Denaby Utd – Denaby 4, Ilkeston 1 – Piling Up The Goals

January 1927

Mexborough & Swinton Times, January 28, 1927

Four More.
Denaby Piling Up The Goals

Denaby 4, Ilkeston 1

Denaby. – Bromage; Taylor, Hunter; Goodison, Ogley, Windle; Wadsworth, Johnson (J.C.), Johnson (B.), Green, Skeels.
Ilkeston. – Lawrence; Hawker, MacDonald; Clements (A.), Bagshaw, Clements (S.); Robinson, Rouse, Fretwell, Morton, Smith.

Referee: J. Dixon, Lincoln.

Saturday was no day for football at Tickhill Square and little of note was seen. It was one of those grey, snowy days, and a small muster of frost-bitten enthusiastic supporters encouraged the two teams to make the best of a frozen field on which ball control was well-nigh impossible. The comparative calmness of the first half caused the crowd to become impatient and the wretchedness of the pitch told upon the players, with the result that in the second half there were touches of temper. In spite of this it was the better of the two halves.

Ilkeston were well away at the beginning and for eight minutes their left wing was quite perky. Shooting, however, was putrid – Bromage might as well have buried himself under the snow.

Taylor encouraged Fretwell by letting him through but even then the man’s kick sent the ball hopelessly wide. The Denaby forwards had a spell and created some disturbance in the Ilkeston defence but there was nothing doing till after 20 minutes, when a cheering and unselfish piece of work by Ben Johnson and Green drew out the backs. The ball was shot over to J.C. JOHNSON and from an unusual angle he banged it into the net. This marked a turn in the tide and Ikeston seemed ever so far away from home till they equalised ten minutes from the interval. It was a simple goal, FRETWELL gaining it through a mistake by the Denaby backs.

The pace quickened in the second half, the opening of which was characterised by some sound and interesting play. Only half a minute had passed when GREEN gave Denaby the lead from a pass by Ben Johnson. Lawrence was hard pressed and had to be very smart with his hands to save his goal. The Denaby goal had one remarkable escape: Morton was getting dangerously near and Bromage came out to check him. Morton passed over to Smith, who then had nothing to do but put the ball into the empty net; but by some means or other Hunter got to him before he shot and the situation was saved. Nine minutes later GREEN scored his second goal from an oblique angle, taking Lawrence quite by surprise. The last goal came two minutes later. Ben Johnson took the ball forward and CLEMENTS (A.), attempting to clear, pulled the ball back into goal. Lawrence jumped up but the ball passed over his finger tips and dropped into the net.

Denaby were not nearly so good as might have been expected but, as he has been said, it was a poor sort of a day which provided conditions to excuse lapses. There were periods of good play between the wing men but Wadsworth was watched so closely that he never really got going, while on the other side Skeels, though prominent with some tricky footwork, seemed unable to ‘follow through.’ Both J. C. Johnson and Green did well and safety reposed confidence in their centre-forward. Goodison was the outstanding half-back this week – this line seems to share the donkey work between them. Ogley and Windle were as good as the conditions would allow, as were Taylor and Hunter. It was impossible to be steady on such a ground.