ASTON Swallownest progressed into the second round of the League Trophy with a 12-6 away win at Junior Fox on Saturday.

The first half was close with goals from Jack Bell (2), Jack Wood and Brendon Jones replying to four home goals.

It was one way traffic in the second period.

Goals by Ritchie Goddard (5) and Daniel Lyne (3) gave Aston Swallownest an away tie at Eckington in the next round.

]]> 1.4274136 Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:21:45 +0000 http://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/depleted_ladies_side_hit_five_1_4271466

RETFORD United Ladies picked up an impressive 5-2 win away at Mansfield Town Reserves on Sunday.

This was the first time the ladies had kicked a ball in over a month due to the weather halting matches and training.

They also had to contend with the absence of seven players due to injury and health problems, and only 10 of the squad walked onto the pitch, most of them out of their usual position.

Danni Tindall bravely volunteered to pull on the goalkeeper shirt and had to borrow gloves from the opposition.

Bianca Wilson swapped her striker role to that of a right-back, pushing captain Lauren Cundy into the middle of the back four to partner Katie Glynn.

Emma Foulds, club secretary, took up her post on the right wing after only playing a total 10 minutes this season.

Mansfield opened the score within five minutes after a messy goalmouth scramble.

And the hosts went further ahead after a backpass went awry.

United could have been forgiven for dropping their heads, but Cundy and Glynn closed the doors at the back and supported the midfield.

With Lydia White winning everything, Retford began to dominate and it was only inevitable they would finally be rewarded with a goal as Hayley Revill found the net from close range.

The most rewarding goal of the game came through Foulds when she netted from point blank range.

After the interval fears of tired legs, and uphill play allowing Mansfield back into the game were soon diminished when Revill found the net again, shortly followed by two strikes from Helen Corry, who absolutely ruled the left wing with her speed and skill.

Retford returned home victorious not just with a great 5-2 result against the odds, but with a much improved team spirit and belief of better times to come this season.

Revill was awarded Man of the Match by Mansfield, truly deserved as the lone striker, but credit has to go to Lydia White with an inspiring performance in midfield and to Danni Tindall for a courageous and entertaining stand between the sticks.

SHEFFIELD DIVISION TWO

Worksop 43

Foulstone Flyers 57

WORKSOP’S Division Two title challenge faltered against a much improved Flyers side at the EIS last Thursday.

Flyers boasted two talented recent recruits and Worksop lined up without defensive linchpin Mark Boot who was on holiday.

Worksop had needed a dramatic late fightback to down the Flyers before Christmas, but there was no late drama this time.

The Flyers forged a double digit lead early in the second period and never really looked in any danger thereafter.

Worksop missed countless chances on offence and Flyers were able to stretch the lead to as much as 17 in the third period.

Two scores from Jamie Clarke followed by two from Brett Shelton gave Worksop a glimmer of hope at 41-49 with three minutes to play but, unlike last time, Flyers closed out the game confidently as further Worksop efforts went awry.

A stoical Worksop coach Steve Lawes said afterwards: “We haven’t had a game for a month and it really showed tonight.”

“With three games to go though, we are still in a strong position so we need to forget it and move on quickly.”

Worksop: Lawes 13, Shelton 10, Clarke 4, Jurijs Kamaltdinovs 4, Luke Richardson 4, Adam Drabble 4, Mark Rowland 2, Adam Kingswood 2, James Penrose.

]]> 1.4271238 Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:57:50 +0000 http://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/as_you_were_for_trinity_1_4271160

A WIN and a defeat in the past week means it’s a case of ‘as you were’ for Steve Housham’s Gainsborough Trinity.

Saturday’s disappointing 1-0 loss to Harrogate Town was cancelled out by the midweek 2-0 win at Workington on Tuesday night.

A goal in each half from Ryan Kendall and Shane Clarke ensured Trinity would head into Saturday’s fixture at home to Vauxhall Motors in the play-off positions in the Blue Square Bet North.

The Blues had momentarily slipped out of those places but put themselves back in contention with a professional performance at Borough Park over mid-table Workington.

It was Gainsborough’s first win away from the Northolme since their success at Corby in early December and after the game Housham said he was pleased with how his side bounced back to form.

He told the Standard: “It was good that we had a game on a Tuesday night so we could bounce back from the disappointment of Saturday.”

“We came here with a game plan after spending Monday night in training and we knew what we had to do because this is a tough place to come.”

“Hopefully we’ve kicked away a few cobwebs out from Saturday but this result means nothing if we don’t perform again on Saturday.”

“It was very windy conditions yet again and some teams will not have fancied coming here on a heavy pitch, so it shows we can do it if we work.”

Housham recalled midfielder Michael Leary to the side in place of Ryan Williams, while Leon Mettam was relegated to the substitute’s bench so in stepped leading goalscorer Ryan Kendall.

“We changed a few things around tonight, we had to do something about our away form because we can’t expect to turn up and roll teams over with the way we are playing at home,” Housham added.

“Home teams always have around 60 per cent of the play anyway so we had to change something and it paid off tonight.”

“It makes the long journey home a lot shorter, it will be a lot happier now and we’re all delighted.”

“Now we need to go and cement our place in the play-offs, we let one go on and we redeemed ourselves tonight a little bit and we’ve got to go and get maximum points on Saturday.”

“We don’t want to be looking over our shoulders and looking at other results even though it’s hard not to. It’s what we do that matters.”

The opening half hour on a poor Workington surface lacked any real firepower from both sides as Trinity struggled playing into a strong headwind.

But Jamie Yates’s excellent jinking run on 32 minutes showed just how effective he can be when given the time and space to run at opposition defenders.

The former Boston United winger picked the ball up in his own half beating three Workington players before giving Kendall the easiest of tap-ins from close range.

The hosts almost found an immediate equaliser after confusion in the Blues penalty area allowed Jonny Wright a free strike at goal.

Fortunately, his shot flew wide of Michael Emery’s upright and the Blues held onto their slender advantage at the interval.

Trinity, who were making the 360-mile round trip to Cumbria, burst out of the blocks after the restart and quickly doubled their lead through Shane Clarke.

He drilled low past Aaran Taylor from a Dom Roma cross on 47 minutes – his second goal of the campaign.

Paul Connor spurned a glorious opportunity to put the game beyond any doubt but Taylor came off his goal-line to deny him a confidence-boosting goal on the hour.

As the half wore on, Andrew Boyce was next to be foiled by Taylor from a matter of yards and at the other end Dan Wordsworth blazed high and wide when he should have done better.

And there was still time for Emery, who had been a relative spectator for much of the game, to produce a fine save in stoppage time to preserve his side’s clean sheet.

Workington AFC: Taylor, Andrews, Wright, May, Wordsworth, Main (Scott 78), McLuckie, Hewson (Boyd 70), Wright, Arnison, Green (Rowntree 60). Not use: McNiven, Scoan.

Gainsborough Trinity: Emery, Roma, Sandwith, Waterfall, Boyce, Clarke, D’Laryea, Leary, Kendall (Mettam 78), Connor, Yates. Not used: Thewlis, McMahon, J. Williams, Ridley.

Goal: Kendall 32, Clarke 47.

Referee: Joe Buglass

Assistants: Marc Edwards, Scott Taylor.

Attendance: 250.

YORKSHIRE ONE

Huddersfield YMCA 25

Dinnington 8

DINNINGTON appear to be heading towards relegation, after missing out on an opportunity to stir things up at the bottom of the table on Saturday.

The visitors made a strong start to the game, putting Huddersfield under pressure from the kick-off.

A string of early penalties looked to have brought its reward when after only two minutes Ryan Donnelly took a quick tap to score under the posts – only to be brought back for not playing through the mark.

If this seemed unfair to Dinnington, having a player sin-binned a minute later just added to their woes.

However, for the time he was off the pitch, Dinnington matched everything that Huddersfield could throw at them and the scoreline was still blank by the time he returned to the fray.

Unfortunately, within two minutes Dinnington went behind when Huddersfield scored a breakaway try.

There was little between the two sides and Dinnington came straight back to level the scores when John Marshall got the touchdown after the forwards had driven a maul over the line.

There was then a lot of to-and-fro and both sides wasted possession unable to counter a strong wind blowing across the field.

The wise option would have been to keep the ball close to the forwards but Dinnington’s in-built desire to run the ball cost them when a pass held up in the wind letting Huddersfield in for a try 10 minutes before half-time.

The home side then kicked a penalty just before the break to lead 13-5 at the change of ends.

There was no panic in the Dinnington ranks but they knew they had to start the second half as well as they had done the first.

However, a string of errors allowed Huddersfield to extend their lead with a try in the corner in the opening minute.

It was a sign that Dinnington were still in the game when 15 minutes into the half, Huddersfield had a player sin-binned for repeatedly infringing at the breakdowns as the home defence came under pressure.

Five minutes later Dinnington came close to scoring when Will Marshall was held up over the line but play came back for an earlier penalty offence and Chris Williams kicked the points.

Further pressure failed to break through the Huddersfield defence and the only opportunity was a penalty kick at goal which was off target.

The game was decided 10 minutes from time when a quickly taken penalty by the home number eight saw him scoring under the posts, although there was a suspicion that the ball had not been played through the mark as had happened to Dinnington in the opening minutes of the game.

Dinnington have seven games left, five at home, but will need to improve their consistency.

Rumours of being awarded the points from the Bridlington game could act as a boost but it is victories that are required.

On Saturday Dinnington are at home to Pontefract in a game that has already been postponed twice.

Bassetlaw orienteers had a good choice of venues to compete at last week.

On Saturday some of them were at Hall Leys Park in Matlock, Will Parkinson having the best run by winning the long course.

Others were at Beverley where Cameron Ridgway was the top performer with second on the Orange course.

On Sunday, Bassetlaws orienteers were at Bereton Spurs, near Rugeley, where Ben Beresford won the Light Green event.

During half term 10 Bassetlaw juniors went to the Winter League event at the Outwoods, near Loughborough.

Remarkably, they filled the top six positions on the Short course.

Finally, on Thursday evening Parkinson capped off a good week by finishing second in a night orienteering event held at Hartsholme Country Park.

Four Bassetlaw orienteers are travelling down to the New Forest on Saturday to compete in the British Night Orienteering Championship.

]]> 1.4269891 Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:42:32 +0000 http://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/all_blacks_on_top_form_1_4269422

Gainsborough 34, Newark 4ths 7

GAINSBOROUGH All Blacks returned to action on Saturday following the lay-off for the snow and returned to good form straight from the kick off with everyone giving a good account of themselves.

Newark brought a strong side and some players with real senior rugby experience, but the Gainsborough side ensured that they were not able to settle and use the ball, the hosts scoring four tries with one conversion before the half time break.

Ross Duncan scored the first try, Craig Woodhead the second, Mark Ellis the third and Shaun Parker crossed the line for the fourth, Shaun also converted the try.

The second half saw Gainsborough score two more tries with Newark picking up a consolation converted try just before the end of the match. The home sides tries were scored by skipper Vernon Goude and Mark Waterland.

Ross Duncan was named man of the match, but there were good displays from Andre Russell, Jeff Bates, Wayne Sandall and Ronan.

Next week Gainsborough are in the pool due to a fixture change because Horncastle are involved in rearranged league action.

WORKSOP put in a Sunday best performance to defeat Rolls Royce 4-1 away from home in the East Midlands Hockey Division Two.

Having played out a narrow win over their hosts back in October, Worksop knew the challenge that lay ahead would be a tough one.

So it proved to be the case as both sides started with some intent, although the game was a scrappy affair, the home side probably edged the first half with few half chances created at either end.

While the home side could count themselves unlucky, it was the visitors who, rather fortuitously broke the deadlock right on half time.

Graeme Robinson played a teasing cross field ball for Alistair Skinner and Mackenzie Glasby to chase, the latter able to slide the ball home after the Rolls Royce goalkeeper inadvertently let the ball go thinking it was going out.

Worksop knew things could only get better in the second half and so it proved within a minute of the restart.

A short corner was neatly converted to double the Worksop advantage.

Sam Gawthorpe did well to play in Glasby and he made no mistake from close range to double his teams and his own tally for the afternoon.

Undeterred Rolls Royce kept plugging away and reduced the arrears shortly after and it was game on.

Both sides knew the next goal was crucial and so it proved as the reliable Robinson finished well from a short corner, again Gawthorpe unselfishly providing a neat assist.

With the game running to its conclusion an innocuous through ball found Robinson unmarked in on goal

The Worksop striker was given the freedom of Derby to round the home keeper and coolly slot home to complete the scoring.

Next week tougher times lay ahead with a difficult trip to champions elect Market Harborough.