Alfreton Town Football Club
Match reports
2004/05

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Pre-season match no. 4
Tuesday, July 27th, 2004
Alfreton Town 1, Sheffield Wednesday XI 1
Report by Gordon Foster (Mansfield CHAD)
AN ENCOURAGING second half performance earned Alfreton Town a point against a mixed Sheffield Wednesday side at the Impact Arena on Tuesday night.
The Owls were gifted a ninth minute lead through youngster Andy Talbot, but Mick Godber fired the Reds level in the 65th minute, immediately after Wednesday had been denied a second by the goal frame.
Unlike the previous pre-season games, the respective managers were not inclined to ring too many changes, with Dave Lloyd making just two as he opted to experiment positionally with the players already on the park.
The Reds began with a 3-5-2 formation, with Carl Bradshaw the man chosen to go in the centre of the back three flanked by Mark Hume and Mark Blount, while Chris Bettney and Chris Dolby were always lively along the wings.
Having conceded a soft goal, though, Lloyd opted to switch to a more familiar 4-4-2 with Emeka Nwadike pulled back into an unfamiliar central defensive role where, along with Hume, he was magnificent. Hume had also switched roles with Bradshaw.
Although he figured there for Wolves as a youngster, Nwadike commented afterwards that it was not his favourite position.
Lloyd explained: “With three at the back they were hitting us down the flanks, but pulling Emeka back into defence effectively cut off that route and got us back into the game after giving away another sloppy goal.”
The manager continued: “We were not very good for the first 20 minutes or so, but after that we got closer to them.
“Their lads had some good ability, and were strong and fit. In pre-season games like this you’ve got to put in a lot of hard work and we did that, more so in the second half when were were excellent and could have won it.
“Emeka was up against a lad (Ndumbu Nsungu) who has been attracting a lot of interest from other clubs, and you would have thought that he (Nwadike) was the man playing in the Football League.”
The manager also had words of praise for Godber - ‘he just got better as the game went on’ - and Bettney who, he said, ‘lay too deep in the first half, but when he began to push on he really did some damage’.
Alfreton - who rested Grant Brown (dead leg) and Peter Duffield (slight knee injury) - were under pressure early on, but were the first to create a scoring opportunity.
Bettney did well to get around the back of Dave Cockerill, but his cross was headed behind for a corner which in turn was headed away ahead of Hume’s jump.
Gavin Saxby, still deputising for keeper Lee Butler who was on holiday, saved well low on the line from Nsungu’s downward header onto a corner in the eighth minute.
But the big keeper was at fault a minute later, slicing an attempted clearance straight to the feet of Lewis McMahon, who played it straight back in to give Andy Talbot a routine tap in.
Bettney caught keeper Rob Poulter in No Man’s Land four minutes later, but the leaping Mark Sale could find no direction with his header onto the subsequent centre.
With Nwadike now in the back four, Hume made a superbly well timed tackle to deny Nsungu another scoring opportunity.
As the reshaped Reds came more into the picture with attacks down both flanks, Bradshaw’s long throw into the area was unluckily flicked wide by the outstretched leg of Godber, and Sale’s header onto another cross by Bettney was too high after the winger was picked out by Blount’s raking crossfield pass.
There was a scare when Godber went down with an ankle injury six minutes before half time, but he was able to resume - however it was Wednesday who almost had the last word of the half, the again impressive Mitch Ward dispossessing Craig Armstrong on the 18-yard line.
Surprisingly, neither side made any half time changes.
On the re-start, Godber was forced wide as he ran strongly into the box and could only hit the side netting, while at the other end Saxby was quickly off his line to harry Talbot into heading too high after a build along the Owls’ left.
The diving keeper’s outstretched arm and the foot of the post then combined to deny Talbot again, and Nwadike quickly sent Bettney away on a swift counter.
The winger curled a fine effort around the keeper whose sliced clearance fell invitingly for Godber to apply the finishing touch.
By this time Ward and Sale had made way for John Knapper and Mick Goddard, and the latter’s pace through the middle, allied to that of the two wingers, cause more problems for the Wednesday defence.
Goddard indeed went close with two headers inside a minute and then saw his shot well saved at the end of his powerful run at the defence.
But it was not all one way, and although most Owls attacks foundered on the rocks that were Hume and Nwadike, Saxby’s hands were warmed by Armstrong’s 25-yard snap shot, and the keeper also blocked well from Nsungu.
But Poulter held another curling Bettney effort under the angle and saved Goddard’s downward header on the line from a hanging Bettney cross.
Goddard then glanced another header wide from a Bettney corner before, in the fading light, an incident in the last minute led to a fracas near a corner flag, resulting in needless bookings for Godber and Wednesday’s Jason Wray.
MATCH DETAILS
ALFRETON TOWN: Saxby, Bradshaw, Blount, Fisher, Hume, Ward (Knapper 56), Bettney, Nwadike, Godber, Sale (Goddard 62), Dolby.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY: Poulter, Carr, Cockerill, Armstrong, Foster, Wray, Greenwood, McMahon (McAllister 76), Talbot, Nsungu, Smith.
REFEREE: Matt Foley of Jacksdale.
ATTENDANCE: 525
SCORERS: Alfreton - Godber 65. Sheffield Wed - Talbot 9.
CAUTIONS: Alfreton - Godber 89 (brawling). Sheff Wed - Wray 89 (brawling).
REDS MAN OF THE MATCH: Emeka Nwadike.