Worksop Town 1-2 Prescot Cables (Northern Premier League)
Worksop Town is a team I know a bit about but I don’t get too many opportunities to watch them play these days, the last time I saw them was at Workington last December ahead of a trip to Celtic Park on a midweek Champions League night, they eventually went on to reach the Northern Premier League playoffs before losing 3-1 to Macclesfield in the semi-final, ironically this season, Worksop sit second, four points below Macclesfield who are now managed by Robbie Savage as the team to beat in the title race.
Prescot Cables were promoted from the Division One West last season and have so far done alright in mid-table at step three, the Northern Premier League is a division they were in for five years between 2004 and 2009 but the club have spent their previous fifteen seasons ahead of this one in the NPL first tier which is regionalised, often changing boundaries and branding as North, West, North-West and now back to West.
It’s started to rain and is coming down at some pelters as I leave my house for 6pm it’s an hours journey north up the A roads of Nottinghamshire through Sherwood Forest territory, I’m into Worksop as the skies now darken to pitch black, over the A57 and down the Sparken Hill which has some lovely huge houses on it.
Past the showcase all lit up, Sat Nav’s taking me through the town centre which is as dead as a door nail before I come up Sandy Lane and pull off down a side street to park up a couple of minutes’ walk to the ground, rain still pouring down as I put on my winter waterproof with hood.
The Venue
Lit up from across the Babbage Way is the clubs pavilion, impressing against the retail units of Wickes, Halfords and Bensons for Beds, I cross the road and am through a WTFC logoed iron garden gate, into the car park where I head for the turnstiles, the most impressive in English football for me.
The entrance is inside all newly painted in yellow, before you reach the turnstile where tonight the price is £13 on card, quickly contactless I’m through where there’s signs for toilets and bar, a quick wee stop has me in conversation with an old boy fully scarved and hatted up in Tigers colours, he says in a North Notts/South Yorks coal mining accent “We got ta win tu neet” as he mutters “We need tut close gap tut point”.
Hands washed I’m into the open where the rain is easing up a little, the queue for the coffee bar too big and the stink of chips and grease is not for me so I’m finding seat in the stand that is roofed alongside the pitch, players out warming up on the synthetic surface as I look up and notice a nice new scoreboard on the pavilion wall.
The ground has a mixture of modern necessity and old character, the pitched roof pavilion isn’t that old but clad in cedar wood looks impressive and serves a purpose as social hub in the corner of the ground, I’ve sat half way in the oldest stand on offer, a yellow roofed tin made structure that is only five or six rows high, propped up by posts it offers a good but slightly obstructed view, opposite you see the buildings in the background of the local retail park peering over the tiny roofed stand and dugouts on halfway, to the left a small roofed standing area and to the right, the pavilion and standing area which has most of the home fans congregated near where the players walk out from behind the goal.
The Game
I’m sat down eating some Romneys Kendal Mint Cake purchased from a recent trip to the Lake District as “Eye of the Tiger” plays out on the tannoy, rain back in full force there’s people parking themselves down soaked to the rafters as the music changes to “always look on the bright side of life”.
Worksop start well in yellow, Prescot in Argentine blue and white stripes are deep in defensive formation as the Tigers strut their stuff on a wet but zippy patch, the home team are really good on the ball, unlike many at this level the club seem to keep their players and the brunt of this side have been together for a good two or three years now, which tells on the eye as they pass between each other, it’s second nature to know where there team-mates are, they always seem to out football their opponents and I’m sitting here thinking ‘this could be five or six tonight’ as they control proceedings mostly thanks to the smooth playmaking of Terry Hawkridge in midfield.
But Worksop’s Achilles heel is their defence, when Hamza Bencherif isn’t winning every other header they do have frailties and a long ball on fifteen causes mix up between centre half and goalkeeper, John Murphy has an empty net to prod into and Prescot have the lead against the run of play.
It’s a shock, but surely a repairable copybook blot, as Worksop continue to do what they do and by 28 have a leveller as the lively Dan Bramall cuts inside to let fly a shot too slippy for Cables keeper Mendes to handle.
The Score
At half time there’s boos ringing out from the home fans who are indeed a special breed up here, I think of all the grounds I’ve been too I’ve felt Worksop’s fans are probably the most intimidating at non-league level, they’ll always have their chirp at players and aren’t afraid of using an expletive.
It must be the nature of this coal mining community because most of North Notts and South Yorkshire is the same, it feels like when you go there you go back in time, which isn’t a bad thing if you like your spit and sawdust soccer served as working class.
I’m expecting Prescot to roll over in the second half and that appears to be the case within just ten minutes of the restart as Starcenko is taken down inside the area, Vaughan Redford steps up to put Worksop in the lead from the spot but his low driven effort to the right of Andre Mendes is saved, clung onto and held gratefully by the goalkeeper.
That chance missed provides optimism to Prescot who’s small number of fans find voice, the Liverpudlians are lively as they suddenly start probing the Worksop goal, a succession of corners has them nearly take the lead, before Worksop change things by bringing on a couple of strikers in search of their own goal.
One of those strikers, Jacob Gratton, sets fire from range a bullet that clips the crossbar, then neat play down the right has Aleks Starcenko head wide, but at the other end as Worksop send forces forward, they again defensively come undone, suddenly John Murphy is through on goal to home in and slide past Malkowski, it’s again, very much against the run of play.
That goal gives Prescot something to cling on to whilst Worksop now desperate are attacking at every angle as Wilde lashes wide before he heads brilliantly saved by Mendes who somehow blocks a certain leveller on ninety.
The rain coming back for full time doesn’t dampen the mood of the Prescot players who celebrate with their fans alongside fist pumping manager Steve Daley, an unlikely victory in a game where they hardly had the ball, as Worksop waltz off in the wet wondering how they lost, I ask the same question to the guy sat next to me who agrees, “that’s football” he says “to neet was just not ah neet.”
The Stars
It’s hard to make a case for many Prescot players catching the eye as they had so little of the ball but important in victory were John Murphy in attack, who took both of the two opportunities he had, whilst Andre Mendes, although spilling Dan Bramall’s tricky effort for Town’s only goal, made some saves that in the end would make the difference.
Worksop had a lot of the ball but were punished by missing too many chances, everything good went through Terry Hawkridge who has one of the best right foots at the level, Dan Bramall was perhaps the next best player as he tried to invent from a number ten style position, whilst Aleks Starcenko got forward from midfield well, there wasn’t many players who played badly for Worksop, but they had moments of concentration lapse which in the end would cost them badly.
The Verdict
Can Worksop seriously challenge Macclesfield at the top? After nights like tonight perhaps not? They’ll outplay many teams in the division and by those in the know they are already considered as the best footballing team in the NPL, but doing it in November, December, January, when they are away from their artificial home patch and on some soddened, scratched and uneven surfaces, may be tricky?
I do think Worksop will be there or thereabouts, but probably a long way short of Macclesfield, for Prescot Cables I think they’ll be ok, organised and defensively well structured, to their credit they were prepared for Worksop having a lot of the ball against them, they did get a peppering and certainly got lucky, but better to be lucky and win, than unlucky and lose, as Worksop found out at cost.
The Teams
Worksop Town: Seb Malkowski, Deegan Atherton, Josh Wilde, Aleks Starcenko, Hamza Bencherif, Luke Shiels, Terry Hawkridge, Vaughan Redford (Jacob Gratton 56), Jordan Burrow (Liam Hughes 60), Dan Bramall, Luke Hall.
Prescot Cables: Andre Mendes, Alex McNally, Matthew Devine, Nathan Koehler, James Devine, Francis Smith, Jack Goodwin, Charley Doyle, John Murphy, Ben Elliott (Tom Owens 46), Lewis Gilboy.
7:45pm Kick Off. Tuesday 8th October 2024, Sandy Lane, Worksop (595).
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