South Yorkshire Times April 14, 1951
Display Was Worth Bigger Crowd At Tickhill Square To “Shout ‘Em Home
One of Denaby’s Best – Featured Play at Its Most Sparkling Best
Denaby United 4, Grimsby Town Reserves 0
Whatever the merits of Denaby’s success against Grimsby on Saturday, it must be regretted that there were so few at TickhIll Square to -shout ’em home.” Come what may, this will rank as one of Denaby’s finest games, if only for the sheer devastating form of Roy Edwards and Jack Rowney on the left flank.
Here was orthodox, left-wing play at its best; exhibition stuff laid on by two master craftsmen confidently sure of their abilities.
Rowney crowned a sterling display by scoring two of the four goals. The first came after 12 minutes, though Platts was desperately unlucky not to score a split second before ROWNEY drove the ball home. The centre-forward turned Edwards’ centre for the net, but goalkeeper Chisholm stuck out his foot and pushed the ball to Rowney. ROWNEY hit the ball at top speed to open the scoring.
The game would have been a classic had it been played on a heavier ground, but as it was, players found some difficulty in controlling the lively ball on a surprisingly hard ground. There were exceptions, of course. Mervyn Law was one of them; his footwork was a delight. So was the accurate kicking of Jack Williams, and George Hair, on the Grimsby left wing, showed superb ball play backed up by forceful shooting
Grimsby were, on the whole, disappointing. Their forward play was erratic and the defence uncertain, though centre-half Tucker had the better of his exchanges with Platts, and Chisholm defied many of Denaby’s countless scoring efforts.
Denaby’s second and third goals came within three minutes of the interval. From a perfectly taken free-kick by Williams, CLARK came through unexpectedly to drive the ball beneath Chisholm’s diving body, and 90 seconds later PLATTS rounded off a right wing move with a close range shot.
The goals were missing in the second half, yet the football was of a much higher standard, with Grimsby showing marked improvement. But the only goal went once more to Denaby. ROWNEY moved sinuously through a Grimsby defence; they probably hoped the Denaby man would go astray with his own intricacies, but the final shot came with studied coolness to complete the scoring.