Toolstation NCEL Division One
Nostell Miners Welfare joint manager Simon Houghton
Simon Houghton admitted the final score of 3-0 did not reflect Nostell Miners Welfare’s dominance in the victory at fellow high-flyers Worsbrough Bridge.
Goals from Kai Hancock, Jack Owen and debutant Joe Wood secured the points for Nostell, whose new goalkeeper Jordan Greaves had relatively little to do.
Houghton, who said that a reconnaissance mission to watch Bridge in last Sunday’s FA Vase clash with Squires Gate massively helped, claimed that the only disappointment was that his and Jason Dodsworth’s men were not as ruthless as they should been.
“We fully deserved it,” joint manager Houghton told Non League Yorkshire.
“At Grimsby last week it was a bitter pill to swallow as for the first 45 minutes we were very good and we should have put that game to bed. Obviously we have come here today and got ourselves 2-0 up with last Saturday still fresh in our minds.
“Coming to Worsbrough and winning 3-0, there is not many teams who will do that this season. Maybe the score-line should have been a bit more, but we’ll take it. It is a clean sheet and all three strikers got a goal. It shows we have got over last week’s defeat pretty quickly.
“The fact we were 2-0 up against Worsbrough last month and we went onto lose may have been on the players’ mind, but not mine as I couldn’t see us losing the game.
“We spoke at length in the week about what was required and we needed to game-manage it. I felt we managed the game well.
“We need to learn and put teams to the sword and we should have done a lot earlier today because we were dominant in the first half. We didn’t create clear-cut chances, but we should have pressed it home more and gone in more than 2-0 up.
“We came to watch Worsbrough last Sunday and they played exactly in the same way to how they did then. We knew what was going to happen. They would play out from the back and the two centre-halves would drop off and two centre midfielders would come into collect it.
“That’s why we kept our three in midfield as we did. The midfielders didn’t get dragged into it so we kept our shape. Yes, we didn’t press as high as we could, but we wanted to give them a little bit of room.
“Worsbrough weren’t hurting us though.”
Worsbrough remain third in the table after enjoying their best start to a season since the Chris Hilton era and Houghton paid tribute to Park Road boss Lee Morris.
“Worsbrough have made massive progress, the job Lee (Morris) is doing down here is absolutely fantastic,” he said.
“Being a Barnsley-lad I want Barnsley teams to do well and he’s got people talking about Worsbrough. More people are coming through the gate and it is great.
“He’s got to be really proud of what he has done with a really young group. They’re going to take some beating this season.”
One of the stars of Nostell’s victory was new signing Wood, who arrived from West Yorkshire League giants Beeston St Anthonys’ in midfield. The winger turned up at Park Road as an unknown quantity, but left as a superstar in the making and Houghton was very impressed.
“Jack Owen predominately plays for us on the left-hand side or down the middle so we moved him onto the right-hand-side as we saw a weak link on their left side,” he said.
“We put him which gave Joe the chance to play in his favoured position. He’s been training with us and he’s stepped up and you could see today that when you get the ball out to him, he’s a threat.
“He deserved his goal. He’s only a teenager, but you can see that he has been coached before. We didn’t need to tell him to stand and he’s probably one of the quickest players I’ve seen at this level.
“It is alright being quick, but you have to do something with it and he had a hand in the first goal and got the third goal. He was a constant threat.”
Another debutant was Greaves, dual-registered with Stocksbridge Park Steels. He also caught the eye of Houghton.
“Jordan wasn’t really tested but he’s come for his first game and his communication was good, his kicking was good,” he said.
“As a goalkeeper, it is two big ones. Yeah he could be a brilliant shot stopper, but I would rather he had no shots to stop and that he controlled his area and made sure the defenders are doing their job in front.
“From the first minute, I didn’t need to tell him to be communicative. It is a massive thing for the back four.”