Northern Counties East League

Division 1

Wednesday 15th March 2023

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.48

Horbury Town 3 Retford 1, attendance 71 (official 88)

3’ 1-0

30’ 1-1

72’ 2-1

75’ 3-1

@ Slazenger Sports Club

Southfield Lane

Horbury

WF4 5BH

£5 Admission

£1 Programme, 12 pages.

Tonight’s match saw a visit to the only ground I hadn’t previously visited in this league, where 6th hosted 8th in the league table. It started raining just as the M1/M6 splits near Rugby, as I headed north to Yorkshire and continued to do so for the rest of the evening. Thankfully, it was only drizzle/light and the pitch looked in reasonable condition. There is also quite a side to side slope here, which perhaps helps with drainage.

Horbury Town are newly promoted this season and the ground is gradually being brought up to standard. Unfortunately, they have put their seated area right behind the dugouts, which means there is a huge blind spot in one corner of the pitch. There is a smaller concrete base, along with a second section of seats ready to go in place, but it is on the other side of the dugouts, which again will give a blind spot, but in the opposite corner! Surely it is time that the ground grading criteria is changed to stop this. Seating numbers should only be counted by the actual number of seats where you can see the whole pitch from, unobstructed. The simple solution would be to move the dugouts to the other side of the pitch.

Anyway, back to the game….and what a good one it was! Horbury were ahead after just three minutes, when a through ball was finished with a lob over the ‘keeper from the edge of the box. It could have been 2-0 just before the half hour mark, but Horbury missed a penalty, courtesy of a great double save from the ‘keeper, diving to save the first shot, before somehow stopping the follow up as well. Just two minutes later Retford were level, when a cross from the right was headed back across the six yard box and swept in from six yards out.

The second half flowed from end to end. Retford hit the post with a free kick and Horbury could have gone ahead when a striker rounded the ‘keeper, but then missed the target with his shot. Eighteen minutes from time Horbury edged back in front, when a long ball over the top saw the ‘keeper collide with his own defender, leaving the striker to finish with a cool lob from outside the box into the empty net. There were good chances at each end, before Horbury wrapped up the three points with fifteen minutes left, when another long ball saw the ‘keeper miss kick his attempted clearance and Jack Kelly rolled it into an empty net from 25 yards to complete his hattrick.