Armthorpe Welfare 1-0 Rainworth Miners Welfare

Armthorpe Welfare 1-0 Rainworth Miners Welfare
Northern Counties East League
Wednesday 18th August 2021

Adam Baskerville's second half penalty ensured Armthorpe Welfare took the points and maintained their decent start to the season with a 1-0 victory over Rainworth Miners Welfare.

In a relatively uneventful game which lacked quality and had few chances, Armthorpe were the better team with more pace and fluidity, whereas Rainworth fielded an experienced team - by all accounts quite different to the one which was thrashed 3-0 in the meeting between the same clubs only last week. It appeared the visitors were happy to try and nick a goal if they could and on another night they may have returned back to Nottinghamshire with something to show for their efforts.

The only goal came seven minutes into the second half when a Rainworth defender was judged to have handled inside his own box. Some might feel it was a harsh decision and despite protests, the referee (who I thought officiated quite well) was unmoved and Baskerville smashed home the resulting spot-kick to move Armthorpe up to the lofty heights of fifth position in the Northern Counties East League (Division One) table.

Despite generally just being big, experienced and a bit basic, Rainworth did cause their opponents a few problems and could have scored a goal or even took the lead.

Armthorpe 'keeper Callum Fielding, who has now kept three clean-sheets in as many appearances since joining the club last week, endured a heart in mouth moment just before half-time when he came off his line and clattered into a Rainworth striker who'd out-paced a defender and broken clear into a one-on-one situation only for his touch to let him down. After a lengthy delay in which the referee consulted his assistant, Fielding was deemed (correctly in my view) to have got to the ball first by the officials; a good job it was too, because had he not done so then a red card would have been inevitable.

The visitors also created a few openings shortly after the re-start as they were denied by Fielding again - this time as he saved a goalbound header, whilst Keiran Coupe and a couple of his Rainworth team-mates in yellow shirts flashed efforts wide as they later searched for an equaliser.

Armthorpe's pace down the flanks led to a few promising situations arising with Harry Brown and Connor Clayton (I think) leaving visiting full-backs chasing shadows on two separate occasions. Baskerville was the hosts' chief threat but a second goal wasn't forthcoming, nor was an equaliser.

The result means Armthorpe move above local rivals Rossington Main in the early-season table ahead of this Saturday's 'Donny Derby' at Oxford Street. Rainworth, meanwhile, remain in the lower echelons of the division with a cluster of other clubs who re-joined the NCEL from the now defunct East Midlands Counties League this summer.