Armthorpe Welfare 3-2 Swallownest

Armthorpe Welfare 3-2 Swallownest

Northern Counties East League (Division One)

Wednesday 2nd November 2022

Another night; another football match - this time on a Champions League night when I could have stayed at home, but a first trip of the season to Church Street to watch Armthorpe Welfare.

This was my second of eight games in the space of a week (definitely keeping busy at the moment) and the whole purpose of it was to see Tom Parkinson - on loan at Wellie from Doncaster Rovers U18s, make his debut in men’s football.

With Rovers not having had an U21s set-up since it was scrapped a couple of years back; Terry Bramall’s cost-cutting knows no boundaries, it was decided many months ago when Gary McSheffrey was still manager that the best way for the youth team players to ‘progress’ in their development was for the club to arrange work experience type loans at non-league clubs for them..

As a consequence, Tom is at Armthorpe - and this was his first appearance, whilst second-year YT ‘keeper Tom Chambers (who played for Welly at the tail end of last season) has also been registered to play at some point. Four other scholars; Jake Oram, Josh Lindley, Alex Fletcher and Charlie Petch, all made their debuts for noisy neighbours Rossington Main in a cup win over Swinton Athletic last month on the same night that Rovers got hammered by Barnsley in the Papa John’s Trophy.

It is what it is and, if Uncle Terry isn’t going to provide the funds for a much-preferred option of an U21s or B Team, plans to develop the youngsters via other alternatives have to be put in place and that’s exactly what has been done.

Football at NCEL level is obviously quite different to youth football; it’s raw, ready, and what it lacks in finesse or quality, it certainly makes up for in intensity. If you make mistakes, give the ball away or generally play like an idiot, then it won’t be very long before someone is screaming their head off and telling you in no uncertain terms to sort it out.

Armthorpe have certainly bucked their ideas up in recent weeks; climbing the table after a bad start in which they took zero points from their first four games and were even in the relegation zone at one stage. This victory, which was their fifth in succession in the league, means Lee Morris (banned from the technical area for this game) might be in for the NCEL’s ‘Manager Of The Month’ award - if the league did such a thing!

Swallownest, also had an ex-DRFC scholar in their ranks for this game having signed Conner Williamson from Armthorpe in the summer, and he’s since grown a mullet which I’m quite jealous about because it’s more hair than I’ve had at any point in the last 15 (possibly 20?) years.

On a wet pitch which was slippery and cut up a bit after a few downpours during the game, there wasn’t much to separate the two teams but Armthorpe possessed one ‘weapon’ which every team ought to have - a long-throw!

And it was when Owen Sykes (I think he was No.2) first launched the ball into the box towards the far-post via that method (some throw by the way) just before half-time that the opener arrived with the ball only being partially cleared as far as the edge of the box where Louis Wardle was there to smack it emphatically into the back of the net, giving the ‘keeper no chance.

Whilst Sykes’ throws were decent, his shots left a bit more to be desired and one effort he had in the early stages of the second half had so much bend on it that it ended up going out for a throw. It wasn’t quite the worst shot of the night because someone (can’t remember who!) managed to find the roof of ALDI - some skill that is by the way!

Wellie doubled their lead on 52 minutes in bizarre style as Wardle’s long-kick from the centre circle should have been claimed by the Swallownest ‘keeper who somehow fumbled the ball over the line and into his own net. At 2-0 and in command, that should have been that but to their credit, the visitors came roaring back as two strikes in quick succession by Liam Frost and Oliver Grady meant they were soon back on level terms.

Very much in the ascendency at this point, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that Swallownest would go on to win. However, that proved not to be the case as a combination of Sykes’ long-throw and more dodgy goalkeeping proved to be the visitors’ undoing, with the ‘keeper dropping one at his near-post which eventually got scrambled into the net by Kane Reece to make it 3-2 to Armthorpe with about 20-odd minutes remaining.

Parkinson was then thrust onto the pitch for his first taste of senior football during the latter stages in which he applied himself well and had a few chances to get a debut albeit that wasn't to be. Nevertheless, it still proved to be a winning start for him as Armthorpe held on to get all three points, leapfrog Swallownest in the Division One table, and continue their decent form ahead of Saturday’s trip to Retford.