South Yorkshire Times May 7, 1955
A Splendid Performance
Rotherham Utd Reserves 0 Denaby United 1
Rotherham United Reserves, who looked certain to win the Midland League championship for the first time, have struck a bad patch, and their 1-0 defeat by Denaby United at Millmoor on Saturday was the biggest blow of all to their aspirations.
About 4,000 spectators saw Rotherham do most attacking but the forwards were woefully weak in front of goal. Centre-forward Burke lacked support from both inside men, Churms and Meadows, and all three of them were faulty with their shooting. Bambridge, on the left wing, showed most enterprise in the Rotherham attack.
Although Denaby spent a lot of time on the defensive, they always looked likely to score when they attacked with Dixon a lively leader. Pryor, too, got in quite a lot of shots. There was a lot of determined work by the Denaby defence and Williamson’s display in goal was magnificent.
For the first 15 minutes it looked as though Rotherham would win easily, but Williamson stopped everything, and dived to save a ground shot from Burke. More than half the Rotherham team had made first eleven appearances this season, but a lot of their football was aimless, and Denaby’s never say die spirit in defence continually upset the Millmoor side’s close passing tactics.
Burke missed one ‘sitter’ when he shot wide with only Williamson to beat and Denaby thinking he was offside. Pryor headed into the net for Denaby after 30 minutes but was given offside, and just before half-time he skimmed the crossbar with a shot which looked a winner all the way.
Williamson’s brilliance continued in the second half and just when a draw seemed certain Denaby got the winning goal after 80 minutes, WEAKLEY, who was enterprising on the right wing, tried a long shot and the ball went into the top of the net with Bolton, the Rotherham goalkeeper, beaten all the way.
This splendid performance by Denaby and Monday’s defeat of Frickley Colliery at Wisbech means that Denaby are safe from necessity of re-application to the Midland League.