Tuesday 26 July 2011

Harworth CI 3 v Newark Town 1 - Friendly

Tuesday 26th July 2011, at Scrooby Road
Friendly
Harworth Colliery Institute (1) 3
(Gareth Sides 39, Louis Reed 49, Matt Bradley 62)
Newark Town (1) 1
(David Baum OG 17)
Admission free, Attendance 50+
That affable Richard Lane chap provides the visitors line up
It's all change in the Central Midlands League this coming season.
The Premier and Supreme divisions have been scrapped and replaced with Northern and Southern sections.
This means that Harworth and Newark, two clubs who play roughly 30 miles apart - with that leafy suburban, hip and happening, very fashionable place to live, called Retford, tastefully positioned between these two Nottinghamshire settlements - will be playing in different divisions next season.
Hence, it made sense for them to meet up pre season.
Newark Town have been tipped to do well in 2011-12 ... and Harworth, well ... they've kept most of last seasons players on board and have that advantage over teams who will be starting virtually from scratch at the outset of the season, so if they get off to a flyer, who knows!?
Harworth Fun City  - Hey ho! Lets go!
Tonight's game was played on the pitch adjacent to the main ground, as opposed to the one I'd seen a friendly on here last weekend in the pouring rain between the first team and the Under 19's.
I suppose there are devious list making types out there, who would claim to have seen Harworth playing on three different grounds now, if like me they had seen them playing on all three pitches at the Scrooby Road club ... but I'm a paragon of virtue, who would never resort to any kind of cheap one-upmanship, gamesmanship or rule tweaking that would stretch the bounds of accepted convention, so I won't be making such spurious claims.
Besides, they were only playing on the rock hard and worn around the edges outer field, because they are saving the main pitch for the Champions League Final in May ... or similar!!!
The visitors took the lead on 17 minutes.
The picture above shows both teams watching and waiting for a left wing cross from Dominic Swingler to fall into the Harworth box, David Baum is guarding the back post to cover for his keeper who has advanced towards Swingler ... text book defending!
However, two Newark players timed their runs to the back stick to perfection and when Daz Baldwin put Swingler's cross into the mix, it was obvious that one or the other of them would get their head on the cross and put their side in front.
Sandwiched between the incoming attackers, Baum found his options severely limited, i.e. he could leave the ball and Newark would score, or he could attempt to head the ball wide from beneath the crossbar ... never the easiest discipline to execute with one's back to goal.The ball took a wicked deflection off of a Newark player fractionally before Baum connected with it and cannoned off his shoulder into the goal, with Newark's Luke Hutchinson bearing down on him.
Baum was unlucky, but had at least tried to prevent what was a certain goal anyway.
Even so, he was gutted and will be glad to hear the photo of the actual goal was lost while I was downloading it just now, ahem ... and I'm really looking forward to that free pint next time I'm at Scrooby Road Dave ;-)
Gareth Sides put the Colliery side back on level terms after 39 minutes, after some good work from Matty Bradley on the left flank had created the opening.
It was a hard and difficult playing surface tonight, but both sides were at least trying to make a game of it.
Please note, these goal times are only approximate.
The second half was less than ten minutes old when Louis Reed unlocked the Newark defence and put the home side in front.
And on 62 minutes Matty Bradley's persistence paid off when he chased down a 'keepers ball' and knocked the ball across the line to make the score 3-1.
With the light fading fast, Newark pushed forward in an attempt to salvage something from the game, but the 'Southerners' efforts were all in vain.
Note*
The Harworth CI U19's v Scotter United match, scheduled for tomorrow night is off.