Hailstorm Prelude.

Denaby United 2 Burton Town 2

A hailstorm of unusual severity, ending just before the kick-off made a greasy, treacherous pitch at Denaby on Saturday.

There was a thrill in the first five minutes, when, after a Burton attack, Smith, Denaby’s new centre forward, dashed into seize a centre from Fearnley and hit it past Wilkinson. Taylor had initiated this goal with a fine pass out the wing. Burton replied promptly with a number of raids, which were cleared. There was one thrilling incident when, with Earnshaw beaten, Happs cleared away from the goal-line.

Then Denaby broke away to score their second goal. Taylor took a pass up the middle and ran through to beat Wilkinson, who delayed in coming out of his goal. In a raid on the Denaby goal Crewe beat Sykes but Happs cleared at the expense of a corner, which was wasted.

The Burton forwards were receiving an excellent service of passes from their halves, but their own eagerness led them into trouble, for there were several offside decisions at this point of the game. Two minutes before the interval however, Crewe scored for Burton after running between Happs and Uren. Burton were now decidely dangerous, and a shop by Burgess skimmed the bar.

Burton piled on the pressure in the second half. They shuffled their forward line and it seemed to put an added vim in it. Earnshaw was called upon repeatedly, and one fine save of his cleared a great shot from Crewe. Burton finally secured the equaliser through Crewe, who dribbled his way to goal. Denaby clung to their one point although several times they seemed in danger.