2005/06 season match No.45
Friday, March 24th, 2006
Nationwide North
Moor Green 0 , Alfreton Town 0
Report by Clive Edwards). Pics by Phil Lucic.

Moor Green missed a penalty in the first half; Alfreton did likewise in the second.
Neither side really looked like scoring all night. Not even from the penalty spot. It was just one of those evenings when you knew that Darren Middleton, from 12 yards, would hook his spot kick a couple of yards wide of the post, and Jon Stevenson, from the same distance, would chip the ball without venom for the keeper to grasp to the right of his body.
Both penalties were correctly given by a referee who seemed to fuss over the game like a wife vacuuming the living room while you’re trying to watch soccer on the television. Noisy, self-righteous, in everyone’s way, but not likely to listen to anyone else’s opinion.
In the 22nd minute the lively Dale Anderson, making his debut on loan from Burton Albion, tore down the right side of the field, crossed low to top scorer McPhee who lined up a shot as Matt Fisher heroically dived in feet first from behind to cause the striker to skew his aim a yard wide.
The referee knew that Fisher had made more contact with player than ball. A yellow card for the Alfreton midfielder was a relief . It could have been worse.
But the man in black, and then the penalty taker, took pity on the Reds and let them off the hook. Middleton took careful aim and executed his shot with all the precision of a long-range weather forecaster. Going in the right direction, more or less, but miles off by the time it got there.
In the 52nd minute, Godber sent Bettney away down the right flank with a superb through ball. Bettney’s pace left the Moor Green defence in his tracks, allowing him time to look up and think about lobbing the keeper. With the subtlety of a Keystone Cops routine, the Moor Green goalie applied neither steering nor brakes and ploughed headlong into Bettney.
Clear penalty, possible red card. Generosity from referee and penalty taker reciprocated. The offender got only a yellow card, and Stevo failed to score his eighth league goal of the season.
It is now 452 minutes of football since Alfreton scored an away goal in the league. Older supporters will remember Ryan Clarke’s cracker at Northwich. Golden moments like those define soccer seasons. Supporters edit from their minds the mountains of dull, physical, mid-pitch combats, and store to memory the flashes of inspiration and genius that make us leap into the air.
This match against Moor Green had 92 minutes in all. Every one of them was forgettable.
But at the end, Alfreton had earned a point. And as the regulars know, if Alfreton are to remain in the Conference North next season, it will be because they have had the sheer guts and stickability to grind out draws when lesser teams would have thrown in the towel.
Gary Mills summed it up at the end of the game “We gave as good as we got. Scoring away from home has been our problem all season. But it’s nowhere near as big a problem when you don’t concede any. The bad thing is when you give away a silly goal early on. We’ve done that before, but tonight we defended well, and deserved a point. Moor Green are an in-form side, so I’m happy with this result.”
Alfreton had to play without the injured Chris Howard, whose creative instinct and ability to slow the game down to a sensible pace has influenced the Reds for the better in recent games.
Nwadike and Fisher fight and tackle well in midfield. No opposition can ever relax against these two snipers. But Howard adds an extra dimension. He plays the ball square when team-mates need to catch up, and forward incisively when he glimpses an opening.
He may be the key to Alfreton getting those last few points that will spell safety.
As for this game, after half an hour’s play, Bettney nipped onto a Nwadike through ball, cut inside, turned at right angles to miscue a shot that trickled goalwards. The keeper picked it up. It was the first, and only shot he saved in that half.
All around the ground, within half a mile of Birmingham International Airport, into the night sky planes took off. Sadly, the match failed to emulate them.
Alfreton played with slightly more pizzazz in the second half. Chances arose intermittently. Rankine blasted one into the darkness with ten minutes remaining, and Turner miscued a shot in the dying minutes. But the best chances fell to Moor Green.
The speedy Anderson combined well with top-scorer McPhee throughout the night. Mark Rayner pulled off a couple of very good saves in the last quarter of the game. Collins snatched at the ball when a good striker would have taken his time.
Faulds took advantage of an offside position to create an opening only to blast the ball wide of the mark. Middleton was put through in acres of space, but rather than run forward with the ball and shoot from ten yards, he tried his luck from 25 and missed by the same distance.
A hundred years ago, England and Australia used to play cricket matches against each other that would go on until one side had won. They called them ‘timeless’ matches. If this quaint rule had applied to this fixture, we would still be there now, watching the planes take off for sunny Spain, wishing we were on one of them.
MOOR GREEN: Timms, Scott, Midworth, Collins (capt) Penny, Nurse, Morrison( Faulds 66), Middleton (Petty 86), Anderson (Dowdall 90+1), McPhee, Trainer. Subs not used:Bridgwater, Sanders
ALFRETON TOWN: Rayner, Clarke, Featherstone, Robinson (capt) (Powell 38),Turner, Hume (Blount 80), Bettney, Nwadike, Godber (Rankine 66),Stevenson, Fisher. Subs not used: Mills, Bodkin
REFEREE: Mr W D Smallwood (Northwich).
ATTENDANCE : 226.
RED CARD: none.
YELLOW CARD: Moor Green: Timms (foul play) 52. Alfreton: Fisher (foul play 52).
REDS MAN OF THE MATCH : Mark Hume.