FA Youth Cup
at Sandy Lane
Handsworth Parramore U18 (0) 2
Aaron Mushet 63
Unclaimed OG 89
Ossett Albion U18 (1) 1
Max Fenton 35 pen
Admission £3 inc. programme & team sheet
Attendance 88
Click for: KEN ALLSEBROOK'S EXCELLENT PHOTOS
I doubt if anybody ever watches any game from a completely neutral perspective, because there will always be something, regardless of how slight, that will invariably sway any of us one way or the other... and tonight was to be no different, as two penalty decisions, virtually within a minute of each other, would have given even the most non-committal, unbiased and objective onlooker good cause to root for the home side; if only out of sympathy, given that at least one (possibly two) miscarriage(s) of justice seemed to deal Handsworth a double blow, while puzzling most people in the ground into the bargain.
From the outset, Isaac Darien and Aaron Mushet linked up well on the left, but when they tried to release Jack Charlesworth through the middle, the visitors defence slammed shut in front of him and smothered Parramore's attacking intentions.
Red Bates (no, I'm not making these names up and Ossett really did have a lad called Martin Zulu on their bench)), began to make in roads down the right flank for the visitors, but after forcing a corner that came to nothing he found Tom Sellars to be a stubborn obstacle to move, as he authoritatively cut out a pass to Reece Holmes, before calmly moving up through the gears and getting the ball forward to good effect.
You weren't there, so you can't dispute that some of this overview is possibly the work of an over active imagination..
Sadly, unless of course you're from Ossett, none of the next few of paragraphs are made up, this is a honest eye witness account... and for purposes of clarification, the referee who I mention is actually a real one.
However, Albion picked up possession and pumped the ball back into the mix, where Jack Hollis-Smith was caught out by an awkward bounce, while trying to launch a clearance up into the starlit night sky... and instead of being propelled to safety, the ball ricocheted off his knee and onto his arm, before he could make a clean connection and get it away.
His positioning meant that he hadn't impeded a clear goal scoring opportunity, because there was no Albion player challenging him at the time... and it appeared that the referee was happy to let the slight contact go as it was clearly a purely accidental case of ball to hand; while, quite tellingly, nobody from Ossett had made any sort of appeal either.
But, the assistant referee's flag went up and the man in the middle: Liam Marsh (I work with his dad y'know) was summoned across and after a short consultation between the two officials, a penalty was awarded to the visitors... really!!??
Harsh, was one of the more repeatable words that sprang to mind, as Max Fenton gleefully spanked the resulting spot kick past Turner.
99% of the time, match officials call things correctly and maybe, just maybe, the linesman had spotted something else other than Hollis-Smith's alleged transgression, that I hadn't seen, after all: we're all only human, of flesh and blood we're made, human, born to make mistakes. You ask that Philip Oakey.
But less than a minute later, Jack Charlesworth collected the ball inside the Albion area and was prevented from turning to get his shot away, when the visitors goalie, Harrison Davison-Hale skittled him from behind, wrestled the Ambers front man to the ground and performed the kind of splash manoeuvre on Charlesworth that Shirley Crabtree would've been proud of, to keep him out of harm's way, while the visitors defence cleared the loose ball away.
With Davison-Hale knelt in the middle of the Handsworth number eight's back, he held his triumphant arms aloft and chanted: "Easy! Easy! Easy!"
Yet, while I walked briskly down the side of the pitch to get level with the resulting penalty kick, so I could get picture, the referee waved Handsworth's appeals away.
Even in my twilight years, when i think that maybe I have seen it all, football still provides me with moments of sheer incredulous disbelief, shock and downright amazement.
The Ossett management team, spotting a potential flash point rested Davision-Hale for the remainder of the first half and told him to tag his wrestling partner Giant Haystacks, so he could take over between the sticks, for ten minutes.
If at this precise moment in time the "Watch out, Beadle's about!" tune had started playing over the PA and the referee had whipped his mask off, to reveal that he was in fact the bearded 'funny man'I wouldn't have batted an eyelid... even though Mr Beadle actually died in 2008, aged just 59.
Sometimes when the game of football, the truth can be far more bizarre than any fiction... tonight I even saw a fully grown, very tall man, walking round in one of those hats with goggles on that 12 year old 'casual' kids wear, when their pocket money won't stretch to a fake Stone Island hooded jacket off Fakeby Market (every Sunday at Hemswell Cliff, Oldcotes and Thoresby). Act your age mama, not your shoe size!
The first half almost got even worse for Handsworth right on the stroke of half time,when Bates knocked a free kick inside to Matt Stafford, whose eighteen yard strike took a wicked deflection off Hollis-Smith and forced Turner into pulling off an agile save at full stretch.
HT: Ambers 0 v Albion 1
Besides Sellars calm assurance in defence and Charlesworth's non stop running in attack, another Parramore player who had stood out was Alfie Dodsworth, and not to put too fine a point on it, he owned the second half and was behind just about everything that did right going forward.
If you're going to put on a show like that, it might as well be when your first team managers, coaches and the majority of the first team are out in force to run the rule over the home clubs latest youth production line. There were a few lads out on the park in amber tonight, whose efforts won't have gone un-noticed to that end.
Dodsworth came close to levelling things up with a long range effort, that flew narrowly high and wide of the top right corner, while Charlesworth hooked an awkward shot narrowly wide from Hollis-Smith's right wing delivery.
Davison-Hale, proving that he could play football just as well as he could wrestle, made an impressive double stop from Charlesworth, but Aaron Mushet finally punctured the Ossett side's resistance in the sixty third minute, when he lashed a loose ball into the roof of the net, after Dodsworth had been denied twice in quick succession, by the right hand post and Davison-Hale down by the left hand upright who could only push the ball into the path of Mushet.
Game on... and deservedly so too!
The home side were on the front foot now and though Matt Strafford tested Turner with long raange bouncer that he needed two attempts to keep out, it was Handsworth who were in the ascendancy now.
Mushet went close when Sellars picked out his run with a long knock forward, Charlesworth had a stinging shot turned around the post, while Darien and Mushet were buzzing around like a pair of Tasmanian Devils around the edge of the Albion area.
Extra time was definitely on the the cards and I had a dilemma on my hands, inasmuch as, my wife needed a lift home from work at ten and I had promised that in spite of wet weather forecast, there would be no need for a coat or umbrella because I would definitely be there waiting for her in the car.
She will never know how close she came to getting a good soaking walkinghome, but thanks to the Albion defender (not Max Fenton, I'm reliably ensured), who turned an attempted clearance from Mushet's left wing delivery, past his own keeper in the very last minute of normal time: Mrs W got her ride home, I collected two thousand good husband points and Handsworth Parramore march on into the next round of the FA Youth Cup.
An highly entertaining game all told... I'm glad I made the effort to travel across, it's just a shame that a few more locals haven't made the effort to attend these sort of games over the last few years.
It would certainly have helped to foster relations between certain clubs, instead of pouring fuel on the ever widening divisions that obviously now exist.
FT: Handsworth Parramore U18 2 v Ossett Albion U18 1
The home side were on the front foot now and though Matt Strafford tested Turner with long raange bouncer that he needed two attempts to keep out, it was Handsworth who were in the ascendancy now.
Extra time was definitely on the the cards and I had a dilemma on my hands, inasmuch as, my wife needed a lift home from work at ten and I had promised that in spite of wet weather forecast, there would be no need for a coat or umbrella because I would definitely be there waiting for her in the car.
She will never know how close she came to getting a good soaking walkinghome, but thanks to the Albion defender (not Max Fenton, I'm reliably ensured), who turned an attempted clearance from Mushet's left wing delivery, past his own keeper in the very last minute of normal time: Mrs W got her ride home, I collected two thousand good husband points and Handsworth Parramore march on into the next round of the FA Youth Cup.
It would certainly have helped to foster relations between certain clubs, instead of pouring fuel on the ever widening divisions that obviously now exist.
FT: Handsworth Parramore U18 2 v Ossett Albion U18 1
You've got to eat a few slices of humble pie along the way, before you get invited into the banquet and mutually rewarding co-operation needs to be a two way street.
Don't shoot the messenger, what I see is what you get.
