Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 05 January 1924
Barnsley Rushed
“Sudden Death” At Denaby
A Thrilling Opening
Denaby Utd. 3, Barnsley Reserve 0.
On Saturday, Denaby United settled Barnsley Reserve’s hash in about 10 minutes. All the decisive cut-and-thrust of the game was over before the last stragglers arrived on the ground. Shaw was through in the first minute, and again in the fourth, while Godfrey got the third goal in the twelfth. It was all done so breathlessly that the crowd had no time to realise that the match was being won and lost while they studied their programmes. The first two goals came from beautiful centres by Hamilton, both of them finding Dick Shaw dead on the right spot.
Godfrey’s goal was a masterpiece of clever footwork. Joby threaded his way through like an England leader, and capped a really pretty solo with a crashing top note. Barnsley never really survived this terrible onset, though they were little troublesome in the second half. It was an interesting game, unspoiled by incidents, and at times the football was of first-class merit, though toward the end it got a bit ragged and purposeless, the visitors obviously easing off. The Barnsley goal had sundry narrow escapes in the later stages of the first half, and it was luck rather than skill in defence that prevented Denaby from going on to put up a cricket score.
In the first half there was only one team in it. Barrett and Cook simply could not hold Hamilton, who was continually dashing away. Lilley, who had been preferred to Picknett at the last minute, made him a perfect partner, and the Workmen veteran himself found the net with a pretty leader after the whistle had gone for offside.
The Denaby left wing was not so effective in the third half, when Barnsley were defending the cricket end. Cooper has not adapted himself yet to that awkward corner, and he beat himself every time by his tendency to draw away to the flag, which is fatal on this ground. The only way to get goals on that wing is to cut straight in.
The best of Barnsley was seen in the opening twenty minutes of the second half, to the interval they had one or two nice long drives from the centre-half (Jarvis) to show for their presence on the ground. Bromage was equal to everything that came his way, though he was a good deal taxed in the second half by Jeffs and Jukes. Appleyard was safely in Kennedy’s pocket the whole time. Denaby stemmed back the tide of the Barnsley offensive, and ruled supreme to the end of the game, but there were two more shots in their locker, and they had to be content with a 3-0 victory, which was even more convincing than that. They had the satisfaction of repeating last year’s “slam” of Barnsley, and adding that club to their list of Rotherham Town in their season’s best of dry rubbings. It was also their fourth successive victory, and the first since they were last defeated at Wath. From the last six matches of the first half of the season they have collected eleven points, and have jumped half the height of the table.
Bromage, Cooper, and Winfield were again excellent in defence, and the half-back line, which is not far from being the strongest in the Midland League, was in rattling good form, with Chambers about the best man on the field. The early opportunism of Hamilton, Shaw, and Godfrey saved a lot of trouble, and gave Denaby one of their easiest matches of the campaign. Cooper was the weakest member of a good line. Lilley and Hamilton made a splendid wing, and Shaw and Godfrey were rather unlucky not to improve the score considerably.
Although Barnsley were rushed off their feet in the opening ten minutes, they recovered their steadiness, and Cook and Hodgkinson kicked soundly and with judgment for the rest of the game. Barnsley were weak at half-back compared with Denaby, and were weak forward compared with anybody, though the excellence of the Denaby defence made them look a poorer lot than they are.
The ground was ironbound with frost, and fog hemmed the game in so closely that if the referee had not wisely ordered play straight on at the interval the match would probably have been stopped for darkness. There was not a bad attendance considering the counter-attraction at Mexborough, a little under 2,000.
Teams:
Denaby United: Bromage; Cooper and Winfield; Chambers, Kennedy and Hill; Hamilton, Lilley, Godfrey, Shaw and Cooper.
Barnsley Reserve: Gale; Cook and Hodgkinson; Barnett, Jarvis and Dixon; Binns, Jeffs, Appleyard, Jukes and Oxspring.