Harworth Colliery 6 v Welbeck 1 - CMFL North

Saturday 30th November 2013
at the Recreation Ground, Bircotes, DN11 8JT
Harworth Colliery (3) 6
Ollie Chappell 17, 58
Sam West 32, 45, 75
Jordan Hardman 77
Welbeck FC (0) 1
Jordan Collier 57
Admission £3, Programme £1, Attendance 26
Harworth Colliery:
Mark Latham, Jordan Hardman, Jonny Bownes, James Woodward (C), Martyn Gee, Gaz Sides (Lewis Francis 72) , Greg Archer, Ollie Chappell, Dean Bonser, Tom Walker (Makenzie Tomlinson 58), Sam West
Welbeck FC:
Darren Milnes, Paul Wass, Mark Robinson, David Cooper, Chris Snowball, Alistair Jones (C), Jordan Collier, Craig Taylor, Julian Stevens, Steffan Frost, Mark Staniforth
Subs - David Lambert, Ashley Siddall

I've got nothing but respect and admiration for the players of Welbeck FC, for the way they turn out each and every week, regardless of the fact that they already virtually know, before a ball as even been kicked, that they are probably onto yet another hiding to nothing.
It is hard not to feel sorry for them, though and I'm damn sure that is the last thing they would want anyway, but though their points won and goals conceded columns make for even more frightening viewing than that first time I ever saw that evil child catcher out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on TV, yes ... *that* scarey (sorry if I just rekindled anyone's childhood nightmares), they've got many attributes that a lot of the more successful sides are sadly lacking, even at grassroots level in non league football.
Namely: a one for all and all for one team spirit, a work ethic that deserves far more reward than its ever going to get this season and a dignified sense of sportsmanship and perspective as regards humility.

Having witnessed many other teams just buggering off home after a heavy defeat over the years, or even leaving straight after a win, because they consider themselves to be too high and mighty to be mixing with lesser mortals ... it was good to see the Pitmen hanging around after the final whistle.
In fact Welbeck probably stayed in the Pavilion Bar at Harworth Colliery, for longer than any other team has done all season and a lot of other clubs could learn a lot from their conduct and handshakes and good humour in the face of yet another going over.
I'm not entirely sure where they keep mustering up the enthusiasm and motivation from, to keep getting off the canvas and busting a gut until the final whistle week in and week out, in the face of such a poor return for their efforts, but it must be some kind of awesome strength camaraderie that pushes them on.
I couldn't ever be thick skinned enough to take that kind of beating on the chin every weekend, without becoming a blubbering wreck and throwing the towel in.
Welbeck aren't quitters, in spite of all the knock backs they suffered this term, to coin a phrase ... they don't do running away.

By way of a massive coincidence, Welbeck got turned over by exactly the same scoreline as their reserves had at Harworth a few weeks ago see pictures here and under exactly the same circumstances, i.e. 3-0 to the home side at half time, then Welbeck pulled one back before the Colliery went on to win 6-1.
That afternoon Tony Garner bagged a hat trick, today it was Sam West's turn to have a claim on the match ball.
Harworth started the game at a frantic pace and it almost seemed to be playing on the Colliery players minds that they were supposed to win today's game, given that they kicked off some 33 points above their visitors, with a plus 30 goal difference against Welbeck's minus 73.
They were virtually camped in the Pitmen's final third of the pitch, but a lot of their play was hurried and rushed until they eventually settled down, against a backdrop of  "Patience!", "Slow it down!" and "Relax!" cries from the home dugout.
Gaz Sides was putting in a lot of work to good effect on the left hand side of the pitch, Sam West and Ollie Chappell are developing a good understanding, Jordan Hardman was relishing getting forward down the right flank and Greg Archer was busying himself running around the centre circle, playing the role of link man all afternoon.

Ollie Cappell broke the deadlock on 17 minutes with Harworth's 50th league goal of the season,
James Woodward's searching ball into the box, found Gaz Sides who's knock across the goalmouth was just begging to be finished off ... Chappell's first attempt was blocked but the ball ricocheted back to him and he knocked the ball home from close range, as the home side started to get into their stride and shake off any pressure to perform jitters they had displayed early in the game.
Gaz Sides came close to increasing Harworth's lead shortly afterwards, but he put the ball narrowly wide after get onto the end of a Tom Walker free kick.
Sides had a really good game until he was substituted late on, to give young Lewis Francis an opportunity to use his fresh legs to run at Welbeck's defence, which he did well, for the short time he was actually on the pitch.
Sam West bagged the Colliery's second goal on 32 minutes, when Ollie Chappell planted a neat lob over his headed for the diminutive front man to run on too. Westy nodded the ball down, outstripped his marker for pace and buried the ball past Darren Milnes.
Jonny Bownes sent Chappell away with a neatly weighted pass, he in turn played the ball into the path of West who forced a great save out of Milnes.
Right on the stroke of half time, Chappell and West both sprinted towards the goal in pursuit of the ball, that was just waiting to be thumped into the net, West narrowly got there first and took the chance of off Ollie's toe to put the home side 3-0 up.
HT 3-0

Harworth came out after the break looking to turn the screw, but Welbeck shut up shop for a while..
Dean Bonser and Ollie Chappell worked the ball into the visitors area, but Welbeck stood strong and got the ball away.
With almost an hour on the clock, Harworth were letting Welbeck come at them so they could exploit the gaps left at the back, when Jordan Collier suddenly showed a burst of pace, stormed into the Colliery penalty area through the left back channel and thumped the ball into the net.
Welbeck were back in it now ... for all of 50 seconds ... before Sam West played Ollie Chappell through at the other end and he cooly restored the home sides three goal cushion.
Second half substitute Kenzie Tomlinson, who'd replaced a below par Tom Walker on 58 minutes was terrorising Welbeck with his pace, he whipped in a cross to Dean Bonser, but once again Milnes kept the score down with an instinctive save.
Tomlinson repeated the trick and put Bonser clear again, but he turned awkwardly and lashed the ball wide of the left hand post ... in fact, he almost hit the corner flag. But hey ho! The game was a foregone conclusion by then anyway.
Jordan Hardman sent Kenzie away down the right with a delicate pass, Kenzie's cross found West 12 yards out Westy capped off a great performance by completing his hat trick from 12 yards out on 75 minutes.
Welbeck had scrapped for every ball and began to look a bit demoralised now and the prolific goalscorer Jordan Hardman took advantage of a gap in the visitors ranks and spanked a lay off from Sam West into the back of net.
6-1 to the Colliery.

Jordan's getting used to this attacking malarkey now and he tried his luck again from long range inside the final two minutes and Harworth's other goal scoring defender Martyn Gee was joining in with the attack too as the game drew to a close.
It hadn't been very pretty at times. In fact, there had been several fairly scrappy spells during the game, when the visitors could've got back it.
But Harworth won it the hard way in the end, by a convincing scoreline and Welbeck ended up with nothing to show for all of their resilience and tenacity .
The Colliery had to scrap for this result, but a combination of their graft and quality saw them through in the end.
It'll be interesting to see the match ratings from today, because I thought that there were at least four stand out performances amongst the Harworth ranks and it must also be said that Welbeck had a couple of lads who put that bit extra in beyond the call of duty for their cause too.
Credit where it is due also to the match officials, Ken Hughes, Paul Dexter and Paul Kilbourne, who played a big part in keeping the game flowing with their common sense approach. I can't remember the last time I saw no yellow cards at all shown in a competitive match. It made for a refreshing change.
FT - Harworth Colliery 6 v Welbeck FC 1

THE66POW man of the match: Sam West, who, not for the first time today, nicked the accolade from Ollie Chappell.