Toolstation Northern Counties East League Premier
Division
Attendance: 132
With no game last Saturday the Staveley Miners Welfare
players and management team were allowed an evening off the usual Friday “day
before a game” rules and they enhanced the community feel even more by joining
the fans and local residents for a fun evening’s entertainment at a race night
hosted by the club and massive thanks to all those who attended and helped run
the event.
Periods without games though can sometimes be a double edged
sword, on the one hand it’s great because you get time to recharge the
batteries and get players back from injury but on the other hand it’s not so
great because you can lose that sharpness, cohesion and form that has been
built up over the previous weeks.
In this game against Thackley who were on a mini run of
three away wins on the bounce, we got a bit of both but Staveley Miners
Welfare, making just one change to the starting line up with Alex Pugh dropping
to the bench in favour of Richard Mintoft in the centre of defence still
controlled the large majority of the game and won it at a relative canter.
Thackley got the game underway but Staveley almost took the
lead in the first minute when a move started by Ross Goodwin who took a touch,
looked up and found Richard Mintoft, who clipped a ball over the top of the
visitors defence for Kieran Watson to chase. Unfortunately Craig Bentham got
there before Staveleys number ten and steered the ball back to his young goalkeeper,
Matt Keen who in attempting to make his first ever clearance in a Thackley
shirt let the ball under his foot but was able to clear at the second attempt
under pressure from Courtney Hastings but only as far as Ross Goodwin who from
just outside the area hit a shaped, curling effort over the bar.
In their twelve games so far this season Thackley have only
scored 14 goals and it wasn’t hard to see why, neat and tidy decent passing
moves were being easily mopped up by the Trojan defence when it came to the
final ball / shot. One such attack was cut out by a combination of a Fabian
Smith tackle and a Kyle Clarke interception who then played the ball forward to
Adam Scott to win a throw-in off a pressuring Jerry White, which Kyle Clarke
took setting up what could be described as a trademark Staveley goal….
Richard Mintoft received Clarkes throw deep in his own half
and the classy ball playing defender did exactly that finding Fabien Smith in
midfield he in turn found Charlie Oglesby out left and he in only his second
start at this level cut inside and with a short pass found Courtney Hastings
who turned and ran into pace before sliding the ball out left again to Jamie
Brown, who with one touch found his opposite winger Adam Scott in acres of
space who had come in from the right to join the attack and again with one
touch steered the ball into the back of the net for 1-0.
Straight from the restart Staveley were urged to get after
it again and they did taking advantage of a poorly place header back from
Thackley Charlie Oglesby took the left sided throwin which worked its way to
Kyle Clarke out on the right via the chest of Courtney Hastings and the boot of
Fabian Smith, Clarkes cross found Hastings again but under pressure he couldn’t
turn and instead knocked the ball to Adam Scott who created half a yard and
clipped a cross into the box which unfortunately Thackley scrambled clear.
Following a Kieran Watson strike which was well saved by
Matt Keen and a brief moment of danger for Ryan Musselwhite in goal for
Staveley a fifteen pass move had Thackley chasing shadows and had the final
ball from Adam Scott been just slightly better Courtney Hastings would’ve added
the finishing touches to the goal of the season.
The Trojans went two up just before half time, when Adam
Scotts long clearance was flicked on by Kieran Watson, to Thackleys Craig
Bentham who dithered on the clearance and was disposed by Courtney Hastings out
wide on the right, who ran in on goal and was clipped by Bentham as he tried to
recover the situation, the referee had no option but to award the penalty from
which Hastings scored for the sixth game running!!
Half Time SMWFC 2-0 Thackley Afc
Thackley threatened early on when substitute Joe Keen got to
the byline and cut back for Tom Dugdale to clip an inviting cross into the box but
Richard Mintoft cleared just before it reached the head of Mike Garrod with
Craig Bentham heading the resultant corner over.
On 52 minutes another Thackley attack was cut out thanks to
a block from Charlie Oglesby with the ball squirming out to the Staveley right
to Adam Scott and five touches later the game was put to bed by Kieran Watson.
After controlling the ball Scott found Courtney Hastings just past the centre
circle who sent Kieran Watson through on goal with a first time reverse pass to
the number ten who took one touch to knock the ball out in front of him and
away from the defender and one more to fire it past Matt Keen. 3-0.
To their credit Thackley still continued to try and play
football, resisting the temptation to smash it long and Tom Dugdale hit the
side netting following a Joe Keen cross, Mike Garrod headed wide and Ryan
Farrell weaved past a couple of defenders before a weak shot but in truth Ryan
Musselwhite in goal for the Trojans never looked like being beaten.
With the game all but won Staveley created a few half
chances in the remainder of the second half but in the main were content with
controlling the game and saw it out for a well-deserved three points with a
clean sheet to boot!
Full Time SMWFC 3 – 0 Thackley
SMWFC Line Up:1.Ryan Musselwhite.2.Kyle Clarke.3.Charlie Oglesby.(12.Steve Carty).4.Fabian Smith.5Matt Varley(14.Alex Pugh).6.Richard Mintoft.7.Adam Scott.8.Ross Goodwin.(16.Kurtis Morley).9.Courtney Hastings.10.Kieran Watson.11.Jamie Brown.
Subs not used:15.Ellis Wall.17. Ryan Watters
