Wednesday 30th November 2011, at West StreetBaris NCEL Premier Division
Winterton Rangers (2) 2
Gavin Cooper 3, Rob Sanderson 30
Staveley Miners Welfare (0) 1
Joe Thornton 75
Admission £5, Programme £1.20, Attendance 80
In August Winterton lost twice at Staveley in the space of a week, in both the League and League Cup.Tonight Rangers turned the tables on their Derbyshire visitors and deservedly took the three points.
The home side's performance warranted the result, but at times, I'm sad to say, their discipline left a lot to be desired.
Which is a real shame, because they're obviously capable of playing decent, attacking, attractive, passing football.
A friend of mine had been checking out the West Street side a few times of late and had a lot of good things to say about them, so knowing how Staveley like to play the game, I figured West Street would be a safe bet for an entertaining game of football tonight.
Alas, any real quality only shone through for a few fleeting moments, whilst a strong cross wind blowing in from the clubhouse end of the ground and certain other aspects of the game dominated proceedings.
"Certain other aspects of the game"
Staveley have hit a bit of a blip in form of late and they were slow coming out of the blocks tonight.
Gavin Cooper received the ball six yards out on three minutes after Staveley had failed to deal with a ball in from the left.
He had the time and space to turn and pick his spot and Winterton were ahead.
With the strong wind behind them ... and mindful of the fact that Staveley would have the same advantage after the break ... Rangers put the visitors goal under pressure.
Ian Deakin did well to tip a Jake Stannard over the bar with one hand after the Winterton number 9 had tried lobbing him from the edge of the box.
Rob Sanderson doubled the home sides lead on 30 minutes.Maybe the Staveley defence were guilty of ball watching as Sanderson headed home unmarked and unchallenged, but Winterton were playing well and to be fair it was the least they deserved.
But then the wheels came off a bit and the game descended into farce shortly before half time, when an unsightly and unnecessary punch up broke out.
It kicked off when Jake Stannard grabbed Staveley's Richard Patterson by the throat and threw him aside, right in front of the referee. He had to go ... and once calm was (just About) restored he was shown a red card.
Several other players were fortunate not to have joined him.
There was also a marked change in the sniping little clique of Winterton fans we were sat near, who had been very outspoken but quite amusing up to this point.Their acerbic wit turned to unbridled hostility for a while and anybody within earshot was fair game.
Whenever I've been to West Street before, the 'banter' and pithy comment from the crowd have always provided me with a great source of entertainment, but tonight, I'm not sure what Staveley are supposed to have done to wind them up, but the vitriol and personal abuse aimed at some of those who had travelled over from Derbyshire, made for a different kind of atmosphere altogether.
Never mind hey!?
They had paid their money to get in and were entitled to an opinion.
And I'm sure their bark is a lot worse than their actual bite.
That said, can we have a bit more of the cutting humour and a bit less of the angry verbals next time we're down Winterton way please chaps?
In the second half, even against ten men and with 'benefit' of the wind assistance, Staveley struggled to find any kind of cohesion and rhythm, as Rangers put up a dogged and determined resistance.Joe Thornton headed home Jordan Eagers cross on 75 minutes to make the score 2-1.
But then Winterton closed ranks and fought like demons to hang on to their lead as both Ferguson and Tahar came close to finding an equaliser.
The wind was really picking up now and the difficult conditions as much as anything else thwarted a couple of counter attacks the home side made in an attempt to make the game safe.
Winterton held on until the final whistle (which came after a lengthy period of stoppage time) and took all three points.Hmm, who'd be a referee!?
Staveley seem to have gone off the boil a bit over their last few games and will be disappointed with tonight's result and performance.
But Rangers look capable of beating anybody if they play the way they did for the majority of the first half.
I think it would be fair to say, there are obviously people at Winterton who don't like Staveley very much, but I can't really comment on any of that because I don't know what the motivation is behind their 'rationale'.
But certain people clearly had issues with tonight's visitors.
That said, I look forward to seeing these two teams playing the football they're both capable of again any time soon.
Hopefully without the histrionics and high winds.
