Abacus Lighting Central Midlands Alliance Roundup for April 26th

As another season enters the final furlong, another championship was settled, but at the other end of the tables there’s still a lot to be decided with severalclubs battling to avoid the possible consequences of finishing in the final three.

MIDWEEK MATCHES

Congratulations to South Normanton, who claimedthe Premier South Division on Tuesday night. After waiting for Melbourne Dynamo to slip up they finally finished the job by beating Linby Colliery at Church Lane, the final score 3-1. The Shiners were two up at the break, Billy Whitehead opening the scoring and Josh Scully’s penalty leaving them well set. Another spot kick, put away by Ewan Gibson for Linby got the hosts back in the game but George Morris had the final say, putting South Normanton back at Step 6 after four seasons in the Central Midlands. Melbourne didn’t slip up and although they were pushed all the way by Gresley Reserves made it eleven games undefeated, a Jack Griffithsgoal enough to take the points. Despite their recent upturn, Gresley will have to win their final two games to stand a reasonable chance of escape, this is in their own hands as the matches are against the two teams immediately above them, Mickleover RBL and Derby Singh Brothers who faced each other on Tuesday evening, Singh Brothers winning handsomely 6-1. Jay Bruce and Abdul Akram both scored twice, Raza Mughal and Sahil Baghawan with one each. That leaves RBL three points clear of Gresley, they meet on Saturday. Holbrook Sports came from a goal down to beat Bakewell Town 2-1. Bakewell went in front five minutes into the second half, Aaron Maund the scorer, Holbrook taking the points as Joe House on 64 minutes and Brooklyn Bruce, eight minutes later turned the game around.Down the road Holbrook St Michaels also earned maximum points from visitors Arnold Town with goals from Richard Hanslow, his 26th of the season,Ryan Baker and Jack Tyson, Adam Stevensonscoring for Arnold. Wirksworth Ivanhoe drew withneighbours Cromford & Wirksworth Town 1-1 , Tom Mellor scoring for Ivanhoe, Matt Wilkinson for the visitors. A timely win for Mansfield Hosiery Mills,who won 2-1 at Mickleover Reserves thanks to goals from Luke Greaves after 37 minutes and Billy Brooks on 78 with Josh Carter replying for the home team.

Result of the night was in the Premier North where Glapwell overturned an AFC Bentley side who looked ready for the season to end as they slid to a 4-0 defeat. Star man for a youthful and energetic Glapwell was Oliver Parfitt who scored after 18, 25 and 52 minutes, Josh Turner adding the fourth on the hour. The result looks as if It might well keep Glapwell out of trouble at the foot of the table. Theresult did AFC Phoenix no favours, a 5-0 defeat atthe hands of Kiveton Miners Welfare confirming a place in the bottom three. Five players found the net for Kiveton, William Palmer, Hisham Awadh, Abdul Asad, Papa Sarr and Muhammad Shebani all getting on to the scoresheet. Staveley Reserves are still chasing third spot and are now within a point of Hatfield Town after a 2-1 win at home to Blidworth Welfare. Blidworth led at half time with a James Vickers goal, Staveley taking the points In the second 45, Matty Parkin and Lewis Imrie the scorers.

SJR Worksop remained on course for a third place finish in the Macron Store Nottingham Division One North after a 3-1 win against Epworth Town, Evan Stead, Regan Watkinson and Callum Wright with the goals, Sam Davies scoring for the visitors. In the East Division Kirton Brickworks edged out Mansfield Hosiery Mills Blue 4-3 thanks to Joe Tunnard’sdouble and one each from Louis Colley and Aaron Ellis, the Mills running them close as Bartosz Paterek, Chris Heathcote and Kye Pilmore got a goal each.   Heanor Town look set to finish as runners up in Division One West after making it eight wins from nine, the latest of which was against Little Eaton, the match settled by the only goal of the game, scored byShaun Turner. Holbrook St Michaels were 4-0winners at Cromford & Wirksworth Town who remain at the foot of the table. For the Saints Joe Cluskey, Chris Whitehead, Tom Holmes and Charlie Harrison got a goal apiece. Mayfield who have improved as the season progressed, defeated visitors Bakewell 3-0, Sam Handley, Louis Roach and Joe Handley doing the necessary. Just the one match in The Drayton PACS Division Two, leaders Wirksworth Ivanhoe maintaining their one pointadvantage over Rising Stars as the pair drew 1-1, Owen King’s goal for Ivanhoe matched by Stars’ Tirhys Davidson.

SATURDAY’S MATCHES                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Third place in the Premier North Division was resolved on Saturday, HatfieldTown and Staveley Reserves both playing their final matches and both on the winning side. Hatfield had the tougher task, capping an outstanding season by inflicting a rare defeat on Dinnington Town. The only goal of the game, which was played in excellent spirit, came almost inevitably from Callum Stockton in the first half. Both sides created chances after the interval but there were no more goals. Staveleycouldn’t have done much more in their final match, putting nine past AFC Phoenix but have also had an outstanding campaign with a youthful team. Thescorers In their final game were Matty Parkin with a hat trick, Fergus Turner and Danny Fullwood with doubles, Josh Nicholls and Will Wraith. After many ups and downs, Harworth Colliery’s penultimate match was definitely an up as they returned from Blidworth Welfare having won 6-1. Marley Alder opened the scoring after 16 minutes, Alex Gibbins adding another seven minutes later. Harworth scored at regular intervals in the second half, Alder getting his second four minutes after the restart, Jason Kearsley, Rob Slinger and Ewan Plant bringing up the half dozen. Blidworth finally made it onto the scoresheet in the 81st minute, Ben Copestake the scorer. There was another “end of season” game at AFC Bentley who faced SJR Worksop, Bentley’s Jordan Snodin finally finding the net in the third minute of added time. Rossington Main Reserves beat a depleted Worksop Town Reserves, seven of whose players travelled to Blyth Spartans with the first team, the final score 3-0 Scorers for Rossington were George Noble (5 minutes), Greg Young(40) and Harvey Yates (45). The game between Kiveton Miners Welfare and Elite AFC was abandoned in the second half with Kiveton leading 2-0.

No fewer than five teams could still end the season occupying two of the bottom three places in the Premier South Division. Saturday’s games didn’t do much to resolve things, Gresley Rovers Reserves crushed Mickleover RBL 8-0 a result which would have seemed impossible a couple of months ago and meant that the two teams change places. Gresley’s scorers were Albert Lansdowne and Finn Cooper with two each, Joey Shakespeare, Tyler Cox, Liam Kavanagh and an own goal. Another positive result for Teversal as they beat Bakewell Town 2-1. Matt Kelcey scored for Bakewell and Josh Radford for thehosts. Tevie taking the points three minutes into added time, Rocco Hardy with the decider. Melbourne Dynamo’s unbeaten run was extended to twelve, as they won the first leg of their end of season double against Linby Colliery. There was only a single goal separating the sides, Isaac Nkrumah scoring for Dynamo on 36 minutes. AFCNormanton have picked up a couple of good results at the end of a difficult season. After beating Graham Street Prims last week, they took a share of the points from a 3-3 draw with Holbrook St Michaels.Normanton hit the ground running, Owen Stockley and Henry Brooks putting them two up in just seven minutes. Although Sam Boyle got one back on 39 minutes, Brooks restored the two goal lead minutes before the interval. Normanton had to settle for a point as the Saints scored twice in the opening five minutes of the second half, Boyle with his secondbefore Richard Hanslow struck the equaliser. Graham Street Prims finished the season with a win, Alex Seale with the only goal of the match against Mickleover Reserves. Cromford & Wirksworth Town will finish a successful season in fourth place afterdefeating Holbrook Sports  3-2. Cromford took a two goal lead through Joe Sharkey and Jordan Watts, but had been pegged back by Brad Daly and Brooklyn Bruce by half time, the deciding goal coming from a Sam Appleby penalty.

There were four decisive scorelines in Division One North, with the winning sides totalling 21 goals, the defeated sides nil. Kinsley Boys pulled in one of their games in hand, their scorers in a 5-0 win against Bottesford Town were Kyle Rose, James White, Rio Cooke, Jermaine Askew-Williamson and Koal Tolley. Spot the missing scorer!!. SJR Worksop will end the season in third spot after another 5-0 result against FC United of Sheffield, Mason Gee with a hat trick, Callum Wright with the other two. It was the visiting side, Crowle Colts, who ran out 5-0 winners at Harworth Colliery, George Neal and Chris Ogg with two goals each and one for Jon Prendergast Evo FC bucked the trend, going one better with a 6-0 defeat of Armthorpe Welfare. Rhys Hockey put Evo ahead on 9 minutes, adding a second twenty minuteslater. Brad Platts made it three on 32 to give the visitors a comfortable half time lead. Evo doubled their advantage in the second period, Ethan Lambert, on 51 and 83 and Archie Fletcher a minute from timethe scorers.

In Division One East RHP sports concluded theseason with a win against neighbours Southwell City, the result extending a run which has seen them take 28 points from ten matches and remain unbeaten in 2025.. Scorers in a 3-0 win were Leo Buffery-Nuttall, Seb Headley and James Crosby. Nathan Flint scored four for Pilsley as they beat Mansfield Hosiery Blue 5-3. Bradley Saint with the other goal, Kye Pilmore (2) and Cam Pinnick replying for Mills.Kirton Brickworks beat Linby Colliery 2-1 with Louis Colley and Jack Marsh both on target.

Heanor Town’s heavy schedule caught up with them on Saturday as they went down 2-0 to Belper United, Malachi Jourdain giving Belper the lead after 17 minutes, Lewis Walker putting a little space between the teams on the hour. Holbrook St Michael won 2-1 at Little Eaton, Ben Litchfield and Alfie Fox with the goals, Mason Wright replied for the home side. Melbourne Dynamo copied their first team with a win by a single goal, this one coming from Robin Bentley.in Bentley.

In the only match in Division One South Hemington Hammers got some reward from their return game with FC Sunnyhill. After losing 4-0 to the same opposition last Saturday, they fared better on their own ground with a 3-3 draw thanks to Josh Bunyan, Jagveer Dhadli and Matt Brain.

The Mel Williams Division Two Cup Final went to Wirksworth Ivanhoe with a narrow 3-2 win against Mickleover Athletic The Wirksworth scorers were Sam Roberts, Owen King and Tom Phillips with Asher Lester-Newton responsible for both goals for Mickleover.

Rising Stars remain one point behind Wirksworth Ivanhoe with two games to play, after winning 6-2against Little Eaton. Moussa Cisse’s hat trick and one each for Tirhys Davidson, Neil Black and Iheomachukwu Nwuke were too much for the visitors. Aston Village won 4-2 at Winster Darley Lions. Jack Rose and Tom Elson scored for Winster, while for Aston, Finlay Neale, Jordan Mayer, Braydon Randle and an own goal taking the points.

 Richard Lane

Abacus Lighting Central Midlands Alliance Roundup for April 19th 

MIDWEEK MATCHES

Nothing was quite resolved as far as divisional champions were concerned although themathematical side of things became more straightforward.

South Normanton need a point in their final match at Linby next Tuesday, If they don’t get it andMelbourne Dynamo win all five of their remaininggames, two of which are against nearest rivals Linby, they will pinch it by a point. The Shiners played their final home match against Mansfield Hosiery Mills on Wednesday, and by half time it was still scoreless. The second half was a different matter as the home side ran in five. The goals were shared between Perry Richards, Archie Brown, Eden Homer, Josh Devereux and Sam Kelly. The result also put the Mills closer to the bottom three as Gresley RoversReserves took maximum points at Mickleover RBL.The Legion made a good start, Anri Burmeisters giving them the lead in the 8th minute but that was as good as it got, Rovers equalising through Ben Mann six minutes later. Joey Shakespeare putting the visitors in front five minutes before half time. Mann’s second ended the scoring on the hour, the 4-1 scoreline giving them a sporting chance of escaping the relegation place, but increasing the concern at Mansfield, Singh Brothers and even RBL. Holbrook Sports would also have been in the list but for atimely 3-1 win at Graham Street Prims their first win in eight Holbrook were three up by half time, Archie Mayer’s 5th minute opener followed by Ethan Watsonnine minutes later and Toby Paulson in the 33rd. That was the score until eight minutes from the end whenAlex Seale hit a consolation for Prims. A local derby at Bakewell, visitors Wirksworth’s recent upturn in form continuing as they took the points. the match ending 2-1. Bakewell took a first half lead with a James Bean free kick, Wirksworth’s Harley Taylor and Ryan Marchington the matchwinners in the second half. 

In contrast, the four Premier North Division matcheshad no bearing on events at either end of the table. However, the 90 minutes served up by Worksop Town Reserves and Kiveton Miners Welfare on Tuesday could well have been between two sides contesting top spot in the table, such were the skill levels displayed and the pace of the game. Worksop built up a two goal lead, Shane Carver scoring in the 9th and 22nd minutes, Kiveton not having a great deal of luck, striking the woodwork twice. They pulled one back on 35 minutes through William Palmer, but couldn’t