Frickley Athletic v Carlton Town

Recap

For once I wasn’t the most incompetent Michael Johnson in the ground!

Anyone that has seen us recently will know that we play decent football for a spell, concede, then capitulate. So when Carlton debutant Gareth Thomas set up the opening goal for the visitors (the first goal they have ever scored at the Sika Everbuild Wezzie), we all knew the remainder of the script.

2 absolute howlers by the officials in the first half. Firstly Tom Nick sent off for handling outside the box. It is only a straight red if it denies ‘a clear & obvious goal scoring opportunity’. Given that the Carlton forward was still 5 feet away from Nick & hadn’t touched the ball in the passage of play that preceded it, there is only 1 thing that was clear & obvious…..

The 2nd one was the free kick award that led to the opening goal, a free kick given against the cleanest tackle I’ve seen at the Wezzie this season.

So the sending off meant that Gav Saxby had to step into the fray – what a man.

Here’s what Ken reckons:

“10-man Frickley went down to Carlton in a scrappy encounter that saw the visitors register their first league win of the season.
Scunthorpe loanee Charlie Barks created the first chance of the day with a lung-bursting run and cross, Nathan Hotte blazed over.
Aaron Opoku had the best attempt for the visitors after 21 minutes, his drive from the edge of the box deflected away.
The home side’s task became so much harder in the 25th minute when home keeper Tom Nicholson was given a red card for handling outside the area despite it not denying a goal scoring opportunity.
Carlton went in at half time a goal up as well, courtesy of a 35th minute own goal. A harshly-awarded free kick was turned in by Frickley’s James Hugo..
In the opening exchanges of the second period, Carlton had the best chances, with Niall Davie and Opoku both hitting shots well wide.
With 20 minutes to go Oliver Clark did same. Sub keeper Gavin Saxby pulled off a several decent stops too.
Carlton pulled away in the last 10 minutes, sealing the win in the 84th minute when Opoku broke clear and
fired under Saxby. Davie’s 90th minute goal – set up by Opoku – just rubbed salt into the home side’s wounds”

Back to me now – our players need to clean up the mess that they’ve made in their own back yard & they need to do it sharpish. In the film The Untouchables, Sean Connery plays a cop who delivers this great line “if they put one of ours in the hospital, we put one of theirs in the morgue” & that’s the attitude that we should be playing with. At the moment we collapse like a house of cards built on a foundation of feathers & it is so, so, so frustrating as there are some very good footballers in our squad.

A week to regroup & refocus ready for the trip to Wisbech – on that subject, Ian Clarkson will be running a supporters coach if there is enough interest to make it viable. Cost will be £15 & the coach will depart from North Elmsall at 11.45am, returning immediately after the game.

If you would like to travel please contact Ian on 07790 569075

128 through the gate – poor weather & poor previous performances having a massive impact. But thank you to everyone who turned up to support us