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