Central Midlands League (North)
at the Jones & Co. Recreation Ground
Scrooby Road, Bircotes, DN11 8AD
Harworth Colliery (1) 1
Tom Pick 37
Appleby Frodingham (0) 2
Dayle Hutson 60
Stephen McCarron 76
Admission £3. Programme £1 (sold out).
Attendance 100+
Harworth Colliery:
Steve Wibberley, Jordan Hardman, Sam Westerman, Greg Fox, Greg Archer (C), Chris Pickles, Lee Edmondson, Josh Davies, Tom Pick, Mickey Davies, Musse Gabdon
Subs - Kenzie Tomlinson, Louis McQuire, James Woodward, Danny Dean, Lewis Francis
Appleby Frodingham:
Patrick Shaw, Tom Raithby, Cameron Dunn, Dan Ellerby, Andy Wilkinson, Phil Doyle (C), Steve McCarron, Fabio Snow, Nathan Watson, Dayle Hutson, Ollie Bradbury
Subs - Michael Gray, Richard Golland, Cameron Housan, Ryan Oates
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| Satch - Chair man |
Only three points separated these two sides prior to kick off as third placed Harworth hosted second placed 'Frod', with the visitors having won all four of their opening fixtures thus far, while Harworth have won three but lost at home against Clay Cross Town. But 'the Colliery' came into the game on the crest of a wave having beaten both Thorne Colliery and local rivals Retford FC earlier in the week.
FC Bolsover, who visit Retford tomorrow (DN22 6QF, 3PM) currently top the table with a massive +29 goal difference. The Derbyshire side, have chalked up five wins in their opening six games.
And though tonight's result saw the visitors go joint first on points, the goal differential means that 'Boza' stay top.
FC Bolsover, who visit Retford tomorrow (DN22 6QF, 3PM) currently top the table with a massive +29 goal difference. The Derbyshire side, have chalked up five wins in their opening six games.
And though tonight's result saw the visitors go joint first on points, the goal differential means that 'Boza' stay top.
The home side were formed as Harworth Colliery Institute in 1931, a name by which many people still call them, regardless of the fact that this title was truncated, when they dropped Institute from their title years ago.
Harworth competed in local leagues until they joined the Yorkshire league in after the Second World War, where they stayed until becoming members of the newly formed NCEL in 1982, where they spent four years, before joining the Central Midlands League (Supreme Division) as a founder member.
Over the past few seasons the club have made great strides towards improving their facilities, which now have the necessary grading for the club to compete in the NCEL again. Alas a dip in form towards the end of last season saw Ollerton Town, who had also put in an application for promotion finish above the Colliery and take the only promotion spot to the NCEL Divsion One.
Appleby Frodingham came into being just after World war Two and were founder members of the Lincolnshire League, where they played untilmoving into the Midland League in 1978, which merged with the Yorkshire League to become the NCEL in 1982.
Sadly 'Frod' folded in the mid 1980's, around the same time that Retford Town FC, another NCEL side, met the same fate.
The Scunthorpe based club reformed and after plying their trade in local football, rejoined the Lincolnshire League in 1990 before transferring across to the CMFL, from where they won promotion to the NCEL in 2008, where they stayed until 2015, when they were demoted back into the CMFL.
Last season they finished in a respectable fourth place (Harworth were fifth) and along the way won a game 23-0 against Welbeck FC, which was recorded as the biggest senior non-league victory in over a century.
Perennial CMFL strugglers and whipping boys Welbeck, have changed their name to Welbeck Lions this season, but their form and fortunes haven't changed much... they lost 13-0 against Harworth a few weeks ago.
The CMFL Friday night football experiment looks to have a lot of mileage in it, given the amount of spectators who headed to the Recreation Ground tonight, many of them from far and wide.
When Harworth took a solitary single goal lead in at the break, they must've been wondering how on earth they weren't further in front, considering the amount of chances they'd created.
But in the second half, the visitors showed their promotion contender credentials, when they punished the Colliery for their string of earlier misses, with two emphatic finishes of their own, that knocked the stuffing out of the home side.
Harworth competed in local leagues until they joined the Yorkshire league in after the Second World War, where they stayed until becoming members of the newly formed NCEL in 1982, where they spent four years, before joining the Central Midlands League (Supreme Division) as a founder member.
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| Local legends |
Sadly 'Frod' folded in the mid 1980's, around the same time that Retford Town FC, another NCEL side, met the same fate.
The Scunthorpe based club reformed and after plying their trade in local football, rejoined the Lincolnshire League in 1990 before transferring across to the CMFL, from where they won promotion to the NCEL in 2008, where they stayed until 2015, when they were demoted back into the CMFL.
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| Local leg end |
Perennial CMFL strugglers and whipping boys Welbeck, have changed their name to Welbeck Lions this season, but their form and fortunes haven't changed much... they lost 13-0 against Harworth a few weeks ago.
When Harworth took a solitary single goal lead in at the break, they must've been wondering how on earth they weren't further in front, considering the amount of chances they'd created.
But in the second half, the visitors showed their promotion contender credentials, when they punished the Colliery for their string of earlier misses, with two emphatic finishes of their own, that knocked the stuffing out of the home side.
Harworth made a lively start to the game and Tom Pick was swarming all over the 'Frod' defence with almost as much gusto as the infamous Scrooby Road mosquito colony, that are attracted from the nearby and now disused British Coal site by the Recreation Ground floodlights... tonight was a personal best for me. I was only bitten three times and returned home after the match virtually unscathed.
Pick came close twice after just two minutes, when his close range shot was well saved but he put the rebound just over the bar.
Jordan Hardman ventured forward from his right back berth where he was enjoying a well contested tussle with the visitors left winger Ollie Bradbury and delivered a deep cross to pick, which the live wire striker steered narrowly wide.
Steve Wibberley was called into action as Dayle Hutson countered and went down bravely to collect the ball at the strikers feet.
Pick came close twice after just two minutes, when his close range shot was well saved but he put the rebound just over the bar.
Jordan Hardman ventured forward from his right back berth where he was enjoying a well contested tussle with the visitors left winger Ollie Bradbury and delivered a deep cross to pick, which the live wire striker steered narrowly wide.
Steve Wibberley was called into action as Dayle Hutson countered and went down bravely to collect the ball at the strikers feet.
Pick combined with Greg Archer on the right hand side of the goal area and crossed to Chris Pickles who crashed a shot against the underside of the cross bar.
Bradbury turned well with the ball on the edge of the Colliery area, but Archer had tracked him back and stole away the ball before playing it forward to the relative safety of Musse Gabdon, in the middle of the park. Gabdon trotted forward before scuffing his shot which effectively became a pass to Andy Williamson in the centre of the visitors defence.
Josh Davies triggered the home sides next attack, when he drilled the ball forward to Pick who was thwarted by Patrick Shaw just inside the penalty area... and as the 'Frod' keeper cleared his lines, several of the home crowd felt that Pick had been impeded, but the referee didn't and play went on.
Lee Edmondson was fouled, just inside the visitors half and from the resulting free kick, 'Eddie' was in action again after Pickles and Pick worked the ball through to him, but Shaw got down to his right and saved well.
Not to be outdone by Shaw's prowess, the agile and Adonis like Wibberley, tipped a rasping shot from Steve McCarron over at the other end.
Pick, with his back to goal, held the ball up well and brought (J) Davies into the game and he quickly laid off a pass to Pickles, who rolled it to Hardman, but the right back's cross was cleared by Appleby's defence.
Gabdon became the unwitting architect of what proved to be Harworth's only goal on thirty six minutes, when he shot from twenty yards but didn't get a lot of power into his shot, which caused Shaw, who had gone down in anticipation of a well struck effort, to spill the ball in Pick's path and the Colliery centre forward finally had a goal to show for all of his effort.
Mick Davies, just a couple of yards from goal, was inches away from connecting with Archers through ball and (J) Davies' twenty yard shot whizzed wide of the post, via a slight deflection that the officials never spotted, but match officials are only human too.
Pickles found (M) Davies with a diagonal pass through the 'Frod' defence, but his sideways pass to Pick was scrambled past the post for a corner, from which Archer headed over after (J) Davies had picked him out with a well delivered right wing flag kick.
The half time whistle sounded and the home side were left to rue a string of missed chances and 'what might have been' moments, that they would ultimately come to regret.
HT: Colliery 1 v Frod 1
The tempo of the game continued pretty much in the same vein as it had before the break, when the teams came back out and there was a moment of controversy right at the beginning of the second half, when Shaw and Pick crashed into each other just inside the visitors penalty as the 'Frod' keeper spread himself to cut out (M) Davies' through ball into the path of the Colliery striker. There was one school of thought that thought it was a blatant penalty as Pick tumbled over Shaw... and another that thought Pick had caught (and fould) the 'Frod' number 1.
Either way the officials never thought it was a penalty, so... moving swiftly on.
Play switched to the far end and Gabdon cleared Hutson's cross into the Harworth area as far as Tom Raithby and Wibberly rose majestically like a leaping salmon to punch the ball away with both fists.
Hardman floated the ball into the 'Frod' area from out on the right flank and it dipped just over the bar, but have to ask the former Colliery U19 captain himself, whether that was a cunningly disguised shot or a misplaced cross, although I have very strong suspicions that it was the latter.
Nathan Watson picked out McCannon with a through ball but Archer got a foot in at the critical moment, but as Harworth failed to clear their lines properly, Hutson chased the ball into the area and ran the ball past Wibberley, who had been left exposed by his defence and rolled the ball over the line to equalise on fifty five minutes.
All of Harworth's attacking guile so far had been for nothing and they were back to square one, having been given a harsh reminder that if you don't take your chances you're always liable to get a haymaker of a sucker punch, smack on the end of your nose.
The goal lifted the visitors and all of a sudden their was a sense of foreboding in the Rob Needham Memorial Stand, that the tide a turned and what had looked, for the best part of a hour, like a dead cert home win, was tipping slowly, but surely, the other way.
(M) Davies cut in from the right, but his shot was blocked and when the rebound fell to pick, Dan Ellerby turned his shot away at the expense of a corner.
Archer found pick six yards from goal with his flag kick, but his header skimmed over the bar.
Edmondson made an opening and planted the ball in front of Pick who went one against one with Shaw but was denied by a great stop.
On another day, Pick would have bagged a sack full of goals from the positions he was get into, but the visitors were showing a lot of resilience in defence.
McCannon and Wibberley collided on the edge of the area and the referee gave the free kick to the Colliery keeper, though from their response, the Aplleby Frodingham bench clearly thought that the decision should have gone the other way.
Mark Latham and Lee Danysz (who used to play for Chesterfield but is at a far more desirable club these days), introduced some fresh legs from the bench and Kenzie Tomlinson and LewisFrancis made an immediate impression, when the former passed the ball to the latter twenty yards from the visitors area out on the right and he was flattened. From the free kick, (J) Davies picked out Archer at the back post, but with the goal at his mercy he headed into the side netting.
To rub matters in, Appleby Frodingham gratefully accepted the let off and attacked from Shaw's goal kick and McCarron advanced into the area as Harorth failed to clear their lines a placed the ball past Wibberley for what proved to be the winning goal.
The home side dusted themselves down and pushed forward, looking to salvage a point from a game that they should've had wrapped up by half time, but Shaw did well to keep out (J) Davies shot as the clock ticked down.
McCannon saw off a challenge on the edge of the Colliery area and rolled a pass to Richard Golland who fired his shot into the side netting.
Amidst a frantic goalmouth scramble in the visitors goalmouth, Edmondson crashed a shot against the upright and Shaw breathed a sigh of relief.
And as the visitors keeper plucked Francis' cross out of the air, the referee sounded the final whistle and though Appleby Frodingham had created far fewer chances than the home side, they had put the finishing touches to two of them and in the final analysis, that is the only statistic that matters... and this was a big three points for the Scunthorpe based side, as the race for the championship and solitary promotion spot begins to build up a head of steam.
There is a very long way to go just yet, but it makes things easier later on when you've racked up a load of points at the beginning of the season.
FT: Harworth Colliery 1 v Appleby Frodingham 2
