Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 02 October 1903
Misfortunes of the Denaby First Team.
During the progress of the above-mentioned match I had an interesting little chat with Mr. Dunn, the club’s popular secretary, and a rare good sportsman. From him I learned that the Denaby first team had travelled to Worksop with a greatly weakened team through the absence of Hancock, Dudhill, and Nimrod, three of the best.
Hancock, I was sorry to learn, had contracted a severe chill, and was lying in a serious state, his temperature on Saturday being 104. Nimrod, too, was ill, and Dudhill, although not generally known, was unfit to play through being badly lamed in the previous Saturday’s cup tie.
Under such a big handicap Denaby could not be expected to win at Worksop, and though they lost by seven goals to two, there is much to be said in mitigation of such a heavy defeat. Alluding to that game, a Sheffield contemporary published the following:—
“Handicapped as they were by one or two notable absentees, amongst whom was Hancock, their goalkeeper, Denaby United cracked up badly at Worksop, where the home team registered all but two of the nine goals scored. It was early apparent that Denaby were not a winning side, but they did fairly well in the first half, and were only two goals down at the interval.
Subsequently they went completely to pieces in the face of a series of very fine attacks by the home forwards, who balanced their work splendidly, and shot well. Worksop’s form throughout the game, and more especially in the second half, showed that the team is improving rapidly, and in spite of early failures, we may still hear of it doing well.
Denaby were a distinctly disappointing team, never reaching a standard of play necessary for a Midland League match. But an unreliable goalkeeper, playing the part of substitute in the absence of the regular custodian, Hancock, took a lot of heart out of the men. A miserable show, then, was the inevitable result, and the only man on the side to distinguish himself was Roper, who played very clever and promising football at inside left.”
Under a cloud.
At present the Denaby Midland League team are under a cloud, but I have every confidence in the ability of the players to lift it in the near future. Their good start in the winter’s campaign has not been followed up, but a revival is bound to come, as more than one team will find out to their cost.
Mr. Dunn last week signed on some half-dozen fresh players, and that the club management is not standing still is evidenced by a proposal to erect comfortable accommodation for Press men, a thoughtfulness which I and my fellow scribes greatly appreciate, for taking notes and writing telegraphic messages in the open-air of the dead of winter is no joke.
I hope the management of the Mexboro’ Town and Mexboro’ West End clubs will take a leaf out of Denaby’s notebook, and do likewise.