Friendly Match
at Cannon Park
Retford United (0) 0
Doncaster Rovers Academy (0) 0
Admission £4. Attendance 172
In an attempt to scare the Rovers youngsters half to death, United disguised themselves as the all conquering Mansfield Town Academy side, sporting a most becoming amber and blue ensemble... and if that wasn't frightening enough for the 'Donny youth' lads, the home side also employed Shaun Mitchell as a midfield lynch pin and enforcer.
Of course, Shaun's much better looking brother Craig has been turning out for the Badgers of late to good effect and weighing in with more than his fair share of industrial strength challenges too, showingh a commitment to the cause that has already endeared him to the 'Compost Corner' lads who frequent the noisy end of the main stand. The Badgers Ultras you might say.
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| "And I'm booking you before we even kick off for having one of those silly top knots in your hair" |
Simon Brammervic, the hosts manager, was away in Barcelona tonight, trying to tempt Ousmane Dembélé to leave Barça and join him in his Cannon Park revolution for a few hundred sovereign's per week (or he might have gone to Great Yarmouth instead, depending on which rumours you decide to believe), which meant that Reece Wesley was in sole charge of the team tonight... and I'm sure that 'Wezza' will have been pleased with the efforts of his side tonight, who easily contained Rovers young hopefuls and dominated play against them after the break.
Looking at the starting eleven and perusing the talent available to them on the bench, it would appear that the Cannon Park outfit have assembled a team/squad, that should compete quite comfortably at Central Midlands League level, even though they lost their opening day fixture at home to Collingham.
Brandon Ashmore started up front for United and he led the line well, with Brad Kilner pressing high alongside him too, but Doncaster's keeper Louis Jones is on the radar of any number of clubs who monitor the progress of EFL Youth Alliance lads and whenever I've seen him play, he never fails to show why he is subject to such attention.
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| Paul Mayfield (sans bra) brandishing his novelty sex toy at people |
I also told that when I got the chance to watch Rovers academy lads in action, that there was a decent lad at the back called 'Cameron'. Well, it transpires that they had two defenders with that same Christian name and going on tonight's showing, it could quite easily have been either one of them who have been ticking all of the boxes of those in the know, who must live in their cars, they spend so much time on the road, running the rule over young footballers.
Morgan James and Jacob Fletcher linked up well in midfield for the visitors, providing a steady stream of balls to James Morris and Max Matters, with Rieves Boocock always available as an extra option to the right of Rovers attack. But the Badgers defence were coping admirably with the fast interchanging movement of the well drilled guests... with Jack Greeves and Liam Bennett, who are barely old enough toshave themselves yet, looking like they have been playing together for years.
'Numerous' as he was called on the team list board, the Rovers number twenty one, looked like a proper handful when he came on... and Liam Copley, who has well and truly established himself as the first choice keeper at Cannon Park, went down bravely to save at the pacy front man's feet, while Boocock was unfortunate that his close close range knock from the same sub's right wing cross, crept just wide of the post.
Because it's a fact of life, that even if you've got the close control ability to be able to perform circus tricks with a ball, or hold the world keepy uppy record, that's not going to do you any good at all if some 'firm but fair' centre half of a certain vintage thinks you're a flash little git who needs launching into the back of the stand with the ball.
It's character building lads, run it off, have a long soak when you get home tonight and be grateful for getting some proper experience of men's football under your belts.
Rovers goal led a charmed life when (S) Mitchell crashed an angled thunderbolt of a shot from all of eighteen yards, against the foot of the left hand post, that allowed a much relieved Fletcher to clear the ball away.
United have improved tenfold since their their pre-season campaign began, and have a nucleus of players who look more than capable, but they now need to start finding the net more often, going forward into their league campaign.
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| Chris Ward, he must've refereed at least 80% of the games that I have watched this season so far |
It doesn't really matter that luck was against them in front of the Rovers goal tonight, because it was, when all is said and done, only a friendly match, but they'll be wanting to get some points on the board fairly sharpish, if they want to start building up a head of steam towards vying for the one and only promotion place out of this step 7 league that is up for grabs every year.
FT: Retford United 0 v Doncaster Rovers Academy 0
