Wednesday 16th September 2020
CMFL North
at Cannon Park
Retford United (0) 0
Dinnington Town (1) 2
Shaun Mundy 23,
Joe Byron 57
Attendance: 188
Without wanting to take anything away from Dinnington tonight, because to all intents and purposes they won this game fairly and squarely, United's defence was all over the place for both of the visitors goals, so much so that at times they resembled and showed all the cohesion of a blind school outing chasing a beach ball around on a windy day trip to Skeggy.
As results elsewhere have already illustrated this week (Newark Town 7 v Renishaw 1 tonight for example), this is going to be a very competitive league this season and though there is still a long way to go and they began their new campaign with a narrow away win at Thorne Colliery on Saturday the Badgers have got to stop faffing about like they did in front of their own goal tonight and hit the ground running any time soon.
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| George Hammond Rest In Peace |
Either side of Dinnington's opening goal, netted by Shaun Mundy, who pounced when Tom Crosby couldn't gather the ball cleanly while his defence went all "Don't panic Mr Mainwaring!" on him, both Sam Forster and Mark West set up Dean Conway who was unlucky to see his header dip narrowly over the bar in the first instance, but who kicked with the aplomb of an England captain (Jonny Wilkinson) in the second, as the home side enjoyed a lot of possession but weren't providing a great deal of clear cut chances or service in the final third. Matt Templeton's free-kick rattled the crossbar so fiercely that it's probably still shaking now, but the Badgers were unable to find the net before half -time.
"It's all balls and no Willy Retford!", shouted out one of the cruder element of the bear-pit that is 'compost corner' (a mad, bad and dangerous to know 'no-go zone' at the end of the main stand), as the teams went in for the break.
Gary Mundy's overly-ambitious long-range strike fizzed wide of the right hand upright as Dinnington continued to up the ante... and things went from bad to worse for the hosts when Joe Byron got free on the left and whipped a low cross come shot into a crowded goalmouth that evaded everybody and ended up nesting just inside the far post. Did you mean for that one to go in Joe? Hmm... I believe you!
Crosby did well to push Ben Sedgewick's header away as Tom 'Hagis' Hague and Gaz Eades' side looked to put icing and a glazed cherry on top of tonight's impending result, as frustration began to flood through the Badgers ranks, which led to Mark West being sin-binned by the match referee Laurence Chapman. But luckily for Retford, the officials weren't quite in line with play when Crosby handled the ball just outside his area while cutting out another goal-scoring opportunity for the visitors. "Bloody hell! He was nearly on the halfway line referee!" bawled an irate Dinnington supporter much to the amusement of all present. He wasn't of course, but you got away with one there Tom.
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| TYPO ALERT! According to the fixtures page in tonight's programme the Badgers are playing Newark Town 12 times this season. |
With the game heading into a stoppage-time, Retford had huffed and puffed and chucked everything they had into the mix in the second half, especially after Byron's goal had stung them into action... but they just couldn't blow Dinnington's house down.
Right at the death Matt Templeton had a red mists moment and treated the crowd to a martial arts demonstration with a crude and full bodied flying challenge, for which he was possibly fortunate to only have been shown a yellow card... Henry the Humble Janitor himself would've been proud of that one, ouch!
FT: Retford United 0 v Dinnington Town 2
Dinnington travel to Crowle Colts on Saturday, while the Badgers face a test of the mettle with a trip to Clay Cross Town. It's all happening in the CMFL North, innit!?
