Wednesday 21 September 2011

Harworth Colliery Institute U19 1 v Radford U19 1 - Baris North Midlands U19 League, Division 2

Wednesday 21st September 2011 at Scrooby Road
Baris North Midlands U19 League, Division 2
Harworth Colliery Institute U19 (0) 1
Conor Gresham 65
Radford (0) 1
Danny Wright
Admission £2 inc. programme
Foul weather tonight, but Harworth's small, yet perfectly formed stand, provided adequate cover for the 30 or so brave souls who had ventured out into the cold of night ... as for certain other people, nesh lightweights the lot of you!!!
When I arrived at the ground forty minutes before kick off, Danny Staley the Radford secretary was pacing around looking perplexed because only seven of his team had arrived thus far and there were reports of hold ups due to an accident on the south to north Notts road.
While his opposite number Simon Stones was acting remarkably calm under pressure, secure in the knowledge that surely the key to switch on the floodlights would reappear from wherever it was hiding any time soon and the printer problem would rectify itself via divine intervention and the mandatory amount of programmes would be ready on time.
Ah, how I miss the non stop fun of being an Under 19's football club secretary ... that's a lie actually.
Thankfully, more by accident than design, everything fell into place in the nick of time and i) Radford had enough players (but no subs) to start the game with, ii) the floodlights were so bright you could probably just about make them out in Retford, and iii) the match programmes, sponsored by THE66POW were ready and waiting when the gate-man took his position.
What could possibly go wrong now?
Err, the weather!
Tonight I decided to put my camera away, I didn't want it to get water damaged, so I'm afraid that all you're left with are a few snapshots I took with my phone.
I think it would be fair to say, due to the wind howling around this open arena and the frequent downpours, this game wasn't really one for the purists.
It was hard to play in such atrocious conditions and equally difficult to get too excited about the game from a spectators perspective too.
Harworth are better than they appeared to be on this showing ... in fact I've seen them play much better than this.
This was my first sighting of Radford's U19's , but it was a makeshift line up that the Hyson Green based club put out tonight and would be unfair to assess them in such circumstances.
After a goalless first half, during which the home side failed to capitalize on the chances they had created ... Connor Gresham eventually put the home side ahead on 65 minutes at the second attempt, at a time when the game needed a goal to liven it up a bit.
The goal certainly livened Radford up and Harworth's centre half Jason Markell needed to make a last ditch tackle to preserve his side's lead on 75 minutes.
A lapse in concentration late in the game saw Danny Smith find time and space to fire home the equalising goal from inside the Harworth box.
On a rotten night weather-wise, a draw (Harworth's third in three league games), was just about a fair result.

For a more detailed overview of the game, written by a gentleman (OK that may be stretching a point but Hass is a good bloke) with far more insight into what was happening tonight than me, click here ---> http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/harworthcollieryinstitute/s/results-reports-10481.html?official=1&fixture_id=364060

Next port of call ... probably Bedford Town v Oxford City on Saturday