Toolstation NCEL Division One
Glasshoughton Welfare 0-1 Harworth Colliery
Ryan Ferguson was sent off. He will be suspended for Glasshoughton’s trip to Christian Fox’s Selby Town on November 17th.
Glasshoughton Welfare fans trudged off home disappointed at the ridiculous time of 10.10pm after Joshua Davies’ first half goal earned Harworth their victory.
Ryan Ferguson’s red card deep into injury-time compounded the defeat, against one of the league’s struggling sides. Ferguson will now miss the trip to Christian Fox’s Selby Town a week on Saturday through suspension.
Referee Lee Bramley did not paint himself in glory either. Mr Bramley crazily decided to let the game kick off at 8.15pm as the visitors had genuine traffic problems, but had a starting eleven and a few substitutes warming-up at 7.31pm.
The official was excellent in the first half, but he unnecessarily turned the second into a card-fest with almost every challenge deemed a caution-able offence – ruining his own performance.
Mr Bramley had already upset the home support and the rest of the crowd (which included former Welfare favourites Showman Ryan Poskitt and Mike Brearley) by making them stand and sit around like lemons for 30 minutes with the ridiculous kick-off time change. By the end they must have been close to grabbing the pitch-forks.
The match should have kicked off at either 7.50pm or 8pm. Both teams were clearly ready to go. Only the officials were not as they did not come out to warm-up until after 7.55pm. The team-sheets were exchanged at 7.30pm Whether Harworth benefited from the long delay is up for debate because Glasshoughton weren’t at their best.
All the Harworth Colliery players warming up at 19.41pm – 34 minutes before referee Lee Bramley decided to kick off
Welfare started brightly with Matt Semley having a shot cleared off-the-line, but that was as good as it got.
The winning goal soon arrived when Mat Zaniewski had to race out of his penalty area. The Glasshoughton goalkeeper headed the ball, but it did not travel far – presenting Davies with an open goal from 30 yards out.
Impressive Welfare left-back Tafadzwa Mumbanya then rattled the crossbar with an absolute belter of a long range strike.
But in terms of chances, Glasshoughton created little and did not look like scoring.
The night was summed up in the last few minutes when Ferguson was shown a second yellow card for a run-of-the-mill foul deep into Welfare’s half. Mr Bramley by then had probably lost track of who had been cautioned, and possibly of time.
The Team
Glasshoughton Welfare: Zaniewski, Sokol, Mumbanya, Hunter (captain), Pashley, Walsh, Bowman, Ferguson, Klimczak, Collier, Semley. Subs: Knight, Howley, Harley.
Welfare man of the match: Gaz Hunter