Retford United, home in yellow away kit.Worksop Town, away at their rented home in blue away kit.
A local derby with so many stings in the tail/tale from both sides of the story of Bassetlaw non league football, I'd be up until midnight listing them all here ... and that's just the bits and pieces that are public knowledge.
The main thing is, that in spite of both clubs having a whole heap of off the field problems where they have come more perilously close to going to the wall than a lot of people probably realise at various points over the last year or so, Retford United and Worksop Town still live on, against all the odds ... and today Evo-Stik League points were at stake and all of that peripheral 'toing and froing' could be put aside while football took centre stage, for 90 minutes at least.
The main thing is, that in spite of both clubs having a whole heap of off the field problems where they have come more perilously close to going to the wall than a lot of people probably realise at various points over the last year or so, Retford United and Worksop Town still live on, against all the odds ... and today Evo-Stik League points were at stake and all of that peripheral 'toing and froing' could be put aside while football took centre stage, for 90 minutes at least.
Ryan Hindley 'checks out' Jamie JacksonRetford United (0) 0
Worksop Town (2) 3 (Bettney 16, 76, Dan White OG 44)
Admission £9 (£2 discount for Worksop Town season ticket holders, a two way arrangement between the clubs, Retford United fans get a 25% discount on admission to Worksop Town games too), Programme £2, Attendance 501
Retford United:Jeffries, Blake, Lill, White, Ellis, Mayman, Hindley (Davies), Stephenson, Booth (Vernon), Owens, Caudwell (McDonnell).
Subs: All Used.
Worksop Town:
Kennedy, Colliver, Wood, Camm, Shiels, Simpkins, Bettney (Simpson), Meikle, Knox, Jackson (Whittington), Mallon.
Subs Not Used: Bacon, Wankiewicz, Billard.
Chris Bettney, out of shot, opens the scoringREPORT FROM RETFORD UNITED WEBSITE
The Badgers fell to three goals against Worksop Town at Cannon Park. A healthy Bank Holiday crowd of 501 saw Chris Bettney score two and make one, the first coming after 16 minutes, a mazy run through the Retford defence, finishing with his shot on target.
Worksop's second came a minute before the break, Bettney's free kick was headed by Dan White to clear, but his diving header was the wrong side of the post.
The third to kill off the game came on 76 minutes, a pile-driver into the net as Bettney met a cross from the left.
Retford, again, never gave up, and chances for Steve Owens, Craig Lill and Nicky Ellis were all off target, the result keeping Retford rooted to the bottom of the table.
Well, that's the first Evo-Stik local derby of the season out of the way, the main feature being a man of the match performance by Ex Badger (and previously Ex Tiger) Chris Bettney.There are going to be plenty of twists and turns ahead this season for both clubs, so hold on to your seats and cross your fingers (if such a multi-tasking finger arrangement is physically possible) that everybody stays on board until the end of the season.
Many people feel that Retford United are going 'to do a Durham', but with the astute managerial pairing of Lioyd and Knapper at the helm I can't see that happening.
It won't be pretty at times but I reckon that come the end of April the Cannon Park club won't still be worrying about preserving their Evo-Stik Premier League status.
As for Worksop Town, nothing is ever straight forward, never has been, never will be, but with the squad they're putting together and a period of 'transition' now behind them ... things can only get better.
And they are :-)
