Harworth Colliery U19 8 (Eight) v Carlton Town Academy 0 - NMU19L Div 2

Tom Hogg - Kept a clean sheet

Wednesday 9th January 2013,
at the Recreation Ground, Scrooby Road, Bircotes
North Midlands Under 19 League Division 2
Harworth Colliery U19  (3) 8
Enzo Guarini 21,
Matt Smith 35,
Callum Tiffany 39,
Connor Gresham 47,
Danny Siddall 66, 71, 89,
Daine McGrain 85
Carlton Town Academy  (0) 0
Admission £2, Programme £1
The match officials: Ashley Royston, Matt Collins & Kris Jowitt had an excellent game :-)

The Recreation Ground, Scrooby Road, Bircotes.

Harworth Colliery:
Tom Hogg, Tom Cameron, Jordan Hardman (Reece Kemp 51), Chris Higgins, Gareth Bonner, Callum Tiffany, Enzo Guarini (Danny Siddall 60), Jordan Nortcliffe, Daine McGrain, Matt Smith, Connor Gresham (Ben Thompson 66).
Unused subs - Lewis Francis, Mitchell Lax (and when subs of that calibre don't get on during a game, it demonstrates the sort of strength in depth there is in this season's Harworth U19 squad)
Carlton Town Academy:
Sam Marriott, Steve Freestone, Alex Worthington, Jack Meakin, Ryan Farrely, Gareth Wardle, Ben Jones, Joe Hopper, Jervel Foster, James Bradshaw.
Subs - Cameron Thurgood, Bryan Burrows

There are plenty of candidates in the home side's ranks, who warrant serious consideration for being in contention for winning the man of the match award: Callum Tiffany, Connor Gresham, Daine McGrain, Enzo Guarini and others, were exceptional tonight.
It will be interesting to see who the Harworth management team select for that particular honour (see footnote* for details).
With one goal and five assists to his name, Matt Smith (who played wearing a magical and lucky pair of Mansfield Town shorts) is probably the favourite and he just made the cut as my personal man of the match (I'll say why later on), but the whole team, every single one of them, made a very telling contribution tonight and played their part.
One unsung hero, that anybody who sees this final score, but didn't actually see the game, might think is a strange choice for me to single out for a special mention, is Sam Marriott, Carlton's goalkeeper.
He pulled off a string of great saves to prevent his team's defeat from being even more humiliating.
And you couldn't help but feel sorry for him, for finishing on the wrong end of such a rout, given the amount of effort he'd put in over 90 plus minutes.
Danny Siddall's hat trick, after coming on as a substitute, with just half a hour left to go, will no doubt give Glenn and Hasan a real selection headache next week.
But it's the kind of problem they could only have dreamt of in previous seasons, so you won't be hearing any complaints from them.
One thing I would like to add personally, is that the discipline of the team this is awesome.
Yet again, no cards, of either kind, were shown to any of the Harworth lads again tonight.
I was at the club's committee meeting on Tuesday and I'm happy to report that this sort of thing isn't unnoticed.

Tonight, Harworth were keen to avenge the heavy defeat that they suffered in the reverse fixture at Carlton back in October ... and I reckon that they just about managed that and made their point, with this one sided performance.
Inside the first ten minutes, Enzo Guarini sent Matt Smith powering towards the visitors goal, but Sam Marriott pulled off a point blank stop to keep out Matt's blistering shot.
Enzo made himself the space to have a couple of attempts on goal, but Marriott was busting a gut to keep his missing in action team mates in the game at this point.
But it was only a matter of time before Harworth made a breakthrough, even though they were lacking some of the cohesion and finesse that comes from playing regularly, until they got into their stride.
That said, they haven't played together since November 13th, when they lost 2-1 at Matlock Town, due to the Xmas break and a couple of unwanted postponements.
However, after shaking the cobwebs off, from weeks of slobbing about in their onesies (AKA romper suits for big babies), Harworth opened the scoring on 21 minutes, when Matt Smith knocked the ball into Enzo Guarini's path ... and he took the ball round Marriott and drilled it home.
Jordan Hardman, picked out Connor Gresham with a pinpoint pass and with a burst of speed that left the Carlton defence flatfooted, Connor was one on one with Marriott in an instant. But yet again, somehow, the visitors keeper twisted and turned and managed to keep the ball out at the expense of a corner.
The extremely busy Marriott, then denied Daine McGrain, when he managed to get behind the workhorse Harworth strikers powerful angled drive, as he cut in from the left of the box.
A few minutes later, Guarini beat off the attentions of three challenges, to get his shot in, but this time Marriott blocked Enzo's shot with his feet.

On 35 minutes, Guarini teed up Matt Smith, but a last ditch clearance by Jack Meakin (you see, Carlton did have other players on the pitch besides Sam Marriott), prevented a certain goal, as he put the ball behind for a corner.
Connor Gresham floated a testing flag kick into the mix, Jordan Nortcliffe nodded the ball down into the path of Matt Smith and he gratefully lashed the ball home from close range.
Before half time, Connor Gresham and Matt Smith were involved again, when they worked the ball down the left flank together, before Connor picked out Callum Tiffany with a low cross along the six yard line, that Callum rammed home, to top of a great first half performance.
HT - Harworth Colliery 3 v Sam Marriott and incidental extras 0

Tom Cameron, started at right back today and he was obviously out to stake his claim for a regular place in the starting line up. And despite venturing forward at every given opportunity, prompting calls for him to 'get back' from the bench, he put in a really solid performance ... to give Glenn and his chirpy sidekick even more selection options.
Cameron, combined with Jordan Hardman and Callum Tiffany, to work the ball out to Enzo Guarini, who's cross found Matt Smith 20 yards out from goal. Sam Marriott turned Matt's shot onto the crossbar, but Connor Gresham was in as quick as a flash to get to the rebound before anybody else and he smashed home Harworth's fourth goal.
Connor deserved his place in the starting eleven tonight after some putting in a few good shifts before the enforced winter break ... and it was good to see him getting on the score sheet himself tonight, after regularly creating goals for other people.

Daine McGrain

Daine McGrain must've been wondering if he was ever going to get a goal tonight.
He was running himself into the ground and doing just about everything he possibly could, besides getting the ball past Sam Marriott.
Matt Smith unselfishly, teed the ball up for Daine on the edge of the six yard box, but as the prolific striker was about to pull the trigger, the ball sat up unkindly in the bumpy goal area and he air kicked instead of smashing home Harworth's fifth goal.
Shortly afterwards, Marriott tipped a goal bound header over from Daine and then fended off a couple of kitchen sinks that he threw his way too.
On the hour, Carlton would've been glad to see the back of Enzo Guarini, who had been tormenting their back four all night, when he went off to be replaced by Danny Siddall.
By the end of the game, they will have been sick of the sight of Danny too.
Six minutes after entering the fray, Danny Siddall scored, when Callum Tiffany, in the thick of it again, won the ball and laid it off to Matt Smith, who'll probably be getting a phone call from the Guinness Book of Records to confirm if his goal assists total was correct tonight.
Matt played the ball across the face of Carlton's goal to Danny, who held off a challenge and put the ball away narrowly inside the right upright.
Siddall scored again, when he latched onto a 40 yard precision pass into his path from Chris Higgins (Harworth Colliery Under 19s don't 'go long' or play 'hoof ball' you understand), ran on, and slipped the ball past Sam Marriott, to make it 6-0.

Daine McGrain, still battling away, despite not finding the net tonight (yet), took the ball with his back to goal, held off the close and unwanted attentions of his marker and rolled the ball back towards Matt Smith, who was arriving in the box at speed. But Matt couldn't quite keep his shot down and the ball sailed over the cross bar.
Reece Kemp, on as a sub for Jordan Hardman, who himself was playing his 27th full game this week (an exaggeration, but only a slight one), tried his luck from thirty yards out on the left, but though he'd caught Sam Marriott out, his shot dipped over the bar.
Danny Siddall's right wing corner picked out Daine McGrain and his downward, powerful header, was straight out of the 'how to be a striker' handbook, but Sam Marriott, even at 6-0 down, wasn't chucking the towel in and he got down to his left in a moment, to keep the ball out.
On 85 minutes, Matt Smith, in the middle of the park, spotted that Daine McGrain was instinctively making a run towards Carlton's goal and he dropped an inch perfect pass into his path.
Daine powered forward, Marriott ran from his line and 'whoosh! The ball was in the back of the net, whilst two defenders, who must've thought the game was already over, were wrestling for the honour of bagging the number 9 shirt while Daine was still wearing it.

Matt Smith

Matt Smith (generous and heartfelt applause at this point please ladies and gentlemen) won my man of the match selection, for his overall input to the game and for the the way he created Harworth's eighth goal in the 89th minute.
Matt dropped his shoulder and went round Sam Marriott ... and with an open goal at his mercy, rolled the ball sideways so that Danny Siddall could provide the finishing touch, to claim his hat trick.
Danny's season looked to be in ruins when he fell to the floor, injured and obviously in a lot of pain, in stoppage time, at a pre season friendly at Ollerton Town.
His first steps back on the road to recovery, late in the away game at Basford United, were quite nervy and tentative ones.
Tonight he showed he's well and truly back ... and Matt's gesture in setting up Danny's third goal so generously and unselfishly was brilliant.
In stoppage time, Sam Marriott tipped a Matt Smith header over the cross bar and Callum Tiffany had another effort cleared off the line.
Much as I would love to see Harworth Under 19s scoring ten goals every week, it would have been a bit harsh on the visiting keeper, Sam Marriott, if he'd conceded double figures, because there were times tonight, when he seemed to be playing against the Colliery side single handedly, while they were knocking the ball around his team mates and outclassing them so emphatically.
FT - Harworth Colliery U19 8 v Carlton Town Academy 0
 
Footnote*
I'm really glad that Callum Tiffany ended up getting the management teams nod, as their man of the match, because he was buzzing around all over the pitch for 92 minutes tonight and deserved some recognition for his efforts.
Next week, Dunkirk Under 19s visit Scrooby Road, they'll be a completely different kind of challenge for the Harworth lads.
Bring it on!