The “mouth-watering” S&HCSL League Cup quarter-final between local rivals Dodworth Miners Welfare and holders North Gawber has the potential to be a classic.
That’s the view of Gawber head honcho Dave Simms whose side make the short journey to Dodworth on Friday night (kick off 6.30pm) to attempt to book a semi-final tussle with favourites Swinton Athletic.
The clash of the two Step 7 giants – who have been two of the three top County Senior League sides for the last three years – is almost certainly the biggest grassroots football match in Barnsley since March 2020 and Simms admits history suggests a humdinger.
“The games in the past with Dodworth have been classics, absolutely brilliant games,” Simms told Non League Yorkshire.
“The first game was at our place (in 2018/19) and they went 1-0 up after five minutes, but we equalised before half-time.
“It was probably one of our best performances ever as we ran out 4-1 winners. We played some breath-taking stuff.
“The next game which was a few weeks later was an absolute classic. It was end-to-end and Dodworth scored in the 90th minute to make it 2-1.
“Cue the celebrations and I was thinking ‘they’ve nicked it at the end’. We kicked off and got a corner and equalised with the last kick of the game. It was fantastic, for us anyway.
“The third game during the season after (2019/20) finished two-a-piece at Dodworth. Dodworth took the lead, we equalised. They went down to ten men and then scored with ten men.
“I think (Dodworth defender) Simon Rogers scored in the 89th minute and we scored in the 92nd minute so history repeated itself.
“I hope it (the quarter-final) is going to be as good as those games, but famous last words, watch, it’ll be 0-0 and 3-2 on penalties! It’ll be most boring game ever!”
Injured key man Lewis Elsworth is burning the midnight oil in a bid to win his race to be fit.
That’s hardly surprising given the excitement surrounding the fixture and Simms admits he can’t wait.
“I think it is going to be a high-tempo physical game,” he said.
“There’s two good footballing sides who like to get the ball down and play and are evenly matched on paper.
“We have big mutual respect for each other, but there’ll be big tackles and I think it will be a good close competitive game. I’m hoping so anyway.
“It is definitely a mouth-watering tie and it will be a great advert for County Senior League football. I’m really looking forward to it.
“I think there’ll be a great crowd especially with it being the summertime. There’ll be a couple of hundred people there. There’s big interest from two communities and you’ll have a lot of neutrals interested from various leagues.
“If players aren’t excited for this kind of game then they should find another sport.”
Gawber’s path to the quarter-finals has been a TV scriptwriter’s dream.
Gawber progressed through after finishing second to Handsworth reserves in Group B.
Two wins over Jubilee Sports secured their tie with Dodworth, but the group finished three weeks later than planned.
The drama began when the second game – the home clash with Jubilee – was abandoned after two mass brawls after punches were thrown at the Gawber players.
Wins over Hepworth United and Houghton Main established Gawber as front-runners to progress.
But then came the bizarre 11-2 defeat at Handsworth.
“I knew you would ask me about that one,” quipped Simms.
The disastrous result put Gawber’s hopes in jeopardy as Houghton then withdraw from the competition, meaning their records were expunged.
Hepworth found themselves in second place until Gawber got over the finish line with the Jubilee victories.
“We drew the first game (against Handsworth) and it was like a pre-season game,” he said.
“There was no pace and it was just flat.
“The second game got abandoned after 60 minutes. We then beat Hepworth at home.
“At Handsworth, and this isn’t an excuse, we had an outfield ‘keeper in goal. We were down to the bare bares as we had a lot of lads missing.
“It was one of those freak games. I’ve been involved in football 30 years and never been on the end of a score-line like that.
“It was 3-1 at half-time and I backed us to get back into the game because we missed a great chance before half-time.
“But every-time they (Handsworth) went forward in the second half they scored.
“I’ll take nothing away from Handsworth as even if we had a stronger squad available it would have been tough as they were exceptional on the day. They moved the ball so well and took their chances.
“I would like to think we had the situation (of going through) under control.
“If Houghton Main had stayed in the competition we could have won the group as we had beaten them away and we still had to play them at home.
“We had only lost one game so if you factor in Houghton Main’s results it wasn’t as tight as it looks.”