Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
at Sandy Lane, Worksop
Worksop Town (1) 2
Steve Wankiewicz 28
Jordan Turner 86
Garforth Town (2) 3
Callum Ward 14
Mitchell Hamilton 29, 90
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 376
"Bloody lucky lot. them Garforth are!"
"We deserved to win that, not them, jammy Yorkshire beggars!"
Hmm, just some of the not entirely factual quotes, but certainly the least expletive ridden ones that I heard a cross section of home fans saying, as I meandered down the slope, towards my car, after this five goal thriller.
In truth, the team that deserved to win had actually taken the lead three times tonight and their last goal came from a strike that was worthy of winning any game.
For sure, injuries and absenteeism hampered the Tigers and they bust a gut in between Steve Wankiewicz and Jordan Turner's close range strikes, but the Miners proved to be more composed in front of goal.
Effort wise, Worksop were quite magnificent, all night, but Garforth were the better side as I saw things, from/through my neutral point of view... and they were far more ruthless and clinical in the final third.
I was exactly the same at Field Mill last night and have probably broken the big toe on my right foot again, kicking the wall in front of me to death, every time any sort of half chance was wasted, or a pass went slightly astray (given the way the game unfolded, I'm surprised the wall is still there, but the pain in my foot tells me that my swollen toe certainly is).
But when you're striving to analyse the game as a whole, you have to take a step back from all of that partisan stuff.
The Tigers roared out of the starting blocks, but in spite of them putting the visiting side on the back foot and getting the ball into the Miners area to good effect, particularly from some decent crosses from full back Micah Richards, the opening quarter of a hour pretty much set the template for the remainder of the game, with Worksop going at their opposition like a re-enactment of the 'Charge of the Light Brigade', while Garforth took the lead through an opportunist strike from which was only their second attempt on goal of the game.
The first saw Luke Kitson's free kick crash back off of the home side's wall, while the second came from a feeble back pass to Jon Kennedy, that Callum Ward had tracked and opened the scoring with the simplest of knock's past the stranded Tigers keeper.
Stephen Weatherill could do little to stop Steve Wankiewicz from levelling the score, with a pile driver of a shot from just a few yards out, among a scrum of bodies, that bulged the roof of the visitors net.
Mitch Hamilton went close for Garforth with a long range dipping shot, but as another Worksop raiding party found themselves snubbed out by the Gaforth defence and Kitson's sprinted forward before delivering a long cross to Hamilton, who met the ball with a towering header, planting the ball back across the face of Kennedy's goal and in off of the upright.
Ward could have made it 3-1 to the visitors just before the break, but his long free kick cleared the bar.
HT: Tigers 1 v Miners 2
Ward saw his second and Garforth's third goal, ruled out for offside five minutes into the second half, while at the other end, Jordan Turner crashed a shot against the post, while Alec Denton headed over from just a few feet away from The Garforth goal.
Former Garforth player Mark Simpson let fly shortly after entering the fray from the subs bench,but a deflection took the sting out of his shot and provided Weatherill with an easy catch.
It's just as well that Simpson didn't score, he would never have lived it down, if the story about him going back to Cedar Ridge to link back up with his old teammates later this week is true.
It looked for all the world as though the Tigers had fashioned a draw out of their hard working performance, when Matty Thompson picked out Jordan Turner with a long range pass that he hooked past Weatherill on the turn from a couple of yards out to make it 2-2 with just under four minutes left to go.
But Garforth's Hamilton had other ideas... either side might have nicked the result as a flat out end to end battle ensued for the last few minutes, but it was Hamilton who cut in from the left hand side of the Tigers area and fizzed a curling shot into the far top corner that was just out of the reach of the despairing Kennedy.
But Garforth's Hamilton had other ideas... either side might have nicked the result as a flat out end to end battle ensued for the last few minutes, but it was Hamilton who cut in from the left hand side of the Tigers area and fizzed a curling shot into the far top corner that was just out of the reach of the despairing Kennedy.
"Lucky ****, he didn't ****ing mean that one to go in!" lamented a potty mouthed Tigers supporter. I was far too polite to either answer or correct him,because the guy was obviously already distressed enough. But the **** did mean it and he execute his last gasp chance brilliantly.
FT: Worksop Town 2 v Garforth Town 3
