Mexborough and Swinton Times May 2, 1925
Denaby Make Sure of Rotherham
Bromages two kicks
Denaby United 1 Rotherham Town 0
The crowd seemed to expect great things of Denaby United on Saturday. It was not a large crowd, not nearly so large it it ought to have been, but it was enthusiastic enough to make up for the deficiency in that direction. There was a cook Thai flavour about it which gave the game an interest it would otherwise have lacked, and periods of excitement were fairly frequent. It was unreasonable of course, to expect Denaby to repeat their brilliant performance of the week previous, Lawley placed all their rivals were. The one thing that mattered was that they should get the points; they got them and deserved them too.
Some idea of the United’s superiority may be gathered from the fact that in the first half Joe Bromage was called upon to touch the ball only twice, and on neither of those occasions was a goal in such danger as to arouse any real anxiety. It was very rarely during the first half that Rotherham did any trespassing. When they did Hawkins or Taylor, or failing them offside pulled them up, and the ball was away to the other end again
During the interval the Rotherham eleven seem to find a new lease of life, and the second half was by no means one sided. But it was very rarely that the Town reached Denaby’s standard of play. The defence was too good for them. Their two best efforts at scoring came from Hill and Perry. The first named got in a neat shot from the wing, but Bromage caught it neatly and got it away without difficulty. Penny shot deserved to score. It was a fast drive from long range which seem certain to enter the top corner of the net. But Bromage however was there again and he got a burst of applause for tipping it out. It was certainly a brilliant save.
Denaby opened very well, and it seemed for a few minutes as if they would win the match by a substantial margin. It was not lack of opportunity that prevented them. Bad shooting and bad luck kept the score down. The goal came immediately after the resumption through Drew, who netted from an awkward angle, the ball hitting the side net near the post. Godfrey, who led the forwards, had bad luck on several occasions, and he was badly at fault in failing to accept a pass from Pearson when he had the goal entirely at his mercy. He did touch the ball, but that was about all.
The Denaby defence as a whole was very sound, proving more than a match for the best efforts of the visiting forwards.
Fletcher, in the Rotherham goal was very safe, and the backs kicked well, Goodison in particular. The arms were too much occupied with defence you much support to the forwards, but that was only to be expected.
Team: Bromage; Hawkins, Taylor; Windle, Illingworth, Brown; Drew, Bussey, Gottfried, Pearson, Skeels.