Staveley Mw 1 - 3 Brighouse Town (aet) - FA Vase 2nd Round

Having missed out on Staveley`s FA Vase journey last season which saw them make it all the way to the semi-final, Dudsey`s pick of today`s local fixtures has brought me back to Inkersall Road for today`s Second Round tie against Brighouse Town.

It`s funny how certain things stick in the mind for life....whenever I come across the name Brighouse my mind immediately flashes back to a freezing cold Saturday afternoon back in February of 2009.

Town were entertaining Rainworth Mw in the Ncel Division 1, Rudy Funk`s high flying 'Wrens' emerged from Calderdale as 1-4 Victors, Danny Bainbridge and Massiah McDonald bagged two apiece in a very memorable day out in West Yorks.

By far the most memorable sight was the Tea-Ladies cautiously carrying a steaming tray of hot drinks down to both dugouts, it really made me appreciate what a great community spirit Non-League football has at times.

Brighouse look to have flourished since that cold February day, sitting just one place below table topping Bridlington Town in the Premier Division with six points and five places separating themselves from today`s hosts.

Before we go any further I`m going to hold my hands up and claim 'Tw*t of the week Award", half way through the first half Dudsey enquired if today`s game would go to a replay...to which the reply was "Yes mate". Just wondering if the dozen or so people who also made a quick escape in front of me after ninety minutes now feel as daft as I do.

With that off my chest, it`s only right I should carry on with my post for one very heart rendering reason....Joe Thornton.!!

Not only did Joe put in a great shift today, he managed to do it only 24hrs after the sad loss of his Mum, such was Joe`s determination to play in the Vase today it reduced Staveley`s Chairman...Terry Damms to tears last night as he prepared the necessary paperwork for today`s game.

A perfectly observed minutes silence preceded the game in respect of Joe`s Mum...a bit of a choker Tbh.

Joe Thornton in action today

Brighouse get the tie underway, it`s good end-to-end stuff with both sides enjoying good spells of play, unfortunately Staveley`s keeper, Tom Turner pulled up and was replaced by Richard Ayres.

Town`s main contributors early on are Ernest Boafa, Joe Mitchell, Daniel Naidole and Tom Matthews, with the usual candidates... McGrory, Eagers, Fox, Damms, Barraclough and Thornton doing the business at the sharp end for the home-side.

Despite Brighouse`s initial push early on in the half, Staveley looked the more likely of the two sides to take the lead going into the interval after a really good ten minutes saw them go close on a couple of occasions especially Ben Leonard`s header in the final minute of the first half.

Having sensed the end of the first half was going Staveley`s way, the visitors decide to introduce Ryan Hall into the mix, his presence has the desired effect for the Brighouse bench as the visitors looked really dangerous from the restart, Hall is tearing off down the right-wing and has the home-side on the back foot.

Boafa, Mitchell and Matthews are also prevalent with some good support from right-back James Sutcliffe and eventually the deadlock is broken as Boafa puts the ball beyond Ayres on the hour. 0-1.

Staveley slowly get it going but look a little wasteful at times, trying to thread a ball into a congested box instead of playing a simple one-two whilst in space, but it`s all very entertaining stuff.

The goal really gets Staveley`s heckles up and it`s the kick up the arse they needed, not only does it wake them up it see`s them really get down to business, the left-wing is being utilised to the maximum and without the presence of Wilson and Jagger who are doing a sterling job in Brighouse`s defence it could have been all square much earlier.

Thornton is withdrawn to a rapturous applause and is replaced by Chris Youlden.

Staveley are moving the ball about well using the available width afforded to them out wide left, eventually the home-side get the break they are looking for as Brighouse`s clearance goes out for a corner. Fox takes it quickly and the game is squared through Jordan Eagers on seventy five minutes.

All square with fifteen minutes left, both sides continued to produce some cracking football but failed to break each other down so at what Dudsey believed was full-time it ended 1-1, can`t honestly believe how many other people exited the ground like me thinking it was going to a re-play.

Ah well at least the ninety minutes I had witnessed was very entertaining but a little sad given today`s circumstances to find out that Staveley had lost 1-3 in to a Tom Matthews double strike in extra-time but good luck to Brighouse in the next round.

On the face of what I saw today, Brighouse are a well crafted side and will surely be in the mix at the end of the season in the Ncel Prem and should be in with a good chance of progressing in the next round of the Vase.

Staveley`s strength come from squad stability, you could virtually name the starting line up week in-week out and they have a good bunch of players who know and understand each others.


Click her for match pictures


My Man of the Match - Some excellent candidates today,  but for reasons far and beyond football there was only one hero on the pitch today and I`m sure his Mum would be very proud of him....Well done and the upmost respect to Joe Thornton!!

Teams - Staveley: Turner, McGrory, Mycoe, Fawcus, Colliver, Leonard, Eagers (c), Fox, Damms, Barraclough, Thornton. Subs: Coy, Youlden, Ellis, Finlaw, Ayres.

Brighouse - Turner, Sutcliffe, Brown, Wilson, Jaggar, Thornton, Naidole, Mitchell, Boafa, Mathews, Hurtley. Subs: Hall, Rose, Charlesworth, Thompson, Brown

Attendance - 130

Admission -£5

Rainworth Mw 0 - 4 Stamford Afc

Stamford Afc

Dudsey`s taste for mid-week football had waned in recent month`s and having tossed the coin around in my head all day I decided to take the plunge based on a couple of factors...the temperature was still a balmy twelve degrees and secondly, Rainworth`s recent rise up the table had got me a little intrigued as to what they were doing differently these days.

Accompanied by Mrs H (a bit of a rare occasion these days), we took a seat in the main stand and enjoyed the company of Hucknall Town`s commercial manager Steve Peat and our good friends...Mick and Pete.

These two should have been snapped up by the Beeb years ago, they are the 'Banter Kings' of non-league footie and bounce of each other like 'Morecambe and Wise, so entertainment is assured tonight in one form or another.

Stamford come here in good form having won ten of their fifteen league game and impressively dumped FC of Manchester out of the FA Trophy, whilst 'The Wrens' sit a respectable fourth in the league.

 Blair Anderson

If anything can be attributed to Rainworth`s current turn of form surely consistency of squad must be one of them and the second had to be the predatory presence of young striker Blair Anderson...well up until tonight that is, if  'The Word' is right the mercurial youngster has been lured to Barnsley Fc, not surprising really, the kid is a class act!!

From the opening whistle it`s easy to see what is making 'The Daniels' tick, the front pairing of Ricky Miller and Gary King are as good a duo that I`ve seen since Higginson and Woolley at Sheffield, they think alike have great spacial awareness of each others movement, with a turn of pace capable of ruining any defences day (or night on this occasion).

Make no mistake, the visitors were too good on the night but three of the four goals arose from indecision in the rear ranks, in as little as four minutes 'The Wrens' were in trouble as Miller made the best of a good throw in which lacked no real attempt to clear it, giving him enough time to thump it high into McCormack`s net.

Rainworth did enjoy some good spells of play, Callum Lloyd was prevalent in the midfield and Jordan Turner looked good in flashes whilst Ricky Hanson ran his socks off from back to front, in the abscence of Anderson Rainworth are pinning their hopes on new signing Corey Dyer-Stewart producing a goal or two, he`s nimble and seems confident on the ball, but he`s not in Anderson`s league.

Other than that, Stamford have everything pretty much covered, a solid defence very well Captained by the tall figure of Richard Jones and a good productive midfield servicing the impressive strikers, Matt Finley also looks decent in goal as well.

Just as the game was getting warmed up the dreaded clunk of the Floodlight`s tripping echoed around the ground, in-fact the whole village is plunged into darkness..!!

"You there Mick? " yes Pete... you can let go of my leg now"

Fifteen minutes of 'mirth and merriment' ensued as the entertainment moved from the pitch to the two characters to our left, meanwhile the groundstaff and officials are getting things back up and running, the Ref restarts the game from the point it was stopped and Stamford took to the offensive once again.

A wide ball is played out to the left by the visitors and is duly collected by Miller, he riggles by his marker on the edge of the box and unleashes a beast of a shot which whistles by McCormack into the far right corner. 0-2 after half an hour and that`s how it finished at the interval.

Gary King

Stamford start the second half as they ended the first...in control, Rainworth are struggling to contain the visitors and within ten minutes of the restart the deficit is raised to three goals as the influential King gets a well deserved goal of his own.

 

With little else in reply to Stamford`s dominance, Rainworth look to the bench for salvation, Ryan Goward and Karl Slack are on for Turner and Holmes and Tbh  it initially looks promising.

 Slack had the best chance of the night for the home-team and could only look on in disbelief as his bullet of a header which had Finlay well beaten returned back to the six yard line after rocking the woodwork.

Ricky Miller

Three goals up with the closure of the game imminent Stamford withdraw their dynamic duo, to cap the night off a mistimed back pass towards McCormack gifted replacement striker Jake Gibson the ball on the edge of the box, with only the keeper to beat he rounded Rainworth`s No1 and buried the fourth goal in the last minute of play.

Four nil looked a bit harsh on tonight performance but Rainworth really had no answer for Miller and King tonight and if anything helped their cause.

It`s easy to be cynical but Rainworth are not in the top six for nothing, but without Anderson`s cutting edge up-front they looked like the toothless beast we had all become accustomed to                                                       last season.

My only concern tonight was of the errors made by the usually solid defence. One good positive tonight was the size of tonight`s crowd, 118 is a significant  improvement on Rainworth`s recent attendances.


Teams - Rainworth : McCormack; Walker; Hanson; Camm; Kitchen; Craven; Lloyd; Bacon; Turner; Bacon; J. Holmes; Dyer-Stewart. Subs : Goward, Slack, Cooksey,  Burton; Barcherini.

Stamford : Finlay; Maddox; Mayo; Batchelor; Jones; Jacklin; Hall; Ozmen; King; Miller; Brooks. Subs: Smith; Cotton; Gibson; Hamilton; Mullarkey

Admission - £7

Attendance - 118

Sheffield Fc 2 - 2 Chasetown Fc

Another one of those Saturday`s where Dudsey is left wondering where to go..Rainworth are away, Ilkeston are at home to FC of Manchester (Bedlam.!!), so it`s back to one of my favourite away venues and a chance to see another one of this seasons newcomers to the Evo-Stik Division 1 South.

You could probably fit on the back of a postage stamp what I know about Chasetown Fc....other than they had a cracking run in the FA Cup back in 2008 reaching the third round against Cardiff.

It`s a lovely afternoon in South Yorkshire, clear Blue Skies...although I must admit it is a tad nippy when you are out of the sun. There`s a healthy crowd at the BT Local Stadium with a good contingent making the journey from Staffordshire.

A perfectly observed minutes silence was held in respect of all our fallen Heroes and to remember the untimely passing of a Lady involved with Sheffield Fc.

They sure as hell bring their fair share of flags to display at away grounds, in-fact a group of them must have spent the best part of twenty minutes decorating the hoardings at the score-board end of the ground.

'The Scholars' looked to start the better of the two teams in the opening ten minutes but Sheffield soon settled down and became the most productive of the two sides with Shoquilee (Shak) McKenzie and Steve Woolley really pushing deep into the visitors half with some great over-lap play from Lee Featherstone and Jobe Shaw.

Chasetown look very well structured in defence and if not for the excellent organisation and dominance in the air of their skipper Richard Teesdale, perhaps Sheffield`s efforts might have been more fruitful sooner rather than later, the high ball over the top was never going to beat this lad so the home-sides focus turned to a more wide approach.

Chasetown aren`t sitting on their laurels though and look for every opportunity to hit Sheffield on the break. Theo Robinson seems to be the preferred route in down the right-flank, being supplied by Jack Farmer and Gavin Saunders although the ever dependable Jamie Hatfield looks to be keeping the nimble striker in check for the home-side

It`s really good end-to-end stuff and although Sheffield look to be shading it possession wise, two off the cuff breaks give the visitors a two goal cushion. Robinson snatched the opener on 27 minutes from Mark Branch`s excellently executed free kick.

Whether or not Sheffield were dazed at finding themselves a goal adrift against the run of play as they did against Sutton Coldfield, they are caught out yet again with another quick break, Robinson turns provider this time, laying off a perfectly weighted ball to the feet of Nicholas Wellecomme.

From the second he picked the ball up Dudsey sensed there was only one outcome, faced directly one-on-one with Liam Flynn he made no mistake in punishing 'Club' for their defensive lapse, chipping the ball over the keeper. 2-0 up with fifteen minutes of the first half remaining.

Two goals adrift in as many minutes, Sheffield now have to set about reducing the deficit, the mid-field is pretty evenly contested as Rickards and Saunders square up against the home pairing of Roney and Gascoigne. Woolley and McKenzie remain full of beans and spend alot of time in and around the visitors eighteen yard box.

Sheffield finally manage to breach Chasetown`s defence as a decent build up gave Featherstone the opportunity to loft the ball into the box, seeing it take a fortunate touch from the immaculate and slightly unlucky Teesdale as Steve Woolley added the final touch.

So Sheffield manage to pull one back just before the interval, 1-2 at Half-Time, with three goals in the first half and the game looking very open Dudsey has a good feeling that there is more to come from this game in the second half.

The lads in Red had obviously had their ears bent at half-time from manager Curtis Woodhouse, but if there`s something Sheffield are good at in the last two games I`ve watched here, it`s pulling themselves back from behind, (not what any manager wants, but at least they have the ability to do it).

Quick out of the blocks, the home-side took no time in levelling the game as a well crafted build up finds the ball at the feet of McKenzie whose well taken drive left Ryan Price with little chance of stopping it in the third minute of the second period.

Dudsey bumps into Rainworth`s manager..Kev Gee who was doing a bit of groundwork on today visitors and Tbh I got slightly lost in the conversation. The pace of the second half was scintillating, Woolley and McKenzie were immaculate for the home-side going forward, Chasetown`s Daniel Smith was on fire in the last twenty minutes, he ran riot down the right wing and on any other given day he would surely have been rewarded for his tireless efforts.

Although there was to be no more goals in the game after a few tactical changes, the openness and flow of the game was a credit to both sides as they pushed each other hard in a bid to take all three points. A special mention has to go to today`s Referee, Mr Karaivanov, keeping his cards in his pocket he allowed the game to be what it was today, exciting, fast paced with no unnessesary hold-ups.

A credit to the Evo-Stik today and 2-2 at the final whistle was probably a fair result for the efforts of both sides in front of a very appreciative 306 strong crowd.

The saying goes, "It`s boring drawing"....far from it today, for as far as entertainment goes you couldn`t have wished for anything more from today`s fixture, especially the second half. (As a neutral anyway!!)

Click here for Match pictures


Teams - Sheffield; Flynn, Turner, Featherstone, Foster (c), Hadfield, Shaw, Roney, Gascoigne, McKenzie, Wall, Woolley.  Subs - Powell, White, Burrell, Knowles, Harrison.

Chasetown; Price, Downs, Branch, Farmer, Ashton, Teesdale (c), Rickards, Saunders, Wellecomme, Smith, Robinson.  Subs - Robinson, Westwood, Brown, Jackson, Kisiel.

Admission £6

Attendance - 306

Hucknall Town 0 - 2 Mickleover Sports

With the departure of the management duo of Brett Marshall and Graham Walker after Tuesday night`s defeat at Belper, it looks like our friends Julian Topliss, Rob Paling and Jason Fisher are going to need all the support they can get so Dudsey and Hales have decided to go and give the Lads a shout against local rivals..Mickleover Sports.

Sitting five places above Hucknall in seventeenth spot, 'Sports' have also had a bit of a chequered start to life in the Evo-Stik Division 1 South, Won-3, Drawn-5 and Lost-6, so on paper the fixture looks fairly evenly balanced.

In the absence of a regular manager, Tony Crook, Jody Caudwell and Physio..Dave Lester have taken up the reigns until a new manager is unveiled.

Looking at the today`s result it looks as though it`s a case of...."Hucknall have lost again", and points wise they have.. but anyone in attendance will definitely concur, there wasn`t two goals difference between the sides on display this afternoon.

Hucknall were definitely the better of the two sides and richly deserved something from a game in which they played with a great passion and flair, despite the events of the last four days.

The game flowed well from the off and Mickleover enjoyed a decent share of the play early on in the first half, although if  Hucknall`s front pairing of Topliss and Ben Spargo had not been so quick out the blocks the numerous off-sides they found themselves pulled up for would have surely led to at least one or two decent goalscoring opportunities from the excellent link play supplied by Alton Rennals and Evan Garnett in the opening half-hour.

'Sports' then had their brightest spell of the game for the last twenty minutes of the first-half, which resulted in two goals within six minutes. A quick substitution for Mickleover proved to be the undoing of the home-side as with only his fourth touch of the ball Robert Smith had the ball in the back of Fisher`s goal, 0-1 with ten minutes to go.

A couple more chances for the visitors go begging as Kieran O`Connell and Alex Steadman push on hard and eventually supply Micky Williams with a great opening as he makes it two with five minutes of the half remaining. Hucknall are still trying to push for a goal as the Sun and the stop-watch fade into the break, ht 0-2.

Without the warmth of the Sunshine we enjoyed in the first-half it`s turned decidedly cold for the second half, we share a hot drink and a chat with Rob Paling`s parents in the early part of the second half. Hales comments how impressed he`s been with Hucknall`s commitment, to which we all agree. The visitors have a few flurries down the left-flank but Paling seems to have it covered and Topliss is giving him good support on the over-lap when required.

From the hour mark on, it`s all Hucknall. Warren Hatfield and Topliss are forging some good openings down the right wing, and on any other given day the home-side should have had three in the net, but when your lucks out, it`s out, and despite numerous corners the second half remains goal-less. 0-2 at the final whistle.

A cracking performance from a side who had little to cheer about in previous days and although it`s another three points gone, there were plenty of good points from today`s game, Mickleover`s keeper, Tom Gutteridge was definitely the busier of the two, and when called into action Jason Fisher made some fine saves for the home-side and no doubt will be a bit peeved at the two goals which did manage to beat him. 

So where did it go wrong for 'The Yellows', Mickleover took there chances and converted them.On the break Hucknall looked very sharp and once the off-side trap is beaten it looks as though there`s goals in the front pairing of Topliss and Spargo, plus unfortunately the finishing just didn`t drop into place for them this afternoon but a performance well appreciated by the Watnall Road faithful.


My Man of the Match - Evan Garnett`s first half contribution was faultless for Hucknall and apart from the finishing touch, Topliss was on fire in the second half.  Well done lads!!


Attendance - 113


Click here for the match pictures.


Teams - Hucknall: Fisher, Paling, Leggitt, McAnulty, Green, Hayes, Garnett, Rennalls, Spargo, Hatfield, Topliss. Sub - Brown

Mickleover - Gutteridge, Land, Guy, Martin, Wood, Storey, Raves, Williams, Steadman,O`Connell, Smyth.
Subs- Munn, Smith, Moon, Hoyle.