Alfreton Town Football Club

Match reports
2004/05

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2004/05 - Match No. 8
Nationwide North
Saturday, September 4th, 2004
Alfreton Town 0, Worksop Town 0
Report by Gordon Foster (Mansfield CHAD). Pics by Kev Miles and Phil Lucic.

SATURDAY’S local derby at the Impact Arena may have had no goals, but there were plenty of other talking points from a passionate, highly charged contest.
Unfortunately most of these centred around Bradford referee Gary Kellett, whose performance and handling of the game must rank as one of the worst ever seen at the stadium.
One hesitates to criticise match officials, who generally have a difficult enough job as it is, but on this occasion the man in black played such a key role that his showing cannot be glossed over.
His most serious blunder was to allow play to continue just before half time with Ian Robinson and Worksop’s Gary Townsend laid out following an accidental clash of heads, the Worksop man apparently unconscious.
That said, the Tigers were on the attack at the time, probably smelt a goal, and they themselves did not put the ball out of play either.
The incident was in the 43rd minute, and there had already been other stoppages, yet as soon as the unfortunate Worksop striker was stretchered off, Mr Kellett called an end to the first half without restarting play.
Reds manager Dave Lloyd admitted afterwards that he was aghast at the referee’s performance, which was at least evenly bad to both sides.
“I’ve really never seen anything like it,” he said afterwards. “To ignore the safety of players on the pitch was absolutely appalling.”
Reflecting on the performance of the players rather than the referee, Lloyd added: “I was not happy with our first half display, but we improved considerably after the break.
“We got crosses in, had shots cleared off the line, hit the post, and had two clear cut penalty claims refused.
“Worksop are a hard-working, well-organised side, but we know we can play better.”
The Tigers were close to establishing a fourth-minute lead when Brian O’Callaghan’s close range downward header from the first corner bounced high and cleared the bar.
At the other end a Chris Bettney volley from a half-cleared Emeka Nwadike free kick cannoned to safety off Kevin Davies, while the busy Matt Fisher swept a Nwadike cross just past the post, and Robinson, cutting in from the right, shot past the far post from 20 yards.
Alfreton suffered a setback when Mitch Ward limped off after just 15 minutes with a recurrence of the calf injury sustained at Stalybridge on Bank Holiday Monday.
He was replaced by John Knapper, whose own action was destined to last only half an hour.
Lee Butler came to the fore with three important contributions as Worksop stepped up a gear midway through the half.
First, Mark Blount’s attempted clearance hit Dene Cropper who ran clear, and the keeper had to charge out of his area to win a race for possession.
Then, when a home attack broke down and Worksop swept forward with five on three, the keeper superbly blocked at point blank range from Blake Norton, Blount then getting his body in the way of Cropper’s follow-up.
Butler distinguished himself again on the half-hour, brilliantly tipping aside Steve Nicholson’s 30-yard free kick, which was arrowing just inside the keeper’s right hand post.
Five minutes later Knapper was involved in a clash of heads with Wilson and suffered a suspected broken nose, so after a two-minute stoppage Chris Dolby came on with Nwadike moving to his more natural central midfield role – Fisher’s third partner of the afternoon.
Then, just before the break, came the clash which saw Robinson and Townsend laid out.
At first, when the referee took the players off the field, it was unclear whether it was to wait for the arrival of the ambulance for Townsend, for there must have been at least five minutes of stoppage time to play, but it transpired that he had called half time.
Robinson emerged for the second half with the top of his head plastered, while Chris Cleary replaced the unfortunate Townsend as Alfreton, with Fisher starring in midfield, took the upper hand.
Ten minutes in, Nwadike saw his rising 25-yard drive from Peter Duffield’s defence-splitting pass just clear the bar.
Grant Brown then lost out to Wilson, but made a great recovery to make a crucial challenge at the expense of a fruitless corner.
Alfreton had their first seemingly justified penalty appeal turned down on 61 when James Dudgeon bundled Mark Sale over in the area.
Five minutes later the big Reds front man cleverly got Ben Chapman away on the overlap, and Worksop keeper Kris Rogers did marvellously well to tip the ex-Boston skipper’s rising piledriver onto and over the bar.
From the resulting corner, Duffield looked to have been clearly fouled in the box, but again strong and seemingly justified penalty appeals were rejected.
And Mr Kellett further angered the home fans when Sale, running through onto Fisher’s probing through ball, was blatantly hauled back by Mark Haran, the referee waving play on.
Worksop had their gripes at the referee too, and nine minutes from time they felt that Butler should have been sent off for handling outside his area.
They would have had a good case, too, had not Cropper handled to control the ball first when confronted by the keeper. The referee and his assistant appeared to be the only people inside the ground not to see it, Cropper’s offence went unpunished, and Butler received a yellow card when, with a gaping goal behind him, it could well have been red.
As the game entered stoppage time Rogers again saved well, tipping Dolby’s goalbound effort from all of 35 yards over his bar. From the resulting corner Sale had a shot cleared off the line, and Duffield’s follow-up was also charged down in the scramble.
Still the controversy had not finished, for following a foul by Wilson on Chris Bettney, Fisher marred his impressive display as he turned, appeared to trip upwards over the prostrate Worksop man, and came down studs first on him.
That sparked a mass melee, and Fisher became the second Reds man to count himself lucky to see only yellow – there is, after all, only one prescribed punishment for stamping. But by then the referee had completely surrendered control.
ALFRETON: Butler, Robinson, Chapman, Blount, Brown, Ward (Knapper 15, Dolby 37), Bettney (Holmes 82), Fisher, Sale, Duffield, Nwadike. Subs not used: Godber, Goddard.
WORKSOP: Rogers, Nicholson, Davies, O’Callaghan, Haran, Dudgeon, Wilson, Dempsey, Cropper, Townsend (Cleary h/t), Norton. Subs not used: Jackson, Thorpe, Archer, Bowling.
REFEREE: Gary Kellett of Bradford.
ATTENDANCE: 533.
CAUTIONS: Alfreton – Robinson 74 (foul on Norton); Butler 85 (hands outside area); Fisher 90 (retaliation on Wilson). Worksop – Norton 68 (foul on Fisher).
MAN OF THE MATCH: Matt Fisher.