Harworth Colliery 3 v Askern 1 - CMFL North

All that is missing is Nora Batty

Saturday 15th February 2014
at the Recreation Ground, Bircotes, DN11 8JT
Harworth Colliery (1) 3
Lee Edmondson 11, Tom Pick 66, Ross Taylor 79
Askern (1) 1
Alex Rennie 45
Admission £3, Programme £1, Attendance 41

Harworth Colliery:
Mark Latham, Jordan Hardman, Jonny Bownes, Greg Fox, Martyn Gee, Tom Walker, Gregg Archer, Dean Bonser (Makenzie Tomlinson), Lee Edmondson (Ross Taylor), Gaz Sides, Tom Pick
Unused Subs - James Woodward, Zack Levers
Askern:
Anthony Sykes, Steven Athey, Daniel Jones (Josh Taylor), Leon Cusworth, Macauley Kennedy, Alex Rennie, Brian Dickinson, Bradley Sykes, Michael Attard, Chris Telling, Matty Davison (Justin Henry)
Unused sub - Daniel Mattocks

Harworth Colliery v Askern - The Rematch
Just seven days after Askern inflicted a 4-0 defeat on the Colliery, at Manor Way, these two sides met again, on a horrible windy afternoon, when only two CMFL North games survived the rain that we've been enduring non stop for the past 73 weeks (or similar).
Well played to the Rec' ground staff, who haven't lost a single home game to the weather all season.
And well done to the Harworth Colliery players who've won the CMFL North team of the month award for January, when they had a 100% record of, err ... played one, won one!

Great one handed save by Mark Latham

Askern, no doubt inspired by last weeks result, came out of the blocks looking lively.
Daniel Jones left wing corner into the mix, saw Jordan Hardman well placed to clear the ball off of the line and moments later Mark Latham pulled off a great one handed side, down to his right, to thwart Bradley Sykes from 12 yards out.
But having weathered the early pressure, Harworth seized the initiative and never looked back, save for a set back on the stroke of half time.
Gregg Archer and Tom Walker were providing a constant supply of decent forward balls to Tom Pick and Gaz Sides, as the Colliery went about trying to right the wrongs of the previous week, albeit with the added difficulty of playing into an even stronger wind than the one they had encountered at Manor Way seven days ago.

On 11 minutes Tom Pick was fouled out on the right wing.
Gaz Sides resultant free kick was knocked on by Gregg Archer to Lee Edmondson, who hooked the ball home to open the scoring.
Sides was proving to be a real handful for Askern's defence, putting in a man of the match shift down the right flank all afternoon. And it was another dead ball from the Colliery number 10 that created the next chance, when Martyn Gee's powerful downward header was cleared off the line by Macauley Kennedy.
Once more, Sides was the creator, when his right wing corner picked out Gregg Archer who thumped his shot narrowly over the crossbar from the edge of the box.

Jonny Bownes broke down the left flank and cut inside, before steadying himself and trying his luck from 25 yards, but his shot sailed over the Askern goal to safety as the wind continued to play havoc with the ball.
Another Gaz Sides corner ball, sat up nicely for Tom Pick, but Anthony Sykes was on hand to save the day for the visitors.
Harworth were playing some good one touch stuff now and were unlucky that a move that started with a Sides throw in to Pick, who linked up with Hardman on the overlap, who in turn played a nest one-two with Dean Bonser, didn't lead to another goal for Lee Edmondson, who failed narrowly to convert the final ball.
With half time approaching, Tom Pick was flattened by Leon Cusworth out on the right flank. Sides free kick was only cleared as far as Dean Bonser who whipped in a shot towards the goal, but Sykes denied Harworth again with another good save.

Pick used his pace and strength to battle his way inside the visitors area, but his shot across the face of the goal, went just wide of the left hand upright.
Right on the stroke of half time, Daniel Jones and Tom Walker came together in the middle of the park, challenging for a loose ball and Jones stayed down as a result of Walker's challenge.
After a stoppage of several minutes while Jones received treatment and ultimately had to leave the field of play on a stretcher, Askern pushed forward into the home sides half, Bownes misjudged the ball from an underhit Greg Fox pass and Alex Rennie pounced to take advantage of the slip and fired home the equaliser in added on time, against the run of play.
Thankfully, Jones was back at the ground before the end of the game, having been to hospital to be checked over as a precaution ... and he seemed alright when I asked how he felt.
HT - Harworth Colliery 1 v Askern 1

Get well soon Daniel Jones

Lee Edmondson had a goal disallowed from a Gaz Sides free kick inside the first minute of the second half, after he's strayed offside.
The wind was getting worse and Askern's keeper and captain Sykes, in particular, was struggling with his kicking as a consequence. The weather was making life difficult for both sides now and ruining the game as a spectacle.
Edmondson cut in from the left and knocked the ball across the face of the Askern goal to Jordan Hardman, who shot from the right hand side of the six yard box was well blocked by Sykes.

The game really needed another goal, as both teams struggled gamely to combat the conditions ... and it duly arrived on 66 minutes.
Having had one goal chalked off in the 46th minute, Harworth were happy to see the flag stay down as Tom Pick ran on to Gregg Archer's defence splitting pass and planted the ball beyond beyond Sykes who was running from his line to narrow the angle.
Pick looked fit and full of running today and it was good to see that he hasn't lost any of his pace after a recent injury enforced lay off.
Pick's actual comeback game was last Saturday, when he came on as a second half substitute at Askern and was one of only a couple of Harworth players to emerge from that game with any credit for his efforts.

It's got to be good for the team, that Harworth now have so many attacking options to choose from, even if several performances today will, in the long run, cause a whole load of selection headaches for Bren, Jonny and Lee, when players like Ollie Chappell, Sam West and Arron Blakey are available for selection again.
The home side comfortably saw their way over the finishing line, once they had got their noses back in front, but Latham still had to be alert to the danger posed by Askern as they still attacked in numbers several times, before the Colliery finally put the game to bed.

With a little over ten minutes remaining, Archer picked out Sides with a quality ball from the middle of the park, Gaz dribbled into the box from the right, found Ross Taylor with a cross ball and the diminutive Colliery youngster scored from close range, with a somersault action and powerful bicycle kicked that nearly smashed its way through the netting, or put the ball over the line with a bit of a fluke that went in off of his hip, depending on which version you want to believe. I was slightly unsighted and can only report what I was told in good faith at this juncture ;-)
In the end, a fairly straight forward win for Harworth Colliery, who put in a great amount of effort today to overcome the difficult weather conditions, against a team who are far better than their league position suggest.
I don't think that even Brendan Wilson, the Colliery manager, could've found anything to moan about after that amount of application and hard graft put in by his team today.
FT - Harworth Colliery 3 v Askern 1
THE66POW man of the match - Gaz Sides