Darren Young has urged local people to turn out in force and be the 12th man in Dodworth Miners Welfare’s bid to slay unbeatable foe Swinton Athletic and reach the League Cup Final.
Underdogs Dodworth host competition favourites Swinton – who last lost a Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League game in April 2019 – on ‘Super Saturday’ at 1pm.
The two Step 7 giants are bidding to book a Final showdown against Handsworth Reserves and everything points to the game and day being a fantastic occasion for the league.
Around 300 people roared Dodworth to the quarter-final mauling of North Gawber and in a metaphorical megaphone address, Young said he hopes the Dodworth village recreate the carnival atmosphere from the Gawber tie as it feels it could give him an extra edge.
“The crowd gave us an extra 10% against Gawber, they were fantastic and I’m hoping we get a similar crowd tomorrow,” Young told Non League Yorkshire.
“You cannot not want to play in these type of games with crowds like that.
“I think the crowd (against Gawber) spurred our lads on and home advantage does make a difference.
“We need the local community to come and support us again and if they do we’ll be hard to beat.
“We want to win it (the League Cup) now.
“We’ve got Swinton who are the favourites so we’ll be underdogs again, but if we put the North Gawber performance on again then I don’t think we’ll be far off.
“Against Gawber we were really composed in our approach and we took that onto the pitch.
“We didn’t make it a battle. We didn’t make it hard for ourselves and we were clinical.
“But we are underdogs. They haven’t been beat for two years so how can we not be.”
Barnsley-based Dodworth were really confident of ending Swinton’s unbeaten run to an end last October in the well-publicised Premier Division encounter.
However, on the day Dodworth failed to live up to their billing and were well-beaten in the 3-0 defeat.
Young understands why Swinton are so strong and believes the October loss has been a blessing in disguise.
“They just do the simple things so well and they are just clinical,” he said.
“They are well-organised and they don’t give you many chances and they take their chances when they get them.
“That’s the sign of a good team. That’s what we want to be.
“They do everything really well and that’s what you have to do to beat them.
“You have to do the basics really well and take your chances when they present themselves.
“Yes it did go wrong last time, but if you look at that game we had about ten corners in the first 20 minutes and they scored at key times.
“We have to learn from that and we have learnt from that.
“The performance after that game was outstanding and you look at a few of the results after it we had learnt.
“The experience (of losing to Swinton) has been good for us.
“They are favourites, but we have learnt and we’re hoping we will give them a good game.
“It has set itself really well and it is going to be a great semi-final.”
The day has been coined ‘Super Saturday’ as the semi-final between the Step 7 giants is followed by the Memorial Cup Final between Showman Ryan Poskitt’s Silkstone and Athersley Rec Reserves at 3.30pm on the same pitch.
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