Wednesday 26th September 2018
Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
Worksop Town (2) 2
Craig Mitchell 17, Steven Woolley 45+4
Bridlington Town (2) 3
Lewis Dennison 3, Joe McFadyen 6, Nathan Modest 86
Admission £6. Programme £1.50. Attendance 323
It's Wednesday night... and I've just watched my forty sixth football match of the season, played out between Worksop Town and Bridlington Town; and though I've already watched teams from this league in action previously term, either in pre-season friendly fixtures, or cup games, this is the first actual bona fide NCEL fixture that I've attended (so far) since the 2018-19 season got underway.
For the record, as of yet, thirty three games out of my overall total have involved non league sides and out of the sixteen new territories that I have conquered so far this season, that is to say, grounds that I hadn't visited before, only one of them was a Football League Stadium.
If truth be told, tonight's game, although incident packed and top heavy with commitment, passion and competitiveness to the nth degree, wasn't exactly one for the purists.
In fact, I don't think that I'm being too disparaging to anybody involved in some of the less savoury moments of the night, when I say that out of all of the games I've mentioned above, this one was probably the ugliest runt of the whole litter at times (but not entirely all of the time).
Not that I would want to take anything away from 'Brid', who, on the whole, deserved the win.
I heard a lot of criticism aimed at the match referee Reece Davies, but as regards his overall input into what unfolded throughout the ninety plus minutes, I didn't envy the guy in the slightest having to pick the bones out of a sometimes scrappy encounter, that descended into a horrible mess at times.
A vocal, strongly opinionated and obviously very annoyed Worksop fan (they have quite a few of these), lambasted Mr Davies as the teams left the field of play at the end of the game, blaming him for the Tigers defeat.
Suffice to say I was far too polite to intervene and suggest that the Seasiders actually won because: they had started the game well, cruising into a two goal lead inside the opening six minutes, while finishing the night strongly too, looking for the three points rather than settling for a draw... and digging in to repel the home side after regaining the lead in the eighty sixth minute, via a player who was briefly on the books of the North Notts based host side.
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| 'AGNEW OUT!!!' Really!? I can only assume that this was a tongue in cheek attempt at humour. |
Lewis Dennison had an excellent game for the visitors and it was he who opened the scoring early in the game, after swapping passes with Chris Adams, before striking the ball diagonally across David Reay's goal and watching it nestle just inside the left post.
With just six minutes on the clock (D) Reay was beaten again, when Joe McFadyen was allowed too much space, in the D just outside the Tigers area, after the visitors captain Andrew Norfolk had played a slide-rule pass into his path... and he surged forward before nudging the ball under the advancing home keeper, who had by now been left stranded and woefully exposed twice already, as 'Brid' picked Craig Denton's sides static defence apart, with a slick passing game, all on the deck, while breaching Worksop's rearguard with some great runs off the ball into optimum spaces in and around the hosts goalmouth.
Conceding the second goal, acted as a belated wake up call for Worksop and it took a goal-line clearance by Tim Taylor, to keep out Craig Mitchell's glancing header from Steve Woolley's left wing corner.
Both sides had further chances when Woolley had a a free kick from outside the area saved and Dennison shot narrowly wide after he'd made himself some space, twisting and turning his way through the right channel.
Things turned ugly with ten minutes of the first half remaining, when Connor Brunt launched himself at Dennison, and made a clumsy tackle with his foot raised. Understandably the visiting players reacted to the challenge and a stand off flared up, which led to Danny Patterson being sent off for manhandling a 'Brid' player, while, in my opinion, Brunt himself was a fortunate to escape with just a yellow card.
Brunt nicked the ball away from Dennison as he attempted to clear it and slipped a sideways pass to Mitchell, but Chris Jenkinson did enough to make things awkward for the Tigers number ten and he knocked the ball wide of the target.
Four minutes into first half stoppage time, Woolley netted the equalising goal for Worksop, when he floated a sublime free kick over the visitors wall that went in off of the inside of the left hand upright.
HT: Tigers 2 v Seasiders 2
Nathan Modest was proving to be a proper handful for the Tigers defence and (D) Reay did well to parry his goal-bound effort right at the start of the second half, while the Worksop keepers brother Matt moved in sharply to prevent Norfolk scoring off of the rebound.
Mitchell went close to putting the Tigers ahead, knocking the ball just wide from Woolley's flag kick delivery, but in the main it was the visitors who were looking the most likely side to force the issue and claim all three points.
The woodwork came to Worksop's rescue, when McFadyen's well struck free kick crashed against the top right corner of the Tigers goal.
McFayden made a dummy run as (D) Reay braced himself for another free kick delivery, leaving the ball for Norfolk who smashed the ball into the Worksop defensive wall.
Taylor picked up the ball in the middle of the Tigers half and laid it off wide to Benn Lewis, who in turn delivered a long searching delivery beyond the far post, that picked out the run of Dennison, but his header was saved as threatened to sneak in just inside the post.
The home side's misery was compounded twice as the visitors withstood any notions that Worksop had of forcing a late equaliser, when Connor Brunt, who had already been booked in the first half, before he was substituted late in second, was red carded and sent from the bench for dissent towards the match officials; and he was followed moments later by the Tiger manager Craig Denton, who'd protested about his side not being awarded a corner in stoppage time.
FT: Worksop Town 2 v Bridlington Town 3
Peter Smurthwaite, the visitors coach driver, kit man all round good bloke (with a face for his his regular stints on local radio) and chairman, seemed happy with the outcome of tonight's occasionally robust encounter.
When a Worksop supporter said to him, in the aftermath of the game: "That referee helped you tonight!", he merely kept a straight face and said: "I never saw that but I reckon he missed a blatant penalty, we should've had at the start of the second half"
For what it is worth, there were several flash-points throughout the night, that made it a difficult night for the officials at times, but all told: Bridlington won because they deserved to.
Going down to ten men in the first half was obviously a blow for the home side, but it could quite easily have been nine during the same incident... when, if anything, Mr Davies had actually shown leniency towards Brunt and Worksop Town.
Tonight's result saw Bridlington leapfrog Worksop and swap positions in mid table, as they prepare for the visit of Hall Road Rangers to the Neil Hudgell Solicitors Stadium on Saturday.
While the Tigers now move on to play at Athersley Recreation at the weekend, where they'll need to focus on the job in hand and put their two back to back home defeats behind them... and concentrate on getting the things that they are good at right, rather than letting their frustration manifest itself in a negative manner, that leads to the kind of indiscipline that saw them contribute to their own downfall tonight.
Who'd ever want to be a referee!?
