almost realised.
I hope he was at Meadow Lane tonight, even though he prefers that other Nottingham side that play on the opposite side of the Trent.

Retford Town played in the old Midland League for a while, which in it's heyday was of a very high standard. Peterborough United were playing at that level before they became a Football League club and they haven't done so bad out of it.
Next season, Retford United start as a newly promoted side in the UniBond Premier League, a massive rise from the Gainsborough & District League in such a short time.
Good on them I say. but I still hope they lose to Worksop Town next season though, twice preferably.
Like I said, I'm NOT a Retford United supporter, my colours are already firmly nailed to other masts, but its nice to see the team doing so well and making such excellent progress in front of ever increasing attendances.
Let's hope their success continues, they consolidate at the higher level and some of the supporters they've picked up this last couple of seasons stay with them.