THE66POW: Selby Town 0 v Shirebrook Town 6

Thursday 29th March 2018
Toolstation NCEL League Cup 3rd Round
at the Fairfax Plant Hire stadium
Selby Town (0) 0
Shirebrook Town (2) 6
Tom Cooke 2, Joe Naylor 3
Nathan Clarke 74, Jordan Claxton 81
Declan Brewin 88, Daniel Williams 90
Admission £5. Programme £1.50.
Fanzine £2. Attendance 110

Last Thursday night Shirebrook comfortably overcame a tired looking Selby side at Langwith Road, and beat their visitors by a convincing scoreline of 4-0 (THE66POW blog report here).
Tonight, they ran riot in front of the Robins goal again and will now face Pontefract Collieries at home on Monday 9th April in the fourth round. I've checked and there is nothing worth watching on the telly that night so I expect to see you all there, the postcode is NG20 8TF.

Both teams have bigger priorities to attend to than squeezing a League Cup game into an already overcrowded fixtures schedule backlog and made a couple of changes accordingly.
Before the home side had even had time to line up properly and get a couple of meaningful early touches... and while a couple of Shirebrook committee were still finishing off their drinks in the bar, the visitors had stormed into a two goal lead inside the opening three minutes.

Tom Cooke, who'd terrorised the Robins last week with his relentless running and application, started the rout when he crashed home an unstoppable shot from outside the area inside the second minute. Straight from the restart Shirebrook immediately regained possession and broke forward quickly in numbers and Joe Naylor doubled their lead with an assured finish.
Chris Barrett had the right to demand to know where the rest of his team had buggered off to, when the visitors prolific striker was released with a measured through ball, for a one against one shoot out with the Robins keeper, but he managed to keep the ball out at the expense of a corner.

Barrett was soon in action again, denying Matt Robinson from ten yards out, after Cooke had dribbled into the box from the right hand side and played the ball across the face of Selby's goal.
Christian Fox's side picked up pace and began making inroads into the Shirebrook half as the first half passed by, by even without the presence of their experienced captain Chris Timons in defence the visitors looked well organised at the back, with Danny Williams in particular

standing out on the left hand side, covering the flank and getting forward in support of his attack when the opportunity arose.
Just before half time, Cooke launched a long throw into the area, which was flicked on and caused problems for Selby, with Alex Varley and Ryan Herbert both having shots blocked, before Nathan Clarke spanked the ball just wide of the post.
HT: Selby 0 v Shirebrook
We got chatting with some Shirebrook fans who seemed like a decent bunch of lads, in spite of a couple of them also having leanings towards Chesterfield FC. They were in remarkably good spirits to say that they'll have two Derbyshire non-league clubs to support next season. Shirebrook Town are obviously the antidote to the misery that football must be causing them elsewhere ;-)

Early in the second half, Selby came close to halving their deficit when Andy Metcalfe's left wing corner flicked up inside a crowded six yard box affording Vijay Malhotra the opportunity to power a header towards the top left hand corner of the goal, but Cooke who had been guarding the post at the set piece (you have to keep an eye on those crafty posts y'know), sprang into action and headed the ball clear off the line.

The home side knew that another Shirebrook goal would all but finish off their hopes of staying in the cup, so though they needed to score themselves, they were having to defend determinedly and attack on the counter. Shirebrook were getting the ball forward a lot,but Selby had effectively shut up shop at the back... for the time being anyway.

Having absorbed a spell of pressure the Robins launched an attack straight down the middle of the pitch and as the ball sat up invitingly for Metcalfe fifteen yards from Warren Squires goal, he took aim and crashed the ball over the bar and into the roof of the stand.

Sam Cable broke into the visitors area but his route to goal was blocked off by Cooke, who also won a free kick into the bargain, when the frustrated Robins striker kicked out at him.

Williams delivered the ball into Selby's area from both flanks inside the space of a couple of minutes, but the Robins stood firm... and when the ball did end up in the back of the net, from Jordan Claxton's right wing cross towards a goalmouth scrum a raised flag and an eagle eyed ref combined to rule the 'goal' out.

The home side had a half decent spell, with Squires needing to stay alert to deal with Metcalfe's well struck half volley, but then the wheels came off for Selby and as Shirebrook took control of the midfield and put their hosts on the back foot, there was only going to be one winner tonight.

In the seventy fourth minute, Clarke marauded towards the Robins area from out on the left towards the D and let fly with a shot that took a slight deflection and gave Barrett no chance.

Declan Brewin, who Selby must've been sick of the sight of a week ago at Langwith Road, had been introduced from the bench to add some fresh legs towards the end of tonight's game and their fourth goal came from his cross from the right hand side of the area, that Claxton side footed into the Selby net from close range.

The Robins couldn't be faulted for effort, but they were done for now... and Shirebrook finished the game as they had started it; with two goals in quick succession inside the last three minutes. The first saw Clarke thread a measured through ball into the path of Brewin, who made no mistake from eight yards out and the final salvo saw Danny Williams top off a great shift by getting forward, bursting through the left channel and planting the ball into the bottom right hand corner.

Six of the best for Shirebrook and a night that Selby will want to forget, even though they hadn't always been the push overs that the emphatic final score might suggest.

FT: Selby Town 0 v Shirebrook Town 6