Worksop Town 5-0 Brighouse Town

Worksop Town 5-0 Brighouse Town

Pre-Season Friendly

Saturday 13th July 2024

Four games into pre-season and Worksop Town still have a 100% win ratio and have now racked up 19 goals with this latest success being quite a comfortable one against Step 4 outfit Brighouse Town.

On a day when Worksop’s Twitter account very weirdly went kaput not long after the full-time whistle, the Tigers were in good form and played some good football with Dan Bramall bagging his first goals for the club (albeit Jordan Burrow might want to claim one of them), Regan Hutchinson scoring one (and having another impressive game where he again earned my respect), Luke Shiels claiming another, whilst the one in the second half was scored by ‘Terry-I-list’ as he was announced over the PA system.

The star of last Saturday’s win over Barton Town was another Terry-I-list, nicknamed ‘Charlie The Trialist’ once a few fans had figured out his first name. The ‘hat-trick’ in that game will certainly be remembered and an hour before kick-off, Charlie Winfield was unmasked as that particular Terry-I-list - and Worksop’s latest summer signing!

Having watched Chaz plenty of times in the U21s Professional Development League for Barnsley (his previous club) then firstly, he’s a genuinely top class lad and secondly, he’s a quality player and without doubt someone I’ve enjoyed watching the most across ALL the players I’ve seen in that league. He’s sharp, tenacious, has lots of ability, is determined, offers pace and quality, I’m proud to call him a mate and know him, and I couldn’t be happier that he’s earned this move which is an opportunity for him to settle down, establish himself at a decent standard, get game-time and get his career going again after a rough few years.

I did write a blog last week which offers a bit more insight into his background (which you can read here) and I wish him all the luck going forward because he deserves the best - albeit rest assured that when you read this Chaz, I will be giving you stick for the ‘other’ goal in last Saturday’s ‘hat-trick’ for some time to come.

As I also wrote in that blog, Dan Bramall is a good player with bags of pace and ability and when it all clicks for him (as it’s inevitably going to at some point) then he’s going to do very well - you only have to have eyes to see the class in him!

And although Brighouse nearly scored the opener inside the first minute when one of those horribly awkward cross-shots from the right eluded Tommy Taylor and grazed the woodwork, it was none other than Mr Dan Bramall who scored Worksop’s opener as he picked his spot with aplomb and curled the ball home stylishly from the edge of the box with Charlie Winfield claiming the assist thanks to a neat little pass into him. The link-up play down the left flank between Chaz and Dan was decent at times in the first half (they did train together at Barnsley for a season) and that understanding they have with one another might be something that can blossom in the coming months. We shall see.

As the first half wore on, Worksop certainly blossomed. They looked commanding and were on top and before half-time three more goals came. 

Regan Hutchinson reacted quickest after the Brighouse ‘keeper only parried a shot and bravely threw himself towards the ball and headed it in on the rebound to make it 2-0. The third goal was scored by Dan Bramall (just about) with a shot that deflected off Jordan Burrow - one for the dubious goals committee to decide, and right on half-time it was 4-0 as a deep free-kick towards the back-post was recycled back across goal by Hamza Bencherif towards Luke Shiels who had the simplest of conversions from pretty much on the goal-line.

In the second half there proved to be one more goal which the Tigers added to their tally which came on around 70 minutes; a total blockbuster of a strike courtesy of another trialist playing at left-wing-back who unleashed a thunderbolt which flew past the Brighouse ‘keeper who was rooted to the line. And 5-0 it was.

Worksop could have bagged more and in the best of the other chances that came and went, the young lad - No.18 (sadly I don’t know his name) went so close to scoring when the ball dropped perfectly for him inside the box only for the visiting ‘keeper to get in the way and make a save with his foot - and I don’t think the ‘keeper particularly knew much about it when he made the save either. 

Dan Bramall also so nearly got his hat-trick with an effort that caught a deflection and went just wide; a shame he didn’t happen because he played superbly and was a worthy ‘Man Of The Match’ contender to claim a champagne bottle or something had this been a league game, but he can take plenty of confidence from a positive day, adding the end product that he was lacking last Saturday, and showing the exact reasons as to why I rate him so highly.

At the other end, Brighouse themselves had a big chance to get on the score-sheet and claim a consolation when one of their forwards found himself clean through yet somehow dragged his low shot wide of Tommy Taylor’s right-hand post when it looked harder to miss than score. One of those days but the scoreline isn’t too important. It’s pre-season. The league games are the ones which will always matter.

Worksop’s next pre-season outing is on Tuesday against Buxton and it’s going to be fascinating to say how the experience in this Tigers team compares against the inexperience and youth in the Buxton team - albeit as I saw when the Bucks lost at Rossington on Tuesday, they can move and retain the ball really well and their fitness levels ought to be good due to their full-time status.