Mexborough & Swinton Times April 10, 1936

Midland League
Lincoln’s Grasp Thwarts Denaby of a Point
Safety Tactics

Fred Taylor, who has had a run with Sheffield United “A” earlier this season, is back at Denaby scoring goals. He got their the only goal against Lincoln on Monday.

Denaby United 1 Lincoln City Reserves 2

Until a few minutes from the end, when Denaby staged a rally in a vain attempt to save a point, there was nothing to make even the most enthusiastic fan exercise his vocal cords in the game with Lincoln city reserves at Tickhill square on Monday.

Denaby attacked first but the raid was pulled up by Watson, the visiting right back, before it became of any real danger. Taylor and Law were soon prominent for Denaby and their wing was genuinely the better. But the ball did not run for them. The hard dry ground of Tickhill Square, and the freakish wind, spun it round and made it perform unexpected tricks. There was little calculation of what it would do, and consequently the finesse some of the Denaby players were prone to indulge in nearly always came to grief.

Lincoln had a dangerous right wing, of which Walker, the outside right, was the star. He had a great burst of speed, but, although he usually outpaced Pickering, Happs was covering up in good style, and nullified any danger that threatened from this source. Sykes was playing the roving sort of game, and occasionally left Cambell, the visiting centre forward, alone. It was one of these occasions, after Walker had provided the pass, that Campbell slipped past Leek and Happs toscore with a shot in the corner of the net that gave Earnshaw no reasonable change of saving.

A Little Brighter.

The second half was little brighter. The only really interesting thing about it was the pretty long bouts of heading that occurred. They led nowhere but that was so much in common with the trend of the game that it was scarcely noticed. The Lincoln men enjoyed the most of these exhibitions of heading, and sometimes the ball travelled between six heads before it touched the ground. Denaby had more opportunities of goals in the second half. But even then the chances were not profuse. Once Law had come through with a fine run, but in his haste he screwed the ball over the line. On another occasion Hewitt was beaten in the race for the ball with Sleight, the visiting goalkeeper. Lincoln then got their second goal when Walker made a flashing run down the wing, beat Happs, to crash a shot past Earnshaw. It was the brightest thing of the game.

Lincoln then seemed satisfied with safety tactics, and Denaby put a little more snap into their play. Sykes came near the scoring a powerful freekick. Smith and Banks and, indeed, the rest of the forwards were hard-working. But they spend a lot of their time chasing for passes intercepted by the Lincoln halves, among whom Gray, in the centre, was outstanding. Taylor finally secured their consolation goal. He raced between the backs, after they had been drawn out by Law, and made no mistake with his shot. Denaby then fought well for an equaliser, and it was the best part of the game. But Lincoln had to go a grasp of their opponents, and the game was too fast.