Denaby Utd – Mexborough 1, Denaby 0 – Mexborough Better on Boxing Day

January 1926

The Turn Over
Mexborough the Better on Boxing Day

Mexborough Athletic 1, Denaby United 0

The football at Hampden Road on Saturday was not nearly so good as that at Denaby the previous day.

The thaw produced a completely different set of conditions, they were the conditions that favour Mexborough’s light forwards. Those forwards took advantage of them, and retaind the initiative for three fourths of the game, but they found the Denaby defence very sound and generally steady, and the finishing was wild.

Still, the Denaby goal had many narrow escapes, the ball being again and again kicked from practically on the line, or else intersected by a player’s body when well on its way to the net.

The teams were the same in personnel, but they played a different game. The Mexborough forwards played a much more cohesive daring game than they played at Denaby. Bramley, who was off-colour at Denaby, was a prominent figure on Saturday, Jukes again was not happy, and Joe Beresford was not quite at his best – though some of the prettiest touches in the game came from him.

But the man on the line was Baxter. He was generally too good for Croot and Wheelhouse, and he capped a fine afternoon’s work by a great goal. Bromage having no earthly chance with a first-time shot that earned the deciding point a little more than midway through the first half.

Mexborough afterwards retained the aggressive, but they simply could not get any more goals. Denaby had one piece of sheer bad luck, when Stanley Taylor burst clean through to score the equaliser, but the whistle had already come for a foul against Burkinshaw, who deliberately tried to chip Taylor. Still Mexborough deserved to win, just as Denaby did on Friday.

The Denaby halves again played well and the reorganised line has been a distinct success. Gone was the weakness mentioned in these notes in the last week or two – that fatal holding onto the ball and manoeuvring.