Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 22 December 1933
Denaby’s First Home Reverse
Denaby United 2 Lincoln City Reserves 4
Denaby lost their unbeaten home record on Saturday, but the result of this match with Lincoln was not the foregone conclusion which some of the more dissatisfied supporters of the local club endeavoured to make out. It is all very well to say that Denaby need new players, but it was the very fact that they were attempting to make good this deficiency which cost them the match.
With Adams still unfit, another centre-forward, young Mangnall, from Maltby, brother of the Huddersfield player, was tried, and a further trial was given to Gilchrist, a Sheffield junior. These experiments were not successful, though Mangnall was not without promise, and the result was that the forward line was at sixes and sevens almost from the start.
Denaby got the first goal and if things had gone their way in the first half hour it is quite probable that two or three more goals would have been scored while the Lincoln players were still finding their feet. It was not Denaby’s lucky day, however, for with the goal yawning in front of him Mangnall failed by a fraction to reach a flashing centre from Siddall which had beaten the Lincoln defenders. Poskett grabbed the ball when the right-winger swung it over the next time and barely escaped being charged over the line by McLean, and Seth King and Mangnall both brought him into action with pot shots in the early stages.
The Lincoln goalkeeper was far busier than Kirby at the other end but was always alert, while his anticipation was so good that only a very clever effort by Fitzgerald after a quarter of an hour evaded him.
The Denaby inside-left received the ball with his back to goal from a well-placed free kick taken by Fred Smith, and sharply pivoting round sent it well out of Poskett’s reach into the far corner of the net. It was a splendid goal, but instead of acting as a tonic to the home forwards it merely served to rouse Lincoln, who after being completely hemmed in for a while broke away on the left where Jackie Wilkinson, the old Dearne Valley boy and Wednesday and Newcastle winger, showed that he can still give most defenders yards of start and a big beating for speed. He got in his shot but it was not a very deadly effort and came from sufficiently far out for Kirby to have made a more convincing attempt to save. He allowed the ball to slip through his hands and Lincoln were on terms.
This was right against the run of play but when Marklew was allowed to go through and give Lincoln the lead from what the Denaby defenders evidently considered an offside position, the visitors gradually began to assert themselves more, while Denaby drooped rather despondently. This falling off was most noticeable in the forward line which, never really well together, became positively ragged. Siddall was poorly supported on the right, Gilchrist being far too slow, while many of Potter’s passes went deplorably astray.
Denaby temporarily revived fading hopes when they drew level soon after half-time, a partly smothered shot by Gilchrist being rammed home by Mangnall.
But Lincoln had got well into their stride and though at times they were compelled to pack their goal to keep the Denaby attack (in which Seth King, who had come well up, was most prominent) at bay, they generally looked the more dangerous side, and Cliff and Marklew put on a couple more goals for them, while Wilkinson was unlucky not to get another when after running clean through the defence he slipped the ball past the advancing Kirby only to see it pass just outside.
Smith again gave a grand display for Denaby and was the more prominent because so many of his colleagues were below form. King made prodigious efforts to make good the shortcomings of the forwards but was always crowded out. Marklew and Wilkinson were aggressive Lincoln forwards, and the visitors were smart on the ball and robust in defence, with Poskett very safe in goal.