Denaby United

End the “backbiting,” the criticism, and Denaby United stand a good chance of gaining much-needed promotion to the First Division of the Yorkshire League.

That is the message United’s manager Harry Hough wants to get home to the handful of Denaby supporters whose“niggling” seems to be taking some of the heart out of the club.

“Rather than shouting the team down, it would be better if they stopped away,” Harry told me this week. He added, “I would much rather see them encouraging the team then shouting at them, to do this, that, and the other. If we get their support instead of all this backbiting in niggling I believe we stand a very good chance of going up.

The top teams in division two have all got to play each other and will be taking points off each other.

Uppermost in Harry’s mind where those two “silly points” last when Denaby went down 2-3 two Doncaster United a fortnight ago. They are points Denaby can ill afford to lose at this crucial time in the season, with too many clubs in a good position to challenge Denaby’s top four status.

A great believer in “system” and discipline in a soccer team, Harry stresses that, given the chance, Denaby United have one of the best defences in the league.

United’s ability to hold down Midland League Workshop town and beat Yorkshire league first division Ossett Albion this year on testifies to this.

But in attack, while chances are created, they are also wasted, and the manager is the 1^st to admit to Denaby’s need for scoring power.

“I realise we have got to get somebody up there that score goals, but you cannot just go out and buy a player at this point in the season when other sides are tied up with cup chances and promotion and so on,” he added.

To be fair, the vast majority of United supporters and officials, like Harry Hough, had the welfare of the club at heart and their own ideas on how to get the best out of them.

But everybody can’t be right and one man’s work must be law. There rests the case of Denaby United’s promotion and their hopes of putting up a good show if and when Division one is reached.