Denaby United 1 v Harworth Colliery 5 - Friendly

Saturday 2nd February, at Old Road, Conisbrough.
Friendly. 
Denaby United  (1) 1
Neil Spruce 31
Harworth Colliery  (4) 5
Chris Belshaw 10, 
Gaz Sides 12, 30,
Matt Smith 32, 
Tom Pick 88

We arrived at the ground to find that some 'joker' had super-glued the padlock on the changing rooms security gate. 
But, as if by magic, a pair of blot croppers materialised and the groundsman soon had the situation under control. 
It's just a shame that the 'joker' wasn't still around to have his bolts cropped too.
Denaby United's usual first team pitch was being used by the veterans side for a cup game, so the council had allocated one of the pitches a bit further away from the main building, for this mid season friendly. 
Which was fine, but a bit exposed to the elements on a bloody cold and windy afternoon.

This fixture, played at the invite of a very friendly and welcoming home club, was arranged because both teams were facing a blank Saturday, after a recent spell of inactivity, caused by the weather decimating their respective fixture lists.
It was a very timely run out for Harworth, giving them the opportunity to get some playing time in prior to Tuesday night's visit to Glapwell for a CMFL North Floodlit Cup Semi Final and to have a look at a couple of trialists too.

Enzo Guarini of Denaby United and Harworth Colliery U19

I had to miss Harworth Colliery Under 19's 8-0 win and ascent to the top of the table in midweek, because I was at the CMFL's mid season meeting in Glapwell, so it was good to catch up with their hat trick hero, Enzo Guarini, to get a first hand, yet modest account of that game ... before he turned in a great performance for his other team today.

Line ups:

Denaby United Squad:

Blair Herbert (GK), Ashley Cantrill, Ryan Scott, Paul Mills, Callum Black, Nick Birkenshaw, Enzo Guarini, Paul Hemmingway, James Lundy, Callum Marin, Neil Spruce, Chris Haines.

11 aside game, rolling subs allowed.

Harworth Colliery, 'rolling' substitutions

Harworth Colliery Squad:

Mark Latham, Jordan Hardman, Paul Burns, James Woodward, Jonathan Bownes, Chris Belshaw, Kev Shelley, Tom Walker, Lee Edmondson, Gareth Sides, Matt Smith, Simon Brewster, Tom Pick, David Cornthwaite, Ben Wheelhouse

Harworth Colliery, 'rolled' substitutes.

Lee Edmondson was pulled down inside the Denaby United penalty area, by the home side's keeper, Blair Herbert, inside the first couple of minutes.
A penalty award, technically, would have meant that United, with just one available substitute, to 'roll' on and off, would have been down to ten men for most of the game, without a recognised goalkeeper.
So, although it appeared as if there had been a mistake made by the referee, or that he was being a bit of a 'homer' ... although Edmondson had been blatantly upended, it wasn't a malicious challenge and nobody got hurt, so I 100% endorse the referee's decision to turn a blind eye to the indiscretion.

After all, it wouldn't have been much of a game from there on in, if it had merely turned into an 11 CMFL players v 10 Doncaster Senior League players walkover.
That wouldn't have been very beneficial to either side.
Not that I'm undermining the standard of the Denaby side or the Donny League, they gave Harworth a good run out today and I wouldn't hesitate to take the opportunity to watch them in action again, just as long as it wasn't as bloody cold as it was today again.

Enzo in full flight

Besides, Herbert dropped the ball in the build up to Harworth's first goal, so he'd inadvertently made amends for his earlier foul, as Chris Belshaw netted the ball from a tight angle after ten minutes.
Two minutes later, Matt Smith teed the ball up for Gaz Sides who drilled the ball home to make it 2-0.

Johnathan Bownes

Denaby's Paul Mills under hit a back pass to Blair Herbert and with the keeper caught in two minds about what to do, Sides stepped up again and put Harworth 3-0 ahead.
Denaby got a goal back, when Paul Hemminway crossed to Neil Spruce, who shot from 18 yards out, the ball took a bounce in the sticky goalmouth in front of Mark Latham, on its way into the net ... a text book finish!
The visitors first half goal spree was topped up, when Matt Smith wrong footed Herbert, before rounding the Denaby stopper to make the score 4-1, or 1-4 if you want to be pedantic.
HT - Denaby United 1 v Harworth Colliery 4

The second half saw a multitude of tactical and positional switches as the Harworth management team took full advantage of this practice game, trying out a number of different permutations in advance of Tuesday night's semi final.

Tom Pick put himself about and had several chances to add to the Colliery score line after the break, but when he crashed the ball against the crossbar with five minutes remaining, it looked as though his luck just wasn't going to be in today.
However, right at the death, 'Tommo' finally broke his duck, when Paul Jones (see below) headed a Jordan Hardman corner back across the face of the Denaby goal, to Pick who turned the ball home from just inside the six yard box.
FT - Denaby United 1 v Harworth Colliery 5

After the match, I spoke to Denaby's goalkeeper Blair Herbert and I said that seeing as it was a friendly, I'd just post a couple of pictures and the scorers names, but he was adamant that I should write how it was and post the truth, saying "That was the worst I've ever played, I should have just gone at half time" amongst several other comments about himself that I'm far too polite to post and he possibly wouldn't want repeating in the cold light of day.

He's an honest lad and a better keeper than his performance today might suggest.
At least it wasn't a league game, where a couple of errors cost his side three points ... and for the record Blair, Harworth were taking today's game very seriously and places in the team for Tuesday's game at Glapwell were at stake today if anybody didn't give 100%.
Good luck for the rest of the season Denaby!
I hope you catch the super glue culprit and chop his fuc ... err, glue his hands together ;-)

Next up:
I'm at a meeting on Monday evening, but hopefully it will be finished early enough for me to get to Inkersall Road, for the Staveley MW v Arnold Town, NMU19L game, then it's on to Glapwell for the CMFL Floodlit Cup semi the following night.