Mexborough & Swinton Times, October 06/10/1923
Rovers In Luck
Denaby Do All But Score
Too Much Close Passing
Denaby United 1, Doncaster Rovers Res 1
Denaby dropped another point on Saturday, but were decidedly unfortunate to do so, Doncaster Rovers Reserves were outplayed almost throughout.
With Matt and Charlie Taylor still unavailable, Denaby United tried the experiment of putting Chambers at right half, Briggs filling the vacancy in the forward line. Bromage who had been giving the utmost satisfaction with the Reserve, displaced Harrison in goal.
Doncaster brought in Picknett and Reid, for Brody and Benzie, the selected centre forward and left half respectively.
Denaby opened the attack from the kick-off. There came an early thrill when Shaw was dispossessed as he was going clean through, and Chambers followed with a header, which was saved. The Doncaster defence was at sixes and sevens for a few minutes, but managed to live through the heavy assault somehow.
Determined raids shook the Doncaster backs but the Denaby forwards did not put in any good shooting. Lawson took the ball off Brigg´s toe very near the goal. Shaw and Scriven continually worried Lawson and Ashmore, who were run off their feet, but McEachrane was a powerful last line of defence.
Hamilton and Briggs cleverly worked their way through, but none could quite reach the former´s centre in time. Doncaster could not get going the Denaby halves keeping the ball among their forwards for the most part, and when the Doncaster van did get possession Coope and Haslam were well up towards midfield, promptly checking any advance.
For over half-an-hour the play was almost wholly in the Doncaster half, and only weakness in finishing prevented Denaby´s gaining a big lead.
A feature of the play was the manner in which the Denaby wing halves worked with the forwards in front of them some of the combined work being sparkling. But the Denaby forwards made the mistake of holding the ball too close, and trying too much pattern-weaving. Godfrey rarely swung the ball out to his wings, and Gaffney and McEachrane quickly interfered in the close movements. And the shooting was bad, Kennedy, Hill and Godfrey all shot well over or wide when well placed. Doncaster were lucky, however, when a defender happened to get in the way of a great shot by Chambers, from a corner.
Picknett at last led his line away in a threatening movement, but Kennedy nipped in and cleared. The big Denaby centre-half was always in the way of Doncaster´s advances, and kept his own line well supplied. Another sudden move by Holling brought Doncaster very near scoring, a great shot just inside the upright being splendidly saved by Bromage. A dash by Hamilton ended, in a shot which Russell dealt with cleanly, and Reid did very well to get the ball away from the Denaby left in another dangerous raid.
A very pretty bit of work by Shaw and Godfrey ended in a pass to the right from which Briggs shot just over. Hamilton again beat all opposition, but hit the side netting.
An exciting incident occurred at the other end where Picknett and company nearly rushed the ball through by sheer force but Bromage was very cool and alert. A little more was seen of the Doncaster forwards as the half drew on, and after 32 minutes the unexpected happened. The Doncaster right wing had a tussle with the Denaby defence and the ball went across to PICKNETT, for a moment unmarked, with commendable promptitude he seized the chance and scored with a fine low shot.
The shock fired Denaby, and Russell did great work when he repelled splendid efforts from Hamilton´s foot and Chamber´s head within a couple of seconds. Denaby pressed strongly, but the shooting was terribly weak and erratic. And the inside forwards often dribbled themselves into a cul-de-sac. At the interval, Doncaster led by an opportunist goal, after Lenaby had spent three-quarters of the half storming the Doncaster goal.
The re-start did not mark a change in the Denaby methods. Had they but opened out the game. Doncaster could not have withstood them.