Friday 31st August 2012at the Windsor Foods Stadium, Babbage Way, Worksop
FA Vase 1st Qualifying Round
Worksop Parramore (0) 1
Lee Whittington 77
Glasshoughton Welfare (0) 2
Liam Radford 52, Andrew Fieldhouse 55
Admission £6, Programme £1.50, Attendance 85
I enjoyed catching up with many familiar friendly faces from times gone by, who are willing to support local football and pay at the gate to watch Parramore, as well as the other club they support, who play at the Babbage Way ground as tenants.
And it's always a pleasure too, to meet up with Worksop Parramore's ever jolly vice chairman, secretary and resident rascal, Max Ross and the club (and stadium) owner Peter Whitehead.
Much respect and goodly vibes to you all gentlemen.
It would've been nice to have seen a few other Tigers fans present tonight too, who I haven't seen in ages ... but never mind, I'm sure our paths will cross eventually, somewhere.Though not at a Worksop Town game.
But I won't comment on why that is.
I never have done and I never will.
Besides, I wasn't here tonight because of the Tigers.
I came to watch Worksop Parramore in their first ever FA Vase game, against Glasshoughton Welfare, a club I have never seen win previously.
An omen maybe? Err ... sorry Max, it would appear not.
Unfortunately, Parramore, the current Baris NCEL Premier Division front runners, though playing some neat, passing football in parts, hesitated in the starting blocks tonight, while Glasshoughton looked fired up and keen to progress through to the next round from the word go. The visitors were playing a system that squeezed the life out of Worksop in the final third, while breaking forward quickly on the counter attack, when the opportunity arose.Parramore manager Darren Bland tried countering this tactic by pushing his full backs further up the wings, but Glasshoughton stubbornly resisted the extra attacking options and early in second half, their hard work and difficult to play against game plan bore fruition, when Liam Radford fired them ahead on 52 minutes and, with Parramore still momentarily knocked out of their stride from the setback, Andrew Fieldhouse netted from an improbable angle to put the Welfare side further ahead three minutes later.
Stung into action by the double blow, Bland reorganised his side and before long the visitors goal was under siege as the Parras sought to retrieve the situation.When a side is chasing the game like this and are committed to piling men forward, it often leaves them vulnerable at the back, but the home side were seeing so much of the ball that Glasshoughton didn't really have the opportunity to exploit that loophole.
On 77 minutes, Lee Whittington gave the Worksop side a lifeline, when he belted the ball home from 15 yards out and a comeback now seemed to be the most likely outcome.
But Glasshoughton doggedly stuck to the task of soaking up all the pressure they were coming under and their hard work and persistence paid off in the end, even though the crossbar came to their rescue right at the death.
Parramore had created a lot of chances, especially in the second half, but they made hard work of actually finishing most of them off, while Glasshoughton had stuck gamely to a rigid plan to shut the home side out and utilised the opportunities they created when they came along.Glasshoughton will now travel to Manchester based side Maine Road in the 2nd qualifying round.
Looking forward to visiting Parramore again soon, when they face Harworth Colliery in the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup. The Worksop side will be strong favourites to win that one, but on current form they were probably odds on to win tonight too, but I'm not going to tempt fate.
Next up: Tomorrow, I'll be watching, Harworth Colliery v Easington United in CMFL North action, at Scrooby Road, Bircotes (not Scooby Road as it says on the Mitoo CMFL fixtures website).
