Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League Premier Division
Dodworth Miners Welfare manager Darren Young has his team for overcoming real adversity in two recent victories and highlighted the influence of captain Aaron Brotherton in them.
Dubious refereeing has ravaged Dodworth like a bad rash in the past six weeks with them having to play with ten men for most of the outstanding wins over Sheffield Town and Oughtibridge
Young says his men have shown great character.
“The two games which have been really pleasing for me have been the ones that people probably don’t expect,” Young told Non League Yorkshire.
“Sheffield Town, we played with ten men for 70 minutes and then we played Oughtibridge with ten men for 80 minutes.
“I think the big thing from those games is how we adapted and overcame potentially disappointing results and came out with six points from those games.
“In the past we probably wouldn’t have got them.
“It is important to mention the big role our captain Aaron has made.
“He’s been our best player this year and he is someone everyone looks up to and a big part of why we end up grinding out results.
“He’s the main man for us – if he plays well, nine times out of ten we win.
“He has been a big part of every win, even more so (the Oughtibridge and Sheffield Town games).
“We were 1-0 down at Houghton Main and he gets our equaliser and drives the lads on.
“He’s massive to everything we do.”
Those two games could have gone a different way and left Dodworth’s title bid in tatters.
But they remain in the chase of leaders Swinton Athletic and Young says the race is wide open.
“Swinton were always going to lose and I believe they’ll drop more points,” he said.
“Everyone has dropped points.
“There’s still five or six teams who could win the league, it is tight.
“I can’t see any team running away with it and it will team who gets the consistency after Christmas who will win it.”
Rather than the title race, the biggest talking point of the Premier Division campaign has been the wildcard rule.
It was brought in for clubs to use once a season in the dire emergency but it has been widely criticised and Young foresees the rule being removed for next season.
“I was at the meeting (where it was voted in) and I think it was done in the spirit of understanding things have changed because of the pandemic and people might not know if they are going to work on weekends,” he said.
“The spirit of it was if a team was really really struggling then they could pull out on the Wednesday.
“I wasn’t for or against it but I could see why it was voted in and understood why but some teams have used it when they have had a couple missing which is not what it was there for.
“But it is a rule that is there and you can take advantage of it.
“It was about helping finish the league properly but some teams have taken advantage of it and it has not been great.
“We have used the wildcard because we didn’t have players available because of work, holidays.
“I think by the end of the season everyone will have taken the wildcard but I would imagine it won’t be in next year.”
With Christmas looming, Young will soon sit down to write his Christmas cards and Gary Hubbard, the referee who lost control of the Oughtibridge game, won’t be on his list.
Hubbard’s performance will live long in the memories of the two sides.
“The referee of the Ougtibridge game made it really difficult for us to get the three points,” he said.
“What was more staggering is he thought he had a good game.
“Both managers weren’t happy and that tells you everything you need to know because if both managers weren’t happy then he was bad for both teams.”
Dodworth are away at Jubilee Sports tomorrow.