South Yorkshire Times, March 12th, 1960
Denaby United Blast Ashington Hopes
Denaby United, 2; Ashington, 1
Midland League championship seeking Ashington, visiting Denaby on Saturday eager for two points to strengthen their bid were humbled 2-1, but what a pity this game slipped into a “kick and rush” rut.
After the promise of the opening minutes, the play faded and the spectators, who had good reason to expect a first-class display – a firm pitch, bright sunshine and hardly any wind, had little to cheer about.
After some brisk early attacks by Denaby, which were cleared by Ashington pivot Ken Smith, and some equally brisk returns by the lively Ashington forwards, both teams gave up the struggle to control the light bouncing ball on the firm pitch, and attempted to blast their way through to the goal. Three men did try to play football, Gladstone Guest, playing his first game for three weeks after injury, and the Ashington left wing pair Alan Smith and Oliver. Oliver in particular gave Williams a trying time in the first half, and once brought Davey to full stretch with a knee high centre.
Two quick goals
There was little excitement however, and with five minutes to go to half time the crowd were resigned to the fact that they would see no goals in that half, and a stunned silence greeted a goal by Ashington centre-forward Lindsay who had calmly walked through the defence and easily beat Davey.
Denaby came to life, attacked up the right wing and Sapey placed the ball from a perfect centre onto Shaw’s head and Shaw had no difficulty in equalising seconds before the half-time whistle.
This did not make the play any more exciting however and the game only came alive again once in the second half, in the 75th minute when a perfectly taken shot from Brian Slater crashed past Moore, who didn’t even move.
For the next five minutes Denaby really showed us how they could play, breaking through the shaky Ashington defence every time they had the ball, but the play slipped again until by full-time the brief periods of good football were just a memory in a game that is best forgotten altogether.
Teams:
DENABY – Davey, Williams, J., Foster, Hirst, Johnson, Bourne, Sapey, Guest, Shaw, Slater, Friel.
ASHINGTON – Moore; Wardle, Linighan, Newton, Smith (Ken), Patterson, Heckley, Smith (K), Lindsay, Smith (A), Oliver.
Referee – Mr. G. W. Goldson, Lincoln.