Denaby Utd – Denaby 1, Rotherham United 1 – Uninteresting Snowball Fight at Denaby

February 1936

Mexborough & Swinton Times, February 7, 1936

Faulty Tactics
Uninteresting Snowball Fight at Denaby
Rotherham Take a Point

Denaby  United1, Rotherham United 1

The snowball fight at Denaby on Monday produced uninteresting football. Both teams put in an enormous amount of hard work, which brought little result. But the greater part of the game was taken up with meaningless midfield scuffling. Nevertheless, the pace of the game, considering the state of the ground, was fast and well maintained. For the most part Denaby were the better side and began in fine fettle, but they appeared to lack the ability, and there was an obvious lack of opportunism and dexterity, to open up the attack: they were by far the most rugged side, which made their lack of tenacity in the second half all the more hard to understand. It was due to an obvious lapse on the part of the backs and half backs that the Rotherham goal was scored.

Strong Eleven

A good side was fielded by Denaby, Jones, a junior from Stannington, was at left back. From the days showing he lacks something of the stamina required by the Midland league, but the heavy nature of the ground, owing to the snow, must be taken into consideration, and under more favourable ground conditions he may shape well. Will Barks was at inside right.

Almost all the danger in the Denaby attack came from the left wing combination of Guest and Hewitt. Both these players are greatly improved and I understand that the Leeds club have them under observation. Newcastle has made enquiries with regards to Hewitt and among others, Doncaster Rovers have been watching Guest. Perhaps the most valuable member of the Denaby side on the Monday was Earnshaw, he appears to have lost all the uncertainty that characterised his play at the beginning of the season and time after time on Monday cleared when the situation appeared almost hopeless.

About four minutes from the start it seemed that Denaby were about to go ahead. Guest got away on the left and sent over a beautiful centre which Hewitt met with his head only to see the ball cannon off the upright. This was an encouraging start and one might have expected Denaby to follow it up. Instead they let Rotherham take the initiative and spent an anxious quarter of an hour in defence. Here Leek and Sykes were outstanding, although none of the clearances were as neat as might have been desired, Smith, Dobson and Senior got through, but their shots either went over or were wide of the mark. At this stage the work of the backs would have been of little avail without the backing of Earnshaw. Before the interval the Denaby attack came into the picture a little more both Hewitt and Wills Barks were unfortunate to miss.

Reward

The revived Denaby attack was rewarded after 40 minutes when Guest sent over a moderate centre which Black, who have so far had been very sure, should have dealt with easily, but missed hopelessly. Fearnley had nothing to do but walk it in. Rotherham returned to the attack but in spite of a good shot by Senior which hit the bar, Denaby were ahead at the interval.

The game degenerated in the second half, Rotherham were on the whole better side, although both sides made the mistake of attempting to maintain a pace which over the physics of the players. The result was that there was a very little accuracy in the placing of the ball and there was no fire in either of the sides finishing. Of the most dangerous of a very mediocre lot, during this part of the game. Wilf sent in a good shot that was fisted over by Black.

Rotherham were doing most of the pressing and after a period in which the ball was “hanging fire” 15 yards from the goal, Senior broke through and scored with a push-shot. The end of the game came without further score.

Not an inspiring match with the snowy condition of the pitch all against scientific play.