Armthorpe Welfare 1 v Frickley Athletic 1 - PSF

Monday 2nd July 2018
Pre Season Friendly
at the M. Pilbeam Construction Stadium.
Armthorpe Welfare (0) 1
Jason Kearsley 47
Frickley Athletic (0) 1
Nicky Darker 88
Admission £5. Attendance 93
Photo gallery: CLICK HERE

Wit woo! Check out the spacious and well appointed all new Marra Falcons Bar, at the M. Pilbeam Construction Stadium, inside the Church Street ground, where tonight Armthorpe Welfare, who ply their trade in the Toolstation NCEL First Division these days, hosted EvoStik Northern Premier League Division One South club Frickley Athletic.
Both sides have played football at a higher level than they currently compete at... and will be looking to restore some of their (relative) former glories during the forthcoming months.

Armthorpe finished in sixteenth place last season, after being relegated from the NCEL Premier Division at the end of the previous term. While Frickley lost out to Stamford in the EvoStik NPL South play off semi final, as they looked to return to the Premier Division at the first attempt, after dropping down a level at the end of the season before, and then finished a hitherto promising campaign rather abruptly, with a lacklustre performance and a semi final exit in the Sheffield & Hallamshire Cup at Shaw Lane, who went on to win a closely fought final against Penistone Church.

'Welly' made a determined start, pressing high from the off, signalling their intentions from the outset and unsettling their visitors with a few firm but (almost) fair challenges, that fully explored the outer limits of the definition of the word 'friendly', while almost taking an early lead through Josh Dodds, who was denied by John Stancliffe, whose appearance this evening suggested that he'd just got home from a three week hiatus at the 'Bronze Booty Tanning Salon', next door to the 'Spanky Panky' massage parlour, just behind the Lidl store in Mexborough.

The visitors, abruptly awoken from their initial lethargic demeanour, picked up the pace and would have been in front inside the opening ten minutes, had it not been for Steve Garner's goal-line clearance, after Gav Allott had beaten the hosts keeper: Adam Stevens with a neatly executed lob.

Jacob Hazel was impeded just inside the 'Welfare' area by a mistimed tackle that the referee deemed to bee worthy of a penalty, while the Armthorpe defence gestured to the television cameras that they would like a V.A.R. second opinion. But the decision was upheld.

Allott did everything that any coach could ever ask of him, by striking the resulting spot kick low, firmly and on target, but Stevens had a Kasper Schmeichel moment and got down well to his left to keep the ball out.

Obviously, the frantic pace of the opening exchanges was unlikely to be maintained on a warm Summer evening as both teams began their pre-season preparations with the aim of peaking fitness wise, in just over a month's time, but the visitors midfield were imposing themselves well, with Richard Patterson and new signing Jamie McGuire, who is also on the coaching staff at Mansfield Town's Academy these days (did I mention that the Stags youngsters have just won the Under 18 League title three seasons in a row, often enough yet?) dictating the pace of the game.

But it was the home side, bursting with apparent energy and enthusiasm, who went closest to breaking the deadlock before the half time break, when Jordan Buckham fizzed a well struck shot narrowly wide, moments before crashing the ball against the upright from Dodd's pinpoint cross.

HT: 0-0

Of course, this being a practice match, as per tradition, the second half was dominated by a mind blogging amount of substitutions, as an array of impressive youngsters from both camps were given an opportunity to shine, even the ground hopper from Chesterfield who was present ran out of fingers and toes to keep count of them all on... and it was one of the newcomers: Jason Kearsley, who opened the scoring two minutes after the restart for 'Welly', when he fired home a diagonal shot from just outside the area, that found the back of the net via the foot of the post, from Luke Williams sideways knock.

Phwoar!
That's a nice pair of pins you've got there Steve Pennock

One of the Frickley teenagers, who will be playing in the North Midlands U19 League this coming season, which is a good thing for everybody concerned in my humble opinion, almost put Spencer Fearn's side on level terms, but was denied by a great reflex save by Stevens, who'd looked impressive tonight. Apologies for not being able to recognise all of the Frickley stars of the future as of yet... they weren't given any numbers on the team sheet, but I'm sure they'll become more familiar as the season moves on..

With just two minutes to go, it looked as though the home side were going to hold on for a morale boosting win over their EvoStik League guests, but when a cross from the right was hooked away and half cleared into the path of Nicky Darker, he hooked the ball past Stevens from all of twenty five yards out to chalk up a superb finish... not bad for a lad who is only in the team because of his long throw ins according to certain people.
FT: Armthorpe Welfare 1 v Frickley Athletic 1

Although it was only a warm up game, Michael Carmody's 'Welly' side showed enough tonight to suggest that he's held on to the nucleus of a side who look more than capable of a top half finish this coming season, while Frickley's reliable core of consistent performers came up with the goods again right at the death... not that results really count for 'owt much just yet.