Dronfield Town 6 v Easington United 0 - CMFL North

Saturday 11th May 2013, at Stonelow Road

Central Midlands League (North)

Dronfield Town (2) 6

Dan Wood 3

Ritchie Marples 23

Cal Mawby 56, 70, 75

John Duran 73

Easington United (0) 0

Admission £2, Programme £1

Attendance 167

Left click photos for enlarged versions

 Congratulations Dronfield Town FC

CMFL North Champions 2012-13

A result that sealed the CMFL North championship for Dronfield Town, who only lost once (4-1 v. Harworth Colliery) and drew once (v. Harworth Colliery) all season. They subsequently won the remainder of their league fixtures.

Click the following link to see the (almost final) CMFL North table.

Dronfield Town:
Siddons, Carnall, Ashton, Rawson, Mintoft, Hill, Gibbons, Mawby, Marples, Moran, Wood
Subs - Whitehead, Gange, Horsfield
Easington United:
Akam, Blanchard, Barnett, Hart, McClaughlin, Taylor, Westoby, Andrew,Foster, Fitzgerald, Green
Subs - Graham, Smalley

As the scoring sequence reflects, Easington gave a fairly good account of themselves throughout the opening forty five minutes, but Dronfield stepped things up a couple of gears after the break and took control of the game, following a five minute spell halfway through the second half, when they netted three quick fire goals in the 70th, 73rd and 75th minutes.
The 6-0 winning margin, probably flattered Dronfield a little on the day, given the overall balance of play, but there is no disputing the fact, that when their chances did come along, they took them well ... and it's goals that win games, not percentages.

Dan Wood opens the scoring

Dan Wood, took Easington (and possibly Dronfield too) by surprise with a free kick from out on the left flank, after just four minutes, that evaded everybody taking up positions elsewhere in the penalty area, before nestling in the right hand side of the goal.
Ritchie Marples took a chance to make it 2-0 well on 23 minutes and Easington must've sensed that the game was starting to creep away from their somewhat makeshift team.
Though they weren't without their own merits in the final third too, with Karl Fitzgerald in particular, catching the eye.

Though, quite obviously, its been their consistency throughout the season, since that opening day defeat, that has won the league title for Dronfield. It needs to be said, that it must be a big advantage to have such a great surface to perform on every other week, which must be conducive to playing fast flowing football on a regular basis.
The pitch looked in immaculate condition today and in much better shape than most local grounds do at the start of the season, never mind at the business end of May.
HT - Dronfield Town 2 v Easington United 0

It was nice to catch up with Easington's General Manger and club stalwart, Rich Lusmore, albeit all too briefly, at the beginning of the second half.
It would be fair to say that there might have been an element of controversy involved when our respective clubs met earlier this season, but at least we can joke about it now and we exchanged handshakes and had a beer after the game in question anyway.

I'm sure he really enjoyed seeing Easington come back from being 3-0 down against Harworth, to win the game at Low Farm 4-3, a couple of weeks ago, for all the right reasons.
But he was far too polite to mention it to me.
I missed that game, because the CMFL changed Harworth's fixture at the 11th hour, once I'd already got my ticket for the Mansfield Town v Wrexham promotion decider (have I already mentioned it that the Stags won that day!?), which was a shame, because I was looking forward to visiting Low Farm and the pubs in the vicinity again this season.

Dronfield only needed a point today, to claim the CMFL North title and I think it would be safe to say, that they knew the trophy would be presented at Stonelow Road this afternoon, once Callum Mawbey had scored the home side's third goal of the afternoon, with a well directed header ,on 56 minutes.

Ben Akam in the Easington goal, had a bit of a 'sack the juggler' episode on 70 minutes, that allowed Mawbey to bundle his second goal over the line, after the unfortunate keeper had fumbled Nick Horsefield's innocuous cum feeble goal attempt. 

Possibly, it was only Horsefield unwittingly tapping the ball so gently, that caused Akam to misjudge his handling and the Eastenders stopper, would have saved any half way decent shot. 

Just a thought.

Either way, outfield players make loads of mistakes every game that are forgotten in an instant ... it is only the goalkeeping errors that we remember.

John Duran was on hand to smack the ball home, after taking advantage of a defensive slip (that will no doubt have been forgotten about already, because people are still too busy talking about Ben Akam's untimely gaff).

And then Mawbey netted his third and Dronfield's sixth (see above), from close range, shortly afterwards.

Karl Fitzgerald was still keeping the Dronfield keeper, Nick Siddons, busy at the other end, without getting any reward for his efforts and Craig Foster headed over for the visitors right at the death.

The final whistle sounded and while Dronfield celebrated winning both the afternoon and the championship, while Easington, very sportingly, formed a guard of honour and applauded the victors when they lined up to be presented with their medals and the trophy.

FT - Dronfield Town 6 v Easington United 0