Tuesday 26 January 2016

Worsbrough Bridge Athletic 1 v Lincoln Moorlands Railway 3 - NCEL Div 1

Tuesday 26th January 2016
Toolstation NCEL Division 1
Game played at Muglet Lane, home of Maltby Main FC
Worsbrough Bridge Athletic (0) 1
Matt Jacobs 90+
Lincoln Moorlands Railway (2) 3
Josh Schofield 32 pen, 69
Alex Mackinder 43
Admission £5  Attendance
I could've stayed at home and watched Liverpool on TV instead, but where's the fun in that!?
But the moment I saw that the bottom two clubs in the NCEL's first division were playing at Maltby, on a cold, occasionally wet and very windswept January night, there was only ever going to be one place I was heading for. This fixture ticked all of the boxes for me.
Whatever the result of this game was, neither side would be changing their league positions afterwards, i.e. Worsbrough 22nd or Moorlands 21st. But two teams who have conceded a mouthwatering total of 212 goals between them prior to kick off, slugging it out, was surely far too tempting a mouthwatering prospect for any football purist or genuine lover of the beautiful game to miss.
In the event Moorlands recorded their first and only away win of the season, to match their one and only home win of the season (4-3 v Dronfield Town, way back in September).
Worsbrough Bridge Athletic:
Michael Fallis, Adam Barker, Sam Joyce, Andy Dawson, Kyle Spooner, Nick Galloway (C), Jacob France, Craig Goodyear, Jack Dortman, Luke Forgione, Rob Oldham
Subs - Matt Jacobs, Jordan Lodge, Tom Peace, Liam Price, Neil Spruce
Lincoln Moorlands Railway:
Gary Doran, Leigh Warman (C), Tom Parker, Ben Cheatle, Jack Stafford, Tom Richardson, Ian Stedwright, James Brown, Shane Clancey, Alex Mackinder, Ross Walker
Subs - Josh Schofield, Joe Barratt, Lawrence King, Matt Wilson, Chris Gibson
Worsbrough are currently playing their home games at Maltby's ground (though they are hoping to return to Park Road very soon), which gave me the opportunity to take in what turned to be a half decent game of football just a twenty minute drive away from my homestead and to have a good catch up with the host club's secretary, my old pal John Mills, one of the unsung heroes of local non league football if ever there was one.
The 'home' side were well on top for the opening half a hour, but they spurned a succession of clear cut goal scoring opportunities and Rob Oldham in particular must've been wondering how on earth he hadn't found the back of the net tonight. His first opportunity, inside the second minute, crawled agonisingly wide of the left hand upright. Jack Dorman shot past the opposite post just moments later as Worsbrough maintained a high tempo in and around the final third.
Oldham took a cross from Luke Forgione down on his chest and struck the ball towards Moorlands' goal but it ricocheted off of Jack Stafford to Gary Doran, the visitors keeper. 
The Moors were certainly riding their luck at this point, but the tide was about to turn dramatically.
Oldham slipped the ball to Forgione who smashed the ball against the post, the rebound fell into the path of Craig Goodyear, but he couldn't quite keep his first time shot on target.
Once again Oldham sprinted clear in the Lincoln goalmouth and went to ground as Doran ran from his line and made contact with him... but the referee's assistant had his flag up for an offside offence, much to the keeper's relief.
Oldham (who else?) did well to force his way between Ben Warman and Leigh Cheatle, but with the goal at his mercy he lumped the ball over the bar.
The visitors had started to get to grips with the midfield by now and were embarking on a few forward raids of their own and having finally halted a seemingly relentless spell of pressure from the Briggers, they took the lead on 32 minutes when Josh Schofield netted from a spot kick, after Adam Barker had allegedly thwarted a goal scoring opportunity with his hand and to compound his misery he was also red carded.
Worsbrough had dominated the opening thirty minutes, but Moorlands had the better of the remainder of the half and the home side were left to rue all of the chances that had gone begging, when Alex Mackinder drilled a neat angled finish past Michael Fallis to double the visitors lead just before half time.
After the break, the visitors had well and truly cut off Worsbrough's supply lines and the Yorkshire side were obviously struggling to make any headway because of their numerical disadvantage and after a scrappy opening to the second half, Jack Dortman resorted to trying his luck with a speculative long range effort that went well wide of the Moors goal.
#GreatEscape, a Twitter hashtag that Lincoln Moorlands Railway have been using of late, certainly applied to the opening 30 minutes or so, but since the interval, they were quelling any kind of threat posed by the Briggers and were patiently waiting for the chance to kill the game off... it came in the 69th minute when Schofield nodded the ball past Fallis from Ross Walker's left wing cross.
On the NCEL website they have got the goalscorers names right, but posted them up the wrong sequence. But hey! Nobody got hurt in the process and I'm always publishing incorrect information, so I am not criticising what is, in truth, a great internet resource, just clarifying a small error.
Moorlands substitute Lawrence King exchanged passes with Shane Clancey, that created an opening for the latter, but he missed the target completely.
Deep into stoppage time, Matt Jacobs bagged a consolation goal for Worsbrough, but it was too late for his side to stage a comeback now.
Full Time: Worsbrough Bridge Athletic 1 v Lincoln Moorlands Railway 3 
Oh well, any excuse for a song ;-)