South Yorkshire Times April 10, 1965
Served on a Plate
Denaby United 2 Bourne Town 3
On a plate – that was how Bourne Town found their 3-2 victory over Denaby United at Tickhill Square on Saturday. Denaby “had it made” from the start, as they showed in the first quarter of an hour of this game with their bottom-of-the-league neighbours. But instead of giving Bourne the thrashing they deserved, United handed them two valuable points – on a plate.
For a good three-quarters of the match Denaby had a territorial advantage, and it was incredible that they should be 2-1 down at half-time.
It had taken Bourne 15 minutes to mount a single promising attack. Meanwhile Denaby centre-forward Holden had seen two chances whipped off his toes by harassed Bourne defenders, and it seemed obvious that the probings of inside forwards Hayden and Trevor Whittaker were too much for Bourne to handle.
Then, unaccountably, in the 20th minute Gilligan tipped the scales for Bourne. The Denaby grip was not tight enough and he pierced the defence with a cross that gave SISSINS the first of his hat trick.
QUICK EQUALISER
Even when SISSINS slipped the second goal past an unhappy-looking Cooke after 37 minutes, it still seemed that United could pull the match out of the fire, so lacking in ideas were Bourne.
So everyone breathed again when two minutes later Trevor WHITTAKER thumped home a 20 yard drive from a Smith corner. It was just a matter of time before Denaby clicked!
At the start of the second half Colin Notley did well to snatch the ball off Smith’s toes as the outside right went through, and the keeper also had to leap to tip a Woodger shot over the bar. That is where the plate came in.
Inside left Whittaker, of all people, placed the ball neatly in front of SISSINS in the 55th minute as he misjudged a back pass to Cooke. The Denaby keeper looked flustered, and somehow Sissins’ shot slipped underneath him as he dived and fumbled.
SMITH pulled one back for Denaby as Notley failed to get his hands to a Holden lob 20 minutes from the end. Denaby tried to cram into the closing minutes the goals that should have come earlier, but as always, time refused to stand still.
Teams and ratings:
Denaby: Cooke (5); Wroe (5), Cox (5); Woodger (6), Wild (5), Harvey (5); Smith (6), Hayden (6), Holden (5), Whittaker T. (6), Whittaker D. (5).
Bourne: Colin Notley, Withant, Needham, Evans, Chris Notley, Kirkenby, Notley (M.), Gilligan, Sissins, Twyham, Baxter.
Referee: Mr. K. Burgess, Mansfield, (7).