Armthorpe Welfare 0 v Swallownest 2 - NCEL LC1

Tuesday 17th October 2017
Toolstation NCEL League Cup 1st Round
Church Street, Armthorpe
Armthorpe Welfare (0) 0
Swallownest (1) 2
Nicholas Senior 26
Jack Watts 56 pen
Admission £5. Programme £1.50. Attendance 55

Mike Carmody's Welfare side went into tonight's cup game off of the back of a solid 4-2 away win at Campion on Saturday, which ended a run of four straight defeats in all competitions, including a 6-0 reversal at Burscough in the FA Vase. Since I last saw Armthorpe play, when they won at Retford United last month, they've experienced a bit of a stop/go/stop/go time of things and currently occupy a safe, yet unspectacular eleventh place in the Division 1 table, six points above tonight's visitors.
The home side were relegated from the NCEL Premier Division at the end of last season, while newcomers Swallownest, who, for the record, won what was their first ever NCEL League Cup game tonight, finally stepped up from the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League, after ground grading issues had seen them denied promotion a couple of years ago.

Four days after the aforementioned win for Armthorpe at Cannon Park, Swallownest also picked up three points there, courtesy of a 3-0 win, but after drawing with Hallam in their next game and following that up a win at Worsbrough Bridge Athletic, 'Swall' then suffered a dip in form and prior to tonight had lost four games on the bounce, culminating in 7-1 home defeat to promotion chasing AFC Emley, who are riding high in the play off places wit games in hand on five of the clubs above them.

However, in spite of Swallownest's reasonable start to this transitional campaign at a higher level, where their management team of Lee Needham and Tom Hague have fulfilled the club chairmen's (there are two of them) mandate that the first team should be looking to average no less than a point per game, while the club establish themselves in the NCEL... after the heavy defeat at the weekend, the pair of them were relieved of their duties, even though they had amassed an exact total of 15 points from fifteen games. Curiously the club had also signed four new players over the past few days.
So, being of an enquiring mind and nosy disposition, I stayed up all Monday night learning the words to this song, that I sang to Mick Kent and Glenn Watts upon their arrival. And even if I have to say so myself, I did a bloody great job of the: "Heyeyeeyyeeeyeyeeeyeeeyeyeeeyeeeey! I say hey! whats going on!" bit of the chorus.

Of course, I respect the fact that, all told, it's actually none of my effing business 'what's going on?', even though, to be fair to Mick and Glenn, neither of them actually said as much, but it would be difficult for anybody with more than a passing interest in Swallownest FC, not to feel at least a slight inkling of sympathy for Lee and Tom, and no small amount of sadness that they have been jettisoned, given the absolutely massive contribution that they have made to the club's successes in recent times.

I fully understand that football is a business... and as such you have to take any sentiment out of the big decisions and turn a blind eye to what genuinely nice lads you're dealing with, when push quite literally comes to shove. But the outgoing management team must be gutted.

But without wanting to sound offensive to anyone in any kind of position at the club whatsoever, I will close my unbiased and subjective thoughts on the matter here and now by saying: that upon reading the official statement that the management team were on their way out, my overriding feeling on the matter was one of massive disappointment.

I genuinely hope that the Rotherham Road based team continue to prosper at a steady, but sustainable rate and I am more than willing to hold up my hands and say that I was wrong in suggesting that certain parties, both who I consider to be friends, have been hasty, impulsive and trigger happy, if recent events prove to be for the longer term betterment of the club.

When all is said and done, the Swallownest hierarchy have the burden of all responsibility and budget costs on their shoulders, whereas I'm just an occasional visitor, who does a few bits and pieces for their magnificently appointed and superbly presented match day programme. Though I'm very modest about it ;-)

Having won tonight's game, 'Swall' will now face a midweek journey up to Bradford, on 28th November, where they'll take on Premier Division Thackley, in the 2nd Round... and you can almost hear Armthorpe's players chuckling to themselves that they have missed out on that particular privilege.
I could try and dress up tonight's over boiled mutton fayre as a succulently crafted spring lamb dish, but that would stretching the credibility of bullshitting and glossing over things, to its outer limits.
The half time and full time tweets on Armthorpe Welfare's Twitter feed, pretty much summed things up:

"HT: Welfare 0 Swallownest 1. Poor first half display, very scrappy game, though the visitors seem more up for this
FT: Welfare 0 Swallownest 2. Hardly an advert for NCEL football, but the team that wanted it more won the game. Good luck in next round"
Though I would have to pull Steve (the author) up at this point vis a spelling typo I spotted... there is no letter s at the beginning of the word crappy!

While the visitors managerial position(s) await new incumbents, Jordan Stocks and Dan Mullooley, two of the sides experienced players took temporary charge and in fairness to the side they fielded, although the game was anything but a classic, there was obviously an element of closed ranks camaraderie bordering on a siege mentality about Swallownest's performance, that lacked nothing commitment, application or playing for the badge wise.
It wasn't pretty, but as rolling your sleeves up and digging out a result from a turgid and occasionally rough arsed and ugly runt of a game goes, Stocks and Mullooley couldn't have asked for any more of a response.
Tonight's win was all about hard work... and it was definitely bloody hard work to watch at times.
But, as Church Street's resident tweet officer suggested... 'Swall' appeared to want it more.

Right from the off, Aaron Nicholson found that clear cut chances were likely to be at a premium tonight, when he made a thirty yard surging run forward, but found himself stranded and cut off in a swamp of blue shirted defenders.
Armthorpe had a great chance to take an early lead, but Jack Waldron missed the target with a back post header from Gary Collier's corner kick, when he probably should've done better.
Blake Juninho let fly from twelve yards, but Mo Selassie put himself on the line in front of the ball, that rebounded into the path of Adam Daughty, who snatched at his opportunity too quickly and put his close range shot over the bar.
Aspinall picked out Gary Lumley with a free kick towards the dead ball line, but the Welfare number five's header across the face of goal was gathered easily by Darryl Johnson.

In the twenty sixth minute, Swallownest won a right wing corner, which Jack Watts swung into the crowded Armthorpe area, and while the home defence picked a strange moment to indulge in a quick game of: 'Simon says... stand still!', Nick Senior stabbed the ball past Liam Copley with a deft touch.

The visitors were gifted two more right wing corners in quick succession, but as Watts delivered two similar balls into the area, Swall discovered that the Welfare defence had now changed their game-plan accordingly to: "Simon says... awaaaaay! Get your phucking foot through it!"

Mitch Ward swapped passes with Nicholson and struck a dipping shot that Copley did well to keep out, down to his left.

Faint heart never won a fair maiden, nor a (s)crappy midfield tussle... and five minutes before half time a few players from both sides decided it was time for a bout of posturing, pointing, shoving and gobbing off, right in the middle of the pitch and it soon escalated as reinforcements arrived on the scene.

Credit where it is due at this point to the referee, Matt Tyers, who defused the situation, chastised and showed a couple of yellow cards to the main culprits and soon asserted his authority to avoid any further escalation of the potential hostilities... and unless he's merely taken to wearing bigger clothes, it looks to me, as though young Mr Tyers has shed several pounds too. Good for him!
As the first half ground to a halt, Ash Cooper found Watts from a throw in and the 'Swall' captain took the ball past two defenders before laying it back to Aspinall, who saw his opportunity go to waste when he thumped his shot straight at the same two players that Watts had just beaten.
HT: Armthorpe 0 v Swallownest 1

I'm not convinced that the first ten minutes of the second half even existed, because I haven't scribbled any notes down covering that segment of the game and can't recall a damn thing about it, but in the fifty sixth minute, Selassie executed a perfect judo throw on Juninho inside the Armthorpe area... and following a stoppage so that the visitors number nine could receive treatment, Watts made no mistake with his well struck penalty kick... and Swallownest had all but booked themselves a trip to Thackley.
There wasn't really any kind of flow to the game, that a whole rack of substitutions could actually break up, but as 'Swall' ran the clock down, Johnson, their keeper, had a rush of blood and lost the ball on the edge of his area trying to dribble around Alan Jackson and he was lucky that Mitch Kent was around to bail him out of difficulty as Jackson looked like an odds on cert to punish the goalkeeping error.

Following his almost (but not quite) costly mistake,Johnson commanded his area well for the remainder of the game, as Armthorpe's players all gravitated towards the left flank in the final third... because that section of the picture is nearer the dressing rooms at Church Street.
I hope that the locals who had opted to go to the Keepmoat Stadium tonight, were enjoying the game there (Doncaster Rovers v Portsmouth) more than the loyal little clique who'd turned out to watch this encounter had done.
In the final analysis, Swallownest had done just about enough to warrant their win, while Armthorpe hadn't really done much of anything at all.
FT: Armthorpe Welfare 0 v Swallownest 2