Rainworth Mw 1 - 0 Scarborough Athletic (Pre-season friendly)

Let`s put aside the pre-season friendly tag aside on this one, not because the teams have an inherent dislike for each other but purely because of the history behind any fixture between 'The Wrens' and 'The Seadogs'.

Scarborough Athletic don`t just come to Kirklington Road with a bunch of players and probably one of the biggest fan-bases at Step 5 level in the country by chance but because of the history that surrounds the club that rose from the ashes of it`s parent club Scarborough Fc.


They come by the car-load to cheer on the team that they long to see progress back up the pyramid to a level akin to the days before the gates were locked for good at the McCain Stadium back in 2007. The Boro Faithful currently have to make a thirty six mile round trip just to watch an home game at Bridlington`s Queensgate Ground.

After years of  meetings and discussions with the Borough Council and the very successful 'Back to Boro' campaign it looks like a well deserved return to their home town is about to come to fruition in the form of  'The Weaponness Sports Village' being developed on Seamer Road.

A well deserved outcome for the sheer determination and endless fund-raising events that all involved at the supporter owned club have ensued to make their dream possible.

Putting all this aside..there`s something else the 'Seadogs' bring with them, "Rudy Funk". It only seems like yesterday that we were on the coach with Rudy, Billy and the lads with the rest of the Rainworth Faithful making our way to what was the the highlight fixture of the season....a day out at the Seaside!! Fish n Chips, dodgems and a lung full or two of sea air. "Quality days out"

Needless to say, Rudy`s infectious personality and his ability to give them as much back as they distributed won Boro`s respect and eventually landed him the job in YO12.

Scheduled for a 7:30pm kick-off we arrived to find lots of warming up and training going on so it looked like a little later start than advertised, still it was nice to catch up with Sue (Mrs Funk) and Dick Draper, Hucknall`s Manager Brett Marshall was in attendance with Julian Topliss and our friend Steve Peat who has also made the move to Watnall Road to take up the Commercial Managers role.

Both sides fielded a decent starting eleven, Rainworth came out the stronger of the two and pressed on from the off and within four minutes Blair Anderson found himself with space on the ball and delivered a pacey strike which beat Hales to his left. The home side continued to dominate early on as Anderson, Jared Holmes and Sam West drove the home sides advances.

Eventually Boro found their feet.Paddy Miller was busy down the left flank threading some decent balls into the box but the tall figure of Lee Cooksey playing as central defender was proving too much for Tony Hackworth as he struggled against Cooksey`s height advantage. Ryan Blott was also finding his usual wide avenue difficult to penetrate as Kieran Walker produced another solid performance as right wing-back.

Jimmy Ghiachem and Danny Bacon also made a good account of themselves in the first half, playing some good hold-up play for their respective teams with Mark Camm and Matt Draper putting in a quality shift.  Ian Holmes showed some snippets of the flair we all became accustomed to in his prolific Glapwell heyday.

Other than the opening goal neither Hales or Barcherini hardly had to break sweat in the first half until James Bennett rattled a beauty forcing the Wrens keeper to parry the ball over the bar in the last five minutes of the first half.

Serial changes occurred in the second half, the withdrawal of Cooksey seemed to unlock the back door for Boro and without Anderson`s trickery up-front Rainworth had lost the incisive edge on show in the first half, much to the joy of Rudy`s lads who enjoyed a very good second half.

Blott and Hackworth both had good chances and if not for three more quality saves from the Rainworth No1 they could easily have been returning back up the M18 with a wide grin on their face, having said that Rudy and the few Boro Stalwarts who had made the two hundred mile round trip must have returned home very encouraged in what they had seen, 1-0 at FT.

A really decent show by two sides who produced some really slick football in a very good mannered run out and really nice to meet up with friends we don`t see so often although I think we`ve probably been rail-roaded into visiting Queensgate to keep Dick and Sue company one afternoon.


Good Luck to Rudy and the lads for the forthcoming season in the Ncel.


Attendance - 95

Teams   Rainworth - Barcherini, Walker, Hanson, Cooksey, Burton, J Holmes, West, Camm, I Holmes, Bacon, Anderson. Subs - Plant, Payne, Bonnick, Hughes.

Scarborough - Hales, Miller, Clayton. Bennett, Milne, Draper, Claisse, Adams, Blott, Hackworth, Ghiachem.  Subs - Winter, Hewitt, Davison, Ingram, Plummer, Martin (Gk).