South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 02 February 1952
Second Half Earned the Points for Rotherham
Denaby United 1, Rotherham United Res. 2
If, in the last few minutes of this game, Rowney had not unwittingly hindered his colleague a few yards out of the Rotherham goalmouth, Denaby might have saved a point, but if they had they would have been lucky.
On such a difficult snow-covered ground, we had some surprisingly good football, enlivened in the first minute when Denaby forced a corner on the left. As the ball came across Law hooked it in and Bolton was adjudged to have been over the goal-line as he caught the ball. A goal it was, and it was not until 20 minutes later that Marshall got the equaliser, robbing Jones as he tried to bounce the ball in the Denaby goalmouth and pushing it well out of his reach into the net. It was one-all at half-time and it had been a pretty even game.
But in the second half the Rotherham defence played United’s forwards line out of the hunt almost completely. The right kind of moves were always there, but invariably Turner, Regan and Deckers were positioned just in the spot to nip them short, and when all else failed Noble, notably, and Walker, stepped into complete the obliteration. Denaby had two near misses in this half—very near—but they were more than balanced by two shots from White which Jones was lucky enough to scoot out with his foot in the nick of time. The Rotherham forward line looked very attractive this half and White’s goal in the 79th minute was a grand goal.
Williams, Denaby skipper, had a splendid game, getting through a tremendous amount of work capably and with obvious zest. Cooling was also often in the picture. But Rotherham’s second half monopoly earned them the day.
A “Convert”
Reserve goalkeeper Jeffcote turned forward and Youth Club’s Under 18 League side goals to beat Swinton Athletic on Saturday. The Denaby club, who played the match with only 10 men, found themselves without a left flank, both inside and wingman being unable to make. Jeffcote played in the wing. The other goal in Tom Hill’s 2-1 success (their 13th game without defeat) was scored direct from a corner by Stacey. Goalkeeper Hawkins, Nicholson and Roberts took the eye.