at the Kinsley Timber Stadium, Wakefield Road, Kinsley
CMFL North
Kinsley Boys (0) 0
Harworth Colliery (1) 3
Sam West 17 (pen), Martyn Gee 53, Lee Edmondson 85
Admission £3, Programme 50p, Attendance 29
 |
| The writing's on the wall. Hmm, we can't say we weren't warned. |
Kinsley Boys
Tom Chestney, Connor Rollison, Dan Howe, Bayden Lockwood, Mark Lafferty (C), Ryan Jennings, Calum Stapleton, Liam Haller, Jack Owen, Craig Rouse, Ben Day
Subs - Calan Rollinson, Josh Appleton, Todd Wood, Tony Bennett
Harworth Colliery
Mark Latham, Jordan Hardman, Simon Brewster, Jonny Bownes, Martyn Gee (C), Makenzie Tomlinson (Gaz Sides), Dean Bonser, Ollie Chappell, Chris Belshaw (Tom Cooke), Sam West, Tom Pick (Lee Edmondson)
 |
| A minutes silence - WE SHALL REMEMBER THEM |
Well, err ... quite a few things actually.
Thankfully, the match referee had two strong linesmen with him this afternoon, though employing a couple of registered doormen might have been quite useful at times too.
This wasn't a game that any neutral or football purist would have enjoyed watching, but fans of mud wrestling, OTT continuous swearing, threatening behaviour and unfathomable decision making, would have loved this painful example of macabre theatre.
Kinsley started with ten players, because their keeper had been delayed en route to the game.
An outfield player started in goal, until Tom Chestney arrived eight minutes into the game, at which point, Kinsley were at full strength, with 11 players on the pitch and a full compliment of subs on the bench.
Harworth had laboured to make an impression when they had a numerical advantage and failed to seriously test the deputising keeper. Although, Sam West did have a chance to open the scoring but his free kick went straight to the keeper and Kenzie Tomlinson was narrowly beaten to the ball by the temporary shot stopper after Jonny Bownes had split the Kinsley defence with a long, probing pass.
 |
| Martyn Gee looks on enviously at Mark Lafferty's facial hair |
The playing surface encouraged a long passing game and more direct style of football, because running with, or attempting to control the ball was a messy business on the wettest areas of the pitch, as Tom Pick discovered when he broke down the left channel into the Kinsley box, but couldn't get his shot in because of the underfoot conditions.
Jordan Hardman's looping free kick was flicked on by Martyn Gee, but the ball evaded Ollie Chappell, who was well placed to score.Gee again, rose head and shoulders above the home defence to flick a Chris Belshaw corner into the mix and the referee blew up and pointed to the penalty spot as a Kinsley player knocked the ball away with his arm.
Tom Chestney dived to his right as Sam West dispatched the ball straight down the middle and the Colliery were ahead on 17 minutes.
West will have been relieved to have put that one away, given that last Sunday he missed from the spot for the Scotsman pub side (Retford) against Kirkby Town who went on to win the game 2-1.
We have spies everywhere Westy!
 |
| Sam West penalty kick, 17 minutes. |
The Harworth bench weren't enjoying the fact that the home side were spending so much time in their half of the pitch, or that the game was turning into a scrappy mess that the home side were starting to get a serious foothold in.
In fact, it has to be said, that if Kinsley could dispense with some of their verbals, posturing and attitude, they have some half decent players in their ranks, who would benefit from them being more of a footballing side.
Mark Latham was forced into making a brave save down by his left hand post and Craig Rouse arrived late with his foot up and clattered the Harworth keeper, leaving him laid out on the deck needing lengthy treatment.
The conditions might have contributed to how bad Rouse's challenge looked and a striker should always challenge for the ball when it is loose, but given how long long the impact took to occur after Latham was clearly on top of the ball and holding onto it tightly, then Rouse clearly had to walk ... and sure enough he did as Thomas Hawkins brandished a straight red card.
Tom Pick and Ollie Chappell made a nuisance of themselves around the edge of the area, but Kinsley closed ranks and repelled them. Right on the stroke of half time, Ryan Jennings headed to ball behind for a corner as Tom Pick was in the air and poised to direct it into the net.
HT - Kinsley 0 v Harworth 1
Three minutes into the second half, the ball sat up unkindly in the mud for Kenzie Tomlinson as he steadied himself to shoot and his effort cleared the crossbar.
Moments later, Sam West was booked for being fouled near the halfway line. Yes, you read that correctly. A most curious decision. But it wasn't the first, or last this afternoon, by any stretch of the imagination.
The goal galvanised the Colliery's approach to the game, but at the same time it also appeared to enrage a few of the Kinsley lads, who seemed to be genuinely angry and looking for a confrontation now.
That attitude was in stark contrast to that of the club officials who had given us a very friendly welcome upon our arrival and departure ... and who were a great credit to their club.
Ollie Chappell freed Gaz Sides down the right flank and his low cross into the six yard box found West whose close range stab was turned over via the crossbar by Chestney.
But although Harworth were stepping things up half a gear now, the game was still fairly untidy.
Liam Haller was booked near the halfway line, for a cumulation of offences, but then the red mists descended and he was sent off for grappling with and shoving a teammate who had made a human barrier between Haller and Gaz Sides, who was on the receiving end of a barrage of abuse and threats about what was going to happen to him in the clubhouse after the game.
Sides broke free on the right again, but his cross was scuffed across the face of the goal by West, who had kept on making the right runs and getting in where it mattered at the right time, all afternoon.
A mass goalmouth scramble broke out in the Kinsley box with five minutes remaining ... Lee Edmondson dragged the ball clear to the left hand side of the goal and buried it just inside the post.
At three nil there was no way back for Kinsley now.
As the clock ran down, a disgruntled spectator took to aiming abuse at Harworth's assistant manager about a mid 1980's industrial dispute, that Jony isn't even old enough to remember (but to be fair, he looks much older than he actually is).
At the end of the day, people get passionate about football and they were just letting off steam and venting their frustrations, nobody was really going to get some fist in the bar.
The Harworth team filed in and there wasn't a trace of any bad feeling in evidence after the game, in spite of a few heat of the moment outbursts earlier.
We all went outside when somebody told us that our cars had been vandalised and broken into in the car park. In the event, the away team escaped unscathed from the local criminal element, but you had to feel sorry for KInsley Boys goalkeeper Tom Chestney, because not only was he late for a game where he had conceded three goals, his vehicle had been well and truly targeted ... hopefully they never got away with much Tom.
FT - Kinsley 0 v Harworth 3
Harworth Colliery are at home in the CMFL Floodlit Cup against Westella Hanson on Tuesday night (November 12th). It will be there last first team home game of 2013.
See you all there?
