Tuesday 18th July 2017
at Westfield Lane, South Elmsall
Pre Season Friendly
Frickley Athletic (1) 4
Rich Patterson 22
Jacob Hazel 55
Gavin Allott 82, 89
Buxton FC (0) 1
Liam Hardy 62
Admission £5 Attendance TBC
 |
| Hi Hoody! You're on Candid Camera again! |
Upon arrival at everyone's second favourite Yorkshire football ground, the ever so lovely and drop dead gorgeous Penny Wall provided me with a team sheet, on what was the occasion of her twenty first (possibly twenty second at a push) birthday.
Many happy returns young lady!
The pre match soundtrack at Westfield Lane deserves a special mention, with Frankie Valli, The Clash and Cecil Bustamente Campbell, among others, punctuating a balmy (barmy?) Summer evening with some boss sounds.
Big up n' nuff respect to the tune-smith, if I do say so myself.
Maybe Stevie Wonder's "Isn't she lovely" would be an apt addition to the play list, dedicated to the demur elegance of 'Our Penny'
 |
| Another demur Wall at Frickley Athletic |
In days of yore, I have worked with both of tonight's managers, in one capacity or many another, even though Martin McIntosh did nick one of my good friends jobs, before he, Peter Rinkcavage, moved to South Elmsall, to become the Blues manager alongside Jason Maybury, I still get on well with them all. But my allegiances are always for sale at a rock bottom price, so as I was at the game as a guest of Spencer Fearn, whose side got a dead fluky win against a make do and mend Maltby line up at the weekend, my preference was for a home win.
Besides playing for Mansfield Town (and Rotherham United), Mr McIntosh also turned out for Hibs, as I might have mentioned to him, numerous times, in my book, such a crime is a complete no, no.
It was a fairly evenly matched start to the game, with Niall Doran showing some good touches out wide for the visitors, while Tom Dugdale sat deep to counter his runs.
Gavin Allott and Steve Hopewell combined to create the first opening, but Luke Hinsley, who has had two spells at Frickley, moved in swiftly to clear the danger.
Allott put the ball in the back of Buxton's net from Nicky Darker's long throw in, but the referee, Luke Watson, had spotted an infringement inside the Bucks goalmouth and ruled the goal out.
Richard Patterson stroked a pass out wide to Chris Fairclough, who has just signed a registration form with the Blues and looks a good prospect... and he, in turn delivered a long cross towards Dugdale who headed the ball narrowly wide of the right hand post.
The visitors switched play quickly from one end to the other and Sam Smith broke free through the right channel, but John Stancliffe, who was playing with a broken thumb, thwarted Smith's attempt to lob him from a tight angle.
The Blues pulled Buxton apart with a neat string of passes, with Allott feeding the ball to Hopewell, who helped it on with a clever back-heel into the path of Jacob Hazel,who rolled it wide with his first touch to Dugdale, but he couldn't keep his shot on target.
The lively Doran raced forward for the visitors once again and delivered a measured cross for Tyler Williams, who made a great run, but not a good contact, and his header flew harmlessly wide.
The home side won a right wing corner, that Tom Dugdale floated into the Bucks six yard box, where it was only half cleared into the path of Richard Patterson, who drilled the loose ball home from ten yards, to open the scoring after twenty two minutes.
A few players from both sides came together bickering with each other and in the heat of the moment Ant Wilson headbutted Darker and was shown a straight red card for his actions.
The Buxton fans behind the goal accused Darker of making a meal of things, but the fact that it was the visitors physio who patched him up and you could see blood seeping through the head bandage, suggests that the Frickley defenders pain was very real and that the referee had called things right.
I think Darker is destined to be a cult figure (he says nervously checking his spellchecker) on the Westfield Lane terraces.
Dugdale took the kick, towards Richard Patterson, but the Blues defender was penalised for barging Hinsley out of the way in his eagerness to reach the ball, now that he had the scent of goals in his nostrils.
Darker, having just about made a from Wilson's assassination attempt, picked up a pass from (R) Patterson, out on the right, ventured forward ten yards and picked out Allott with a dipping cross, but the Blues striker got the ball tangled in his feet and couldn't get his shot away, even though he had plenty of time and space.
Frickley ended the first half in the ascendancy, with Allott, Dugdale and Hazel showboating with a neatly executed passing triangle.
HT: Blues 1 v Bucks 0
Straight from the restart Hazel almost doubled the home side's lead, while Buxton's supply chain and flow was being nipped in the bud by the tenacious Fairclough, who was putting himself about well in midfield, while dropping deep to help his defence when and if the need arose.
All the same, Buxton are a good NPL Premier Division side and they forced a corner on the left flank, that Brad Abbott looped towards the incoming Bucks captain, Greg Young, who followed through on Stancliffe as he plucked the ball cleanly from the air and conceded a free kick, more out of frustration than malice.
A flurry of bodies competed for the ball in the middle of the pitch and Fairclough got a foot in and played the ball forward for Hopewell to run onto, but Jan Budtz went to ground and made a brave save at the feet of the Maltby reje... err.. former striker.
Budtz however, suddenly went from being a hero to a zero a matter of minutes later, when he ran from his line to clear a long ball from Jason Yates that Hazel was chasing and totally messed up his attempted kick, leaving the Blues number eight with an open goal to aim at.
Hinsley went down a bit too theatrically for the referee's liking when he was challenged by Stancliffe and Luke Watson waved play on, unsurprisingly.
Frickley had slowed down the tempo and appeared to preparing to see the remainder of the game out comfortably, but out of the blue, one of the Buxton substitutes, Liam Hardy, burst into the left hand side of the home sides penalty area, miscued his first attempted shot, that wrong footed Stancliffe and pulled a goal back with his second bite of the cherry.
Hardy threatened again, from Ben Ward-Cochrane's forward pass, but Fairclough had tracked the Buxton goalscorer back this time and snuffed out the danger.
Moments later, the effervescent Fairclough was at the opposite end of the pitch, slipping the ball forward for Hopewell. Budtz, who will remember tonight for all of the wrong reasons, sliced his clearance and aimed his attempted clearance straight at the Blues number nine, but the striker couldn't quite take advantage.
Jamaal Ible had looked calm and assured all night and when Buxton tried to snatch another goal against the run of play, the home side's central defender almost casually took control of the situation and rolled the ball out from the back to Fairclough, who exchanged a few passes with Hazel while the Buxton midfield became virtual spectators.
It was two of Frickley's young hopefuls who created the third goal; Jason Paling picked up the ball inside his own half, a few yards in front of the Blues bench and knowing instinctively where Lewis McMichael would be making a run, way out on the left flank, Paling hit a beauty of a long range pass, diagonally across the pitch to the eighteen year old substitute, who in turn hit what must have been a forty yard delivery, right onto the head of Allott, just beyond the back stick who powered the ball past Budtz.
On the subject of Budtz, I have seen him in action dozens of times for Scunthorpe United and Gainsborough Trinity, he's had a mare tonight, but he's far better a keeper than his performance suggested to anyone who was watching him for the first time ever in this game.
In the last minute Allott nudged the ball across the face of the visitors goal, towards McMichael, whose shot was deflected wide.
Budtz punched the resulting corner away, he had abandoned kicking it by now, but Danny Patterson latched onto it and lofted a pinpoint cross towards Allott, who couldn't really miss from eight yards out... and didn't!
FT: Frickley Athletic 4 v Buxton 1
