South Yorkshire Times, January 12th, 1934
Sheffield Cup
Holders Out
Goldthorpe Do the Trick
Denaby United 0 Goldthorpe 3
There were no half measures about the way in which Goldthorpe United disposed of the holders of the Trophy, Denaby United, at Tickhill Square on Saturday. The home team (without Seth King who was suffering from a bad cold) were well beaten after Goldthorpe had slipped on a goal within three minutes of the start, and never looked like pulling the game out of the fire from that point. They failed to cope effectively with a strong bustling side which played with a dash and eagerness that more than made up for deficiencies in the finer points of the game.
Before the game started a silence was observed as a tribute to Mr. Herbert Chapman, and to P.c. W. Taylor, of Mexboro’, an ardent supporter of the club for many years, who also died on Saturday morning.
Without King, Denaby brought in Roberts and Barrow moved to centre-half, but Seth’s inspiration was missing and though the halves worked tremendously hard to a man they had an uphill task and had to concentrate mostly on defence.
An early attack on the left gave Lingwood a chance which he accepted very smartly to give Goldthorpe the lead with a hard cross shot. It was the goal of an opportunist and Kirby had no chance at all. Denaby hit back after this but they were up against a strong wind in addition to the robust and often disconcerting defensive tactics of the Goldthorpe players. Carter on the right wad generally the spearhead of these advances but he found it difficult to get round Harrison, and did not always put the ball across effectively.
Denaby made a mistake in neglecting Haggar, who only had about half a dozen kicks in the first half. The second time he got the ball he went nearer to scoring than any of his colleagues had done. Carter’s speed helped him to get through several times, but Finney did not stand on ceremony and ruthlessly discounted the winger’s fleetness of foot more than once. Denaby found it hard to keep on the attack in the face of the wind and Goldthorpe, who kept up a disconcerting pace throughout, swept down to the other end in series of attacks in which Tepper (picture) was more often than not the prime mover. His great speed enabled him to hold his own with the indefatigable Smith and he caused Skelton a deal of trouble.
It was from his centres that Goldthorpe obtained further goals, though Kirby seemed at fault when the second goal was scored. He caught but failed to hold a high ball from Tepper and the ball struck Barks, the Goldthorpe centre-forward and bounced into the net. A defensive slip brought the third goal, Roberts slicing another of Tepper’s centres past his own goalkeeper just before the interval.
Though they did much of the pressing after the interval Denaby found themselves faced with the well nigh impossible task of forcing a way through a defence consisting of seven players, all concentrated in the penalty area. Indeed, in the odd raids they made Goldthorpe were if anything the more dangerous side. Goldthorpe’s defence was rendered well nigh impregnable by the wonderfully confident goalkeeping of Fensome. One save from Fitzgerald, after the Denaby man had deflected a long shot from Taylor with his head, was notable. Fensome caught the ball as it was going away from him, as neatly as a slip fielder when a goal seemed inevitable. His judgment was remarkably good and he was lively and alert as well as sure in all he did. Uren and Harrison were solid backs and Ferguson did a lot of good work at centre-half. Tepper was the most dangerous and enterprising of the forwards, though Lingwood was another danger point. The team was strong and robust right through and gave the impression of being one of the best Goldthorpe have fielded for some time.