Bawtry Town 3 vs 4 Denaby United

Head to Head wise, Denaby United certainly had the upper hand. Having met twice in the Doncaster District Saturday Senior League 2 years ago, Denaby recorded 23 goals against Town.

Denaby United has this season made the switch over to the County Senior League Division 2 and remain unbeaten against a much improved Bawtry Town.

You could have been fooled that the writing was on the wall to collapse and take yet another drumming as Denaby were denied twice as they put the ball in the net. One judged out of play for a corner and also a pretty clear offside. However, United took the lead early into the first half as a flighted corner was headed down by Ryan Scott into a crowded goal area and Mick Russon was first to pounce to strike the ball home. United almost scored immediately at the restart but Sam Jepson produced a fine save.

Sam Jepson would be called into action a few more times inside the first 20 minutes as Town failed on numerous occasions to with the pace Denaby attack.

Having shaken off the cobwebs and finally gotten down to brass tacks, Town restored parity as Ben Gillatt turned and shot, only to be parried away by Ben Priestley, unfortunately into the path of Takrem Shah who put his shot into the bottom right corner.

Moments later town were 2 vs 1 to the good. Takrem Shah upended 25 yards out. A whipped free kick from Simon Minshall to the top right only saw Ben Priestley try and make the save look good, but failed in all attempts to keep the ball from going in.

Now rampant and in full stride Town were breaking with ease as the tensions seemed to be rising amongst the United players. A moments lapse in defense saw a ball disect all as Daniel Harper stroked it into the net giving Priestley no chance.

Half Time : Bawtry Town 3 vs 1 Denaby United

Funny old game football. Definitely a game of two halves.

United were still looking suspect at the back into the 2nd half as Bawtry spurned numerous attempts at goal with shots either being missed or saved by keeper Priestley who looked to have regained his confidence after the error for the first goal. With Bawtry on top and playing some decent flowing football they were also quite physical with the referee penalising us for some robust challenges.

Spruce saw yet another goal disallowed for United before they reduced the arrears on 75 minutes. A ball played in the air just outside the area fell for Ainsley Finney and he hit a sweet shot into the right side of goal to make the score 3-2.

Still Bawtry had chances and Ben Priestly jumped high to claim an attempted lob over his head and further shots went wide but United drew level on 84 minutes, Spruce who had impressed since coming on as a sub floated in a free kick from the left, Paul Mills headed it down to Liam Winfield who fired it home to level the scores.

Just a couple of minutes later United got a winner, Steve Ellor was put through and he put in a rasping drive which rattled the crossbar and it rebounded out to Spruce, suspectly in an offside position as the officiating linesman was gesturing but seemingly ignored, crouched down to head the ball into the net for a dramatic fourth goal.

Full Time : Bawtry Town 3 vs 4 Denaby United

Team : Jepson, White, Minshall, Denton, Anderson, Shah, Bird, Baker, Green, Gillatt, Harper : Subs, Milner, Love, Battaglia

Scorers : Takrem Shah, Simon Minshall, Daniel Harper

Man of the Match : Sam Jepson

Summary : Taking the positives from the game, Town equipped themselves well. Really does show the development of all involved that they narrowly lost the game. 12 months ago it could have ended as a cricket score in Denabys favour, however, all do in deep and played a high tempo and motivating game. Alot more positives to take into our next County Senior League Game.