Mexborough & Swinton Times, February 5, 1926

Brilliant Skeels
Dazzling Wing Play Against Ilkeston

Denaby United 6, Ilkeston 0

The match at Denaby on Monday was rescued from to mediocrity by the delightful exhibition of Skeels, the Denaby outside left, who scored four goals -a rare performance for an outside man – and scored them in a manner that was far above average Midland League style. His footwork was so perfectly neat that time and time again he waltzed round 2 or 3 opponents in an amazingly small space, and twice he cut right into the middle and dribbled through a group of defenders as coolly and composedly as if he had been given an exhibition among a crowd of schoolboys. Such work as this should quickly draw the eyes of scouts onto Skeels, for he is good enough for any class of football on Monday’s exhibition.

Apart from this the game was poor, Ilkeston are a weak side, and their halves never properly held the Denaby forwards, though the combination of the latter was far from satisfactory. Denaby gave, I should think, one of their poorest team displays of the season; yet they were fully masters of Ilkeston. The Ilkeston men were often quicker on the ball and readier to part with it. But their positional play was bad, and their combination of the weakest. The forwards had quite a lot of chances, but their finishing was dreadfully inept.

Denaby were just a little better, but the inside men with the exception of Allen, on a number of occasions made poor use of openings in front of the goal. Windle who returned to displace Cartwright at the right back in the continued absence through illness of Wheelhouse, was never happy, and Bromage had to do more running about than he should have had.

On the heavy ground the Denaby men were generously slow and awkward surprisingly so always with the exception of Skeels. One or two pieces of combined wine work by Allen and Skeels made bright dashes the play, but Fred Brown was not at home in the mire, and neither Fawden or Drew carried out their scheme effectively. The halves were not as stout as usual, either.

Brown scored the first goal quickly after the start, and it was not long before Skeels added another. He also scored the third, and Windle scored with a penalty kick just before the interval. Simpson stopped Drew’s shot with his hands with Stone beaten.

Skeels scored twice in the second half. Two of Skeel’s goals were brilliant individual efforts, the result swift runs, clever dribbling, and deadly shooting. Stone defended his goal gallantly, but like his backs he had too much to do, the Denaby men often overrun the Ilkeston defence, but failed to get anywhere near the mark with their shots. Yet stone made some remarkable saves, and the goal had some amazing escapes. But the fact remains that Denaby’s team work was very disappointing. Wharnby was easily the pick of the Ilkeston 11.

Teams:

Denaby: Bromage, Windle, Bisby, Croot, Redfern, Bamford, Drew, Fawden, Brown, Allen, Skeels

Ilkeston: Stone, Carling, Simpson, Clemence, Toome, Vallance, Wharnby, Robinson (A), Robinson (S), Marshall, Smith

Referee W. Bull Gainsbrough.