Retford United 2 v Staveley Miners Welfare 0 - Baris NCEL Prem

Saturday 16th March 2013,
at the Jones & Co. Solicitors Stadium, AKA Cannon Park
Baris Northern Counties East League Premier Division
Retford United  (0) 2
Richard Medcalf  63, Reece Thompson 73
Staveley Miners Welfare  (0) 0
Admission £5, Programmr £1.50, Attendance 151

Left click to enlarge image

Retford United 
Duffy, Dorgan, Severn, Lucas, Fisher, Johnson, O'Neill, Thompson, Medcalf (Walkden), Cross (Cooper), Hadley (Stannard). Unused Sub - Nesbitt.
Staveley Miners Welfare
Herring, Korey Nix (Kallum Nix), Claridge, Linacre, Swales, Lindley, Woodhead, Smith, Damms, Kistell (Ellis), Watters.
Unused Subs - Gee, Emson, Ayres.

Thanks to the imbecile who parked his car in such a manner that we couldn't get the coaches out of Forest Green's car park last night until silly o'clock last night, I was a bit of a sleep deprived zombie at today's game, by virtue of getting to bed shortly before 2am this morning and having to get up for work just over 3 hours later for a shift that conveniently finished at 2.45pm.
I'm old and decrepit ... and I really need my beauty sleep these days.

 Staveley are a team in transition at the moment, but under the guidance of interim manager Neil Cluxton, aided on the field of play by club captain Ryan Damms, there are promising signs that a team chucked together out of necessity, are showing signs of gelling and turning the corner, now they're getting acclimatised to their new surroundings.

Retford were expected to win today, but as the teams went in level at half time, it was evident that they were going to have to up the ante after the interval, to break down their stubborn visitors.
And they did just that.
Though United had a bit of good fortune in the build up to their first goal, when the match referee missed a blatant pull back on Ryan Watters as he broke free on the right wing and set off on a charge towards the home sides penalty area, with a clear run on goal. Possibly the referee didn't get a clear view, because of a crowd of players in his sight line, but the linesman on that side certainly did.
He must've been under orders to just stick to offside and throw in decisions today.

It was almost inevitable that Retford would take the lead at some point, but the visitors had every right to feel aggrieved that Richard Medcalf scored immediately in the aftermath of a glaring error by the match officials.
Reece Thompson will have enjoyed scoring the Badgers second ten minutes later, because he was getting some fairly close attention from a couple of the Staveley lads who know of him from Under 19s league games.
On the balance of things, United deserved the win, but the shoots of recovery were their for all to see in the visitors ranks, who gave a good account of themselves.

Retford celebrate Reece Thompson's goal