Mexborough & Swinton Times, January 14, 1927

Shirebrook, Too.
Denaby On The New Tack.
Brigg’s Impressive Debut.

Denaby 3, Shirebrook 0

Denaby. – Bromage; Taylor, Hunter; Goodison, Ogley, Windle Wadsworth, Johnson, Briggs, Green, Skeels.
Shirebrook. – Goddard; Jackson, Slack; Hough, Evans, Jones; Heald, Lees, Binns, Gordon, Kerry.

Referee: J. W. Tomlinson, Worksop.

Denaby had two changes for their game on Saturday, Briggs took the place of Mace at centre-forward, and Shirebrook took the place of Long Eaton as the visitors.

Whether Briggs was an improvement on Mace will be considered later; for the present it is but necessary to note that Shirebrook were an improvement on Long Eaton. Their attack was stiffer and more persistent; their defence was more certain, and altogether their opposition made the game a distinct improvement on that of the previous week Denaby opened in the right spirit by winning the toss and inside eight minutes had wrested from Shirebrook the advantage of the kick-off and scored two goals. The crowd were delighted that BRIGGS gained the first. With a beautiful header from a pass by Skeels, only a minute from the start, the youth ended a short tussle with a smartly gained goal.

Before the second goal was registered we had a sample of the trustfulness of the Shirebrook forwards, Heald and Lees combining in some pretty work on the right which was only nullified by a firm handling of the situation by Hunter and Windle. The second goal was the result of another pass by Skeels – all the play was on the bottom wing in the opening – OGLEY converting with a shot which never rose from the ground from some distance out of goal. It was quite a surprise and considerably bucked the Denaby team.

There were no further goals in this half but plenty of good football. Bromage had to kick out from a pot shot from the left wing and the consequent throw-in resulted in another attempt to take the Denaby goal by surprise. Fortunately Windle jumped out of an eager throng and headed away for Binns to finish the assault by shooting the ball high over the goal. Denaby were equally persistent at the other end where Briggs was very much alive. He headed into the hands of Goddard, and and just afterwards Skeels whizzed the ball towards goal, but the underpart of the crossbar was struck and the ball came back into play. The half was made up if incidents of this sort: it was fast and Denaby had the whip hand.

In the second half Shirebrook livened up considerably and there was a danger that Denaby would allow them to get settled – it may be that the heavy ground was telling on a team which had had put a great deal of pep into its play in the first half, or that Shirebrook had better lemons to suck during the interval, but whatever the cause, Bromage had a gruelling ten minutes. He was in good fettle, though, and brought off some really clever saves. Then Denaby took hold once more and though they never gained the mastery they held in the first half they were more than Shirebrook’s equals. At the end of 25 minutes, moreover, they strengthened their position by a further goal through BRIGGS, who finished off a splendidly directed shot by Wadsworth.

For five minutes Denaby lost the services of Taylor and then, eight minutes from the end, they suffered a series of misses in the Shirebrook goalmouth.

Briggs won the heart of the crowd, his leadership showing great promise for the future. He showed speed and initiative, and led well. The wing men were good, as usual. Johnson did some heavy work and on several occasions was very near the mark. He had a fitting partner in Wadsworth who, besides being partly responsible for the third goal, ought to have been through on other occasions when he was pulled up for offside.

Green and Skeels were ever on the move and when there were openings they allowed no grass to grow beneath their feet. The half-back line was more tried than on the previous Thursday and Windle was conspicuous with some excellent defensive and attack work. Ogley kept things on the move and Goodison considerably helped by keeping the Shirebrook left wing under when that pair began some effective play in the second half. Taylor and Hunter were up against a stiffer proposition than with Long Eaton, but though they were beaten several times their work was generally sound.

Bromage was excellent and, without giving the least anxiety, saved all sorts of shots which the Shirebrook men mixed for him. Cocktails don’t make Joe dizzy evidently.