Retford Town v FC Thorne Town - Doncaster & District Senior League KO Cup Final

Friday 7th May 2010. Doncaster & District Senior League Premier Division KO Cup Final

Retford Town (1) 1 (Woodward)
FC Thorne Town (1) 2 (OG, Winterman)

Admission £2

Ooh look, there's Janet and her dad on the far side of the pitch.

Retford were gifted the perfect start to the KO Cup Final when FC Thorne's goalkeeper, taking time out from fronting his group Bad Manners, dropped a cross in the six yard box that fell invitingly for James Woodward to fire the Nottinghamshire side in front.
FC Thorne pushed forward looking for a quick equaliser and though Retford's keeper Jason Holberry was momentarily caught out, the ball rolled wide of his post.
The game ebbed and flowed from end to end, FC Thorne looked hungry and Retford looked knackered, hardly surprising given the fixtures mountain they had to scale recently.
Winterman was looking especially lively and it was no surprise that when the equaliser came on 41 minutes, he would be involved. His shot took an heavy deflection that wrong footed Holberry and it was one apiece at the break.
FC Thorne had been looking dangerous for a while, though it did look as though Retford were going to contain them until the break at least, when they could regroup and get a breather.
FC Thorne continued to push forward after the break and Holberry had to pull off one save in particular that was quite spectacular, when he agilely pushed the ball over his bar.
After a spell of FC Thorne dominance, Retford got a second wind and enjoyed their best spell of the game ... but despite a succession of corners and good play down the right flank, they were unable to provide that killer touch.
Winterman (inevitably) broke away on the counter attack and went one to one against Holberry, his finish was excellent and on 77 minutes, FC Thorne had the upper hand.
A few supporters ran onto the edge of the pitch to celebrate.
They had been drinking (a lot) and were fairly boisterous in their vocal support of FC Thorne Town, but they had been harmless enough ... just noisy and well up for a good 'high spirited' night out in Rosso.
They don't watch this Thorne side on a regular basis, but like a good number of people there from Retford tonight, were in attendance to offer encouragement to a local club in a cup final. They were back behind the fence as soon as they were on the pitch and no harm was done.
However, a few minutes before the end of the game the linesman had to call the referee over and there was a slight delay because a couple of these over exuberant and drunk 'fans' had been throwing cans at the linesman.
It was quickly dealt with, by three Rossington Main club officials and an FC Thorne Town player who went over for a word and thankfully the incident blew over.

There was no further scoring, in spite of both teams continuing to look for more goals.
Well done FC Thorne Town, they put in a lot of effort tonight.
As did Retford Town's worn out looking and threadbare team, who have to go through it all again tomorrow afternoon when they kick off at 3pm in an away game at South Elmsall United Services ... it can't be worth going home tonight just to drive back up to South Yorkshire again tomorrow, maybe they should kip in their cars and try to get an extra couple of hours.