South Yorkshire Times September 6, 1947
Persistence Had Its Reward For City.
Denaby United 3 Lincoln C. Res. 4
Lincoln just overshadowed United in persistent and sure, accurate shooting in 90 minutes of heatwave football on Saturday. City opened with a speed and energy which brought them to goals inside 18 minutes, Davies, who showed opportunism and an excellent rating scale, getting them both, the first was a peculiar goal, a ball, met from the wind, which flashed only a foot wide of the upright and gave Urien no chance at all.
The Denaby forwards, still minus Killourhy and Strachan and including the tall halfback, Osborne, responded well to the promptings of their half, however, and they quickly dispelled an early suggestion that city were going to run away with the game. Mosley made the first goal which Wright scored in the 19th minute, and the surefooted Osborne crashed home a game to equaliser this when he collected from Madin and sped the ball goalwards in one precision movement.
That was the position at half-time. We had seen much more of Denaby than of City this half, and then early suggestion of scrappiness in the second half was dispelled when Osborne gave United the lead after 60 minutes. Thereafter the terrific pace of the first half crept back, but when a packed gate was yelling for the extra goal to make things safe, the balance swung the other way. City, striving in a fierce finish to save the game , sent Docherty to score the best goal of the afternoon (this in the 82nd minute), and 10 minutes later the quicksilver Davies had given City the points by scoring his third goal.
More opportunism and greater capacity to shoot accurately might have won this game for United, and there will always be a big “if” when form is weighed. For Denaby were awarded a penalty for “hands” in the first half, Wright failed to convert, a strange lapse remembering his effortless penalty goal of a week earlier. That goal might have made a world of difference. Backs, Madin and Williams, and halfbacks, Coward, Barke and Walker, got through a heavy afternoon with credit against a fast-moving City forward line. Windle was a live wire, but Osborne was a forward with this happy shot in his boots.