N C East Prem Div                               Sat 26 November 2005

GLASSHOUGHTON WELFARE  0    SHEFFIELD CLUB   1  

IN A MUCH IMPROVED DISPLAY WELFARE DESERVED A SHARE OF THE SPOILS,  AN UNKIND RUN OF THE BALL AT VITAL MOMENTS AND A COPY BOOK STRIKE BY THE VISITORS DUNCAN BRAY BEING THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TEAMS

Following a one minute silence in respect of the late George Best the game opened at a fast pace with Welfare having the larger part of play, the recalled Danny King working to the bye line to get in an early cross which unfortunately evaded everyone including his own colleagues.  Following a poor clearance by the home defence keeper Tom Morgan saved the blushes by blocking at the feet of Bob Ward.  Welfare were playing some slick fast flowing football which resulted in King having the ball in the net on consecutive occasions only to be denied by offside decisions, the first of which appeared the correct decision but the second being very much questionable and at which Welfare felt hard done by.  The visitors prolific marksman Duncan Bray was by and large being kept quiet by the excellent Paul Mattison, and on a rare  occasion when he got free Morgan denied with an excellent save.

From the start of the second period Welfare came under tremendous pressure and some dogged defending was required, Sheffield having four consecutive goal bound attempts blocked virtually on the goal line Welfare recovered and almost went ahead when a Andy Seed free kick was scrambled on to the foot of the upright by keeper Darren Bonnington before being hacked off the goal line by a defender.  Seed raced clear only to drive over and from a corner kick Adam Sadler put a free header inches over the top, a miss that Welfare were made to rue as on 62 minutes Bray for once escaped the clutches of the home defence to swivel just inside the penalty box and hit an unstoppable shot in to the roof of the net to put Sheffield in front.  Bray almost doubled his tally some moments later when a Morgan clearance from a short back pass was charged, but Mattison brought off a superb last-ditch tackle to deny the striker.

After Carl Fox had seen a screamer of a shot touched over by Bonnington the game ended in controversy as Welfare pouring forward in search of the leveller saw King being brought down in a position which appeared to everyone to be inside the penalty area, but the referee after consultation with an assistant considered the incident was outside the area, and Welfare were denied a probable opportunity to pull the game level and gain the recognition their efforts warranted.