at Yorkshire Main FC, Edlington
Doncaster & District Senior League, Division 1 Cup Final
Bawtry Town (0) 1
Craig Wrenn 60
Brodsworth Welfare (0) 0
Admission £3
Thanks very much to Alex Wharton (Bawtry Town) and James Irwin (Brodsworth Welfare) for their help with this blog report, much appreciated guys :-)
Neil Walker Chris Allott, Tommo Lloyd, Antony Nawn, Jamie MacConnachie, Andy Strelczenie, Matt Wilson, Steve Dixon, Craig Wrenn, Jack Burton, Nathan Powney
Subs - Damion Dent, Peter Shirley, Alex Wharton
Brodsworth Welfare:
Chris Yates, Chris Taylor, Adi Viggars, Adam Sieradski, Nick Exley, Tom Semley, Ben Hodgson, Craig Bottomley, Tom Bentham, Emmanuel Bockarie, Gareth Byrom-Wright
Subs - Jamie Woodall, Stuart Laidlaw, Craig Croft, Joe Fisher
80+ minutes from Tickhill Bridge to the A630 must constitute some kind of world record.
You could probably push a car the same distance in less time.
Thankfully, upon arriving at Edlington Lane, the gate was unlocked, so I drove around the perimeter of the cricket pitch and abandoned my car outside the entrance to Yorkshire Main's ground, just as the referee was blowing up for kick off.
Alex Wharton's Bawtry Reserves, had by far the better of the opening exchanges, but they were up against a stubborn and uncompromising Brodsworth defence, who were moulded in the image of their manager, Daz Cooke.
Jack Burton and Craig Wrenn looked lively up front for Town and they were keeping Chris Yates and his defence busy.
Right on the stroke of half time, Hodgson found Craig Bottomley with a pinpoint left wing cross, but Walker got up and acrobatically tipped a goalbound header over at the expense of a corner.
It proved to be a vital save in the grand scheme of things and was even more impressive, because (with all due respect to the big lad in goal), given Walker's build, he was possibly the second to last person in the ground (after me) that you would have expected to see doing anything that could be described as 'acrobatically'.
HT 0-0
Brodsworth tweaked their game plan during the interval and they looked more composed after the restart.
Hodgson was combining well with Tom Bentham inside Bawtry's final third and the north Notts side did well to clear Gareth Byrom-Wright's effort away for a corner.
Ironically, having not turned any of their possession into goals during the first half, Bawtry went in front, while 'Broddy' were playing their best football of the game so far.
Wrenn battled his way through the right channel, but couldn't quite get the ball onto his favoured shooting foot and Yates was able to save the ball, as Wren struck it straight at him.
Brodsworth introduced Jamie Woodall, who gave them more options going forward. They attacked down the left flank from their own half, with a move that started with Adi Viggars ... but though Woodall beat Walker with his shot, he put it just wide of the left hand upright.
It was real end to end stuff in the last ten minutes, as Bawtry looked to find the goal that would seal the game for them, while Brodsworth were throwing men forward in an attempt to pull level with time running out.
As the two teams slugged it out until the very last minute, there was probably more hard work and endeavour going on than actual finesse and technique by now, but it was still a compelling contest, on a difficult pitch and great value for those who had sacrificed their Friday night in the pub, to support local grassroots football instead.
With three minutes remaining, there was some confusion as to whether Brodsworth had been awarded a throw in or a corner out on the left flank, the ref said 'throw in'.
But amidst the Welfare's joyous celebrations, the referee's assistant on the far side had his flag raised.
The ref consulted with his linesman and the goal was ruled out.
Apparently, because a Brodsworth player stood on the goal line, right on the left hand edge of the penalty area had been judged to be both interfering with play and in an offside position.
That was tough on Brodsworth, really tough ... because they had worked very hard in the second half.
But, once the dust had settled, you've got to say, that Bawtry had just about the better of things over 90 minutes.
It was too late for Brodsworth to salvage anything out of the game now, and though they were bitterly disappointed that Laidlaw's well taken goal had counted for nothing, both sides shook hands and applauded each others efforts when the full time whistle sounded.
FT - Bawtry Town 1 v Brodsworth Welfare 0
