Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League
Dodworth Miners Welfare 0-3 Swinton Athletic
Justin Greenwood and Enzo Guarini ended Dodworth Miners Welfare’s unbeaten start in the ‘match of the day’ and sent ‘reigning champions’ Swinton Athletic to the top of the Premier Division.
A blistering ten minute spell of sublime attacking football midway through the first half saw Swinton grab two goals, knocking the stuffing out of Dodworth who for all their possession had no real answers for them and received a reality check. A Greenwood penalty with 18 minutes to go put the home side out of their misery.
Dodworth had occupied top spot having won five and drawn one of their opening six matches and they had been confident of ending Swinton’s year-long dominance on the league.
Swinton were unbeaten and had won 17 out of a possible 18 games – drawing the other – when the league was thrown out of the window in March. April 2019 is the month Swinton were last beaten in the league. Dodworth want to take their throne and beating them would have been real statement of intent. Ultimately the clash of the titans failed to live up to its huge billing.
For the 25 minutes, Darren Young’s men had been on top, but without truly testing Swinton’s former Glasshoughton Welfare goalkeeper Jordan Watson apart from a late-Danny Barlow chance. Perhaps a further disappointing aspect of Dodworth’s performance was they had an overall corner total in double figures and yet did not come close from one of them – despite some obvious height in the box. Jack Owen had their best chance in the first half – a powerful hit which whilst straight at Watson, the stopper needed to bat away.
Once as Swinton got into the groove, Dodworth’s defence could not handle their fearsome attack whose movement, pace and penetration were excellent – play which would give some NCEL Division One sides a run for their money. Guarini is a little magician who is a gem of a player and him and Greenwood tore the the home side to shreds.
The warning shots were fired when Swinton missed a sitter after Greenwood forced goalkeeper Josh Herring into a fine save and then within 60 seconds, placed a shot wide after leaving Dodworth’s defence stranded.
Dodworth were looking increasingly vulnerable at the back and although from their superb main stand it looked offside, Greenwood broke clear and rounded Herring to break the deadlock.
Dodworth were still licking their wounds from that when Guarini effectively made an untracked run to bury a cross from a right with a extremely nice low strike.
The corners continued to flow for the home side and a lot of the second half was spent in the visitors’ half. But because of how well organised Swinton were across their defence and midfield you always felt it would take something special. Brief flickers of hope appeared occasionally.
That hope was firmly extinguished when a needless handball from defender Reece Hawkshaw allowed Greenwood to brilliantly and confidently convert a penalty.
Swinton are back top and could be there for sometime if the break lasts longer than a month… If it is longer Young and Dodworth have lots of time to work on a plan to stop the title favourites now they know what is required.
The Teams
Dodworth Miners Welfare: Josh Herring, Ben Severn, James Young, Sam Severn, Simon Rogers, Reece Hawkshaw, Connor Rollinson, Aaron Brotherton, Jack Owen, Danny Barlow, Liam Owen. Subs: Tom Batty, Ollie Stokes, Calan Rollinson.
Swinton Athletic: Jordan Watson, Shawn Mitchell, Curtis Wilkinson, Alex Wilkinson, Jonathan Billups, Ryan Doxey, Craig Mitchell, Owen Fieldsend, Sam Hanna, Justin Greenwood, Enzo Guarini. Subs: Regan Kelly, Daniel Ravenscroft, Andrew Whitehead.
Who Was In Charge
Joe Golland (7/10)
Man of the Match
Enzo Guarini (Swinton Athletic)
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. When we properly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.
