Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 02 November 1912
Denaby Brilliant
Denaby United 7 Notts County Reserve 2
Denaby United gave a brilliant show against Notts County Reserve on Saturday, on the home ground, under conditions which, as a war correspondent say, can be better imagined than described. When the two teams turned out in the pouring rain with mist hanging all about the ground, there was a bare handful of spectators, but somehow they rolled up in the early stages of the game, and when the stand was thrown open was packed from top to bottom, so that a very interesting game was watching comparative comfort. There was not a slack moment in the old 90. Both teams went are that it, and an not the Denaby forwards and one of their best days, and were controlling the leather brilliantly, there would have been nothing in the teams. They were both working hard and vigorously, and the defence was always at a disadvantage.
The Great Blackburn
Denaby tried two experiment in their front rank and both came off. Hobson, the Mexborough footballer- cricketer, was tried at centre-forward vice Wilkinson, who has been very disappointing in the last few matches, and at outside left, when neither Dodsdley, Hill, nor Cupitt have been very successful, Clarke, a Sheffielder, who appeared in the Denaby colours one twice last year, made an appearance. Both men came off, and did extremely well, though without question the star of the game was Blackburn, who performed as brilliantly as every did in his best days. It was a treat to watch him trap the greasy leather dead from a long pass, and dash away as surefooted as a mule to finish up with some magnificent shooting. Twice he beat the Lambs’ goalie, West with 25 yard shots which would not have given any goalkeeper in the world a chance.
Wathey Outside Left
It was interesting to note that Frank Wathy, the old Denaby – Mexborough right wing, was appearing at outside left for the second time this year, and though Notts forward work was at a discount, he did as well as any of his colleagues. Under better weather conditions the same game would have been very enjoyable.
It commenced with a sensation, was never lacking in incident all the way through. Denby scored in the first minute through Hobson, who got through cleverly from a pass by Blackburn, and then Notts got level in their next rundown, for the defence all in a tangle, Tim Peters headed over Moxon’s outstretched hands into the net. This is very unfortunate, but shortly we had a brilliant goal from Mabel, scored direct from a throw in, and five minutes later Notts were again level, Dexter breaking through the defence which was almost hopeless on the greasy turf, and scoring a very simple goal indeed.
It looked as though the teams were going to go neck and neck like this for the length of the game, but from the time that Blackburn broke away on his own, scored Denaby’s third goal, the United were masters of the situation. The best goal of the bunch was the fourth, also scored by Blackburn, from a long forward pass by Lang. Blackburn spurted forward, raced round Woodley, and scored easily from the 25 yards range, with everybody looking helplessly on. It was a spectacular goal, and the crowd cheered itself hoarse over the effort. Just before the interval Hopson got through a second time, and once more he was indebted to Blackman for his opportunity. The youngster was handling the line in quite a brainy way, and evidently showing any amount of promise.
Seven Goals for Denaby
The second half was almost entirely Denaby’s, though Notts County played pluckily enough, and after Denaby had got in their seventh goal set up a hot attack, which brought Moxon very much into the limelight. Moxon kept a splendid goal all through, and got out of some very tight corners very neatly. The sixth goal came early in the second half, when Woolley handled in the penalty area, and Blackburn was given the chance of his hat-trick. The seventh goal was a very pretty effort; Raybould neatly tricked Housley and shot into the corner of the net from 20 yards. In front of goal Denaby gave very little away, by their display well deserved to head the league goalscoring list. It was a capital game, fast and interesting all through, and not by any means so one-sided as the score seems to indicate.