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| Time to get it rolling!! |
Frosty nights, cold feet, pockets full of Jakemans and a good old rant from the sideline are on their way, Lurvely Job!!
Rainworth start the new campaign as they did last season, a dressing room full of new faces and high hopes, the new season starts at home for the Wrens against Shepshed Dynamo.
Players who spear-headed Rainworth`s survival last season are no longer, Hales, Camm, Hannighan, Naylor, Jones, and Alberry`s name`s no longer appear on the teamsheet.
The writing had been on the wall for Shepshed during the latter stages of last season but Dudsey had already fallen for "The Dinosaurs", on entertainment value these chaps had earn`t the right to be in the league and no one was more chuffed for them than me when they got a reprieve from being relegated.
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| "The Dinosaurs on Tour " |
It`s quite ironic that a team who were staring Midland Alliance football in the face should now find themselves under the watchful eye of John Ramshaw, one of our most successful local football managers. So what can he bring to the Evo-Stik One South outfit? Not much today as he`s out in the States coaching.
Not a bad afternoon to get the season started, irrespective how it finishes up today it`s going to be hard for anyone to really gauge where they are at due to both squads being rebuilt during the summer break.
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| New squads enter a new season. |
Dudsey`s fumbling about with the teamsheet trying to make sense of who is who, so much has changed at Kirklington Road since last season that it`s going to be one of those days!!
Gauging it was going to be harder than I had expected, the opening period is as dull as dishwater, played in the middle two thirds with neither team creating any real charges at goal. One definite positive is today`s attendance 179, a very credible turn out for the Wrens, I suppose the loss of Evo-Stik football in neighbouring Glapwell could benefit both Rainworth and Shirebrook.
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| Ian Screaton tries to raise the game for Shepshed |
Eventually the game did start to open up a little and the visitors are venturing into Gavin Saxby`s area but Rainworth`s back four of Fearon, Kennedy, Timons and Carter look to have it in order, nearly half an hour on the clock and it`s still hard to see where a goal is coming from.
Ex-Wren, Julian Topliss is doing his best to make a game of it but Dudsey`s entertainment is being supplied by Shepshed`s No10, Jerome O`Connor, this guy demonstrates everything I dislike in the modern game but to be honest he is amusing with it, Tin-man they call him......!!
Tin-man (10) looks on as Wood clears the woodwork.
Rainworth finally do start to push on, Ricky Hanson is acting as play-maker but it`s Cameron Fearon who gets the first goal of the new campaign nodding the ball down and under Andy Simpson from a well taken corner with ten minutes to go of the half. When he`s focused on football Tin-man can play a bit and could have squared the game before half-time, 1-0 at the interval.
Cameron and the lads celebrate the opening goal.
Sam Wood looked as though he might trouble Saxby in the second half but only managed to loft the ball over the bar. Rainworth are threading some good balls forward but new striker Lavell White is struggling to get into the game and when he does manage to break forward Shepshed`s high-line catches him off-side.
Sean Cann eventually gets in beyond the back four and runs on to poke the ball against the inside edge of the near post and to his dismay it trickles across the line and comes off the far post.
Cann can`t on this occasion, nice effort though.!!
Shepshed are first to ring the changes closely followed by the home-side, one new face to emerge from the bench for Rainworth is Ant Rowley, he immediately makes a good impression on Dudsey and the game in general, he`s keen, industrious and working the right-hand flank very effectively.
White is still out of sorts but Cann`s luck is about to change as confusion between keeper and Rowan Hines see him nab the ball from Simpson and has only to direct the ball goal-wards to the awaiting empty net as the defender watches on.
Cann can, and does on this occasion 2-0 to the Wrens.
A late flurry by the visitors has Rainworth on the back foot in the dying minutes, Tin-man is having another Ballotelli moment and goes down like he`s been shot just outside the eighteen yard box, much to the amusement of both benches. Why players resort to these tactics is beyond me, such a shame because when his mouth is shut and he gets on with what he`s supposed to be doing the lad is good at creating himself space and looks a threat.
Tin-man gets himself tangled around Sax,
Consolation comes in the dying minutes of extra time for Shepshed as Sam Wood`s effort pay dividends as his shot sells Saxby a dummy taking a deflection, the ball nestling in the opposite corner of the net, 2-1.
Rainworth manage one last foray down towards Simpson`s goal but the last gasp effort see`s the ball glance off the crossbar and over the top.
They don`t get much closer than that.
All-in-all a pretty uninspiring game overall but a good last twenty minutes made amends for The Wrens, no doubt Billy Millar and Wilko will be very happy to have started the season with a win and three points in the bag. Some good individual performances from Cameron Fearon, Sean Cann and young Ant Rowley raised the spirits of the home-crowd.
My Man of the Match - Cameron Fearon
Attendance - 179
Admission- £7
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