Dinnington’s new link with the Tigers

The NCEL Division One side have come to an agreement with Tigers that he hopes will benefit both sides.

Under the agreement, players coming through the Dinnington Town Under 18s will play for Worksop Town Under 19s.

The original plan was to rename that side Worksop Dinnington Under 19s, but league rules meant the young Tigers had to keep their name.

Toyne explained: “We’ve got an agreement to try and help each other out, on a friendly basis.”

“We’re still two separate clubs, but our Under 19 players and Worksop’s Under 19 players will play in a combined squad.”

“The Under 19s are going to provide back-up for our Northern Counties side, and as they progress through then they can go to Worksop, and they’ll benefit.”

As Worksop Town have no reserve side, youngsters leaving the youth set-up have previously had little option if they can’t break into the first team.

But now they’ll be able to continue their development at Dinnington, and those good enough to go further will end up back at Sandy Lane.

Toyne added: “Fringe players at Worksop will come to us.”

“It will benefit both clubs.”

“We’ve had a situation where lots of players have moved on to various clubs elsewhere, but now they can go to a club that we have a relationship with.”

The loss of players to clubs with more financial clout has been a constant source of frustration for Toyne, and the problem reared its head again this week.

He told the Guardian: “We had signed a big centre-forward, and a big centre-half and I was quite excited by these two prospects.”

“But the centre-forward has gone back to Bawtry, he got an offer he can’t refuse, and the centre-half has been offered more by Thorne.”

“They only played one game and we’ve already lost them both.”

But Dinnington have been boosted by the return of veteran Ben Rosser, who hopes to play as many games as he can for the club this season.

He scored in a 4-4 draw with Shardlow last week, with Lanzel Reid bagging two and Martin Wade scoring the other.

Town have no game on Saturday, due to the wedding of first team player Matt Smith, but they are due to welcome local side St Leger, of Laughton, to Phoenix Park next Tuesday at 7.30pm.

Toyne added: “We want to play at least one local side each year, to forge links with the local community.”